tomato

Great mosaic, not seen this area stitched together before. Can I actually see some clear sky in there with no Hydrogen or dust clouds?😉

Thanks, it is always nicely placed in my sky so could be a fall back target if I have some time to kill.

First class, as always. On the amazing mosaic I’m seeing a hint of a vertical band about 10-15% in from the RHS, it has a very slight curve to it. Is this part of an immense structure or is it just my eyes playing tricks?

I remember a TV programme discussing the advent of digital photography (late 1980s I think) where it was resolutely stated that pixel counts would never match the grains in a film emulsion…

Wow, that’s quite a capture. There is something special about pointing the scope to image something that in the first instance appears invisible.

This is definitely the last one, thanks for sticking with it.

Thanks, the background is frankly a mess, due to massive mis-alignment between the old and newly collected data. I have had a go at cleaning it up but that faint red colouration on the background to the South is an artefact. Overall I'm not happy with the colour and I will give it another go without using SPCC.

Here is my final attempt (for now), 11.2 hrs of integration. Some of the larger background galaxies in the HST image may now be visible, although they don't have any red colouration. I try not to compare my images with the HST too often, otherwise I just despair...

It is indeed, spiral arms aplenty.

Sorry here is the link, I thought folks might like the thrill of the chase!😁 Big, Beautiful and Blue | ESA/Hubble (esahubble.org) Here is the image, I don't think any of the galaxies hiding in NGC 2336 are visible, but I got another 380 minutes on it last night so I haven't given up...

So I have managed to add about 4 hrs to it over the last couple of nights, as usual my lack of discipline over framing the target has made combining the data a bit of a challenge, hence the crop. I was hoping at least one of the distant galaxies so abundant on the HST image might be visible, but alas no luck. I need a bigger scope, or a decent location, or better still, both.🤔

Its like @900SL says, if your FOVs are very similar and you don’t get the rotation matching you will lose quite a bit of sensor real estate with the cropping. I have to do this on the dual rig each time I change cameras but if you are setting up from scratch each time you will probably have to allocate some time to making small adjustments. The cropping is not a big deal if you are targeting small galaxies or PNs, but it will be a pain on nebulae that fill the FOV.

I have run 3 scopes on a couple of occasions, two are on a permanent well sorted dual rig set up which works reliably (most of the time!), the third was a RASA8 which has to be set up and taken down. That is more than enough for me. Bear in mind if your set ups all have the same FOV, you will need to align them reasonably precisely and that will eat up a lot of time if they are not permanently set up. Good luck with whatever approach you take.

It seems to me you have the ideal approach to get into AP and not be put off by the set backs. From time to time, I get a hankering to do some visual astronomy, but it's not long before I get back in front of the laptop.

Maybe all of those data algorithms have some value after all. I note that the ads I get on the SAT24 website have all recently been for rocking chairs, maybe they are trying to tell me something?

Great mosaic! The starless mono image could almost be a terrestrial cloudscape.

Thanks, it is my dual Esprit 150 rig, currently equipped with an ASI178 mono for Luminence, and an ASI678 colour for RGB. Previously I have used an ASI178 mono and RGB filters for colour (that’s what was used for the posted image) but I am trying to establish if the newer 678c sensor (no amp glow) can do the job just as well.

Here is another seldom imaged galaxy, NGC 2336 in Camelopardolis. It's a shame because although small it is IMHO a spectacular example of a spiral galaxy. This is a reprocess of just 3 hrs of data captured back in 2020, but I am certainly going to add more data to it, now that we have the Xterminator tool set to get the most out of it. Take a look at the Hubble image of NGC 2336 if you get a chance, the background galaxies visible are just mind blowing.

While waiting for NGC 4216 and it's spectacular SN to get high enough to image I got 100 minutes on an old favourite, NGC 2903 at the other end of Leo. This was using an ASI178 for Lum and a ASI678C for RGB. This was captured at the native resolution and then combined with some LRGB data from 2020 using ASI178 mono cameras. Combined in APP then down sampled x2 before processing in PI. Why are the CMOS OSC cameras so much better then their CCD counterparts, better QE and lower read noise I suppose? PS I never got NGC 4216, the clouds rolled in...

I emailed Touptek support in China, I explained what happened and sent them a photo of the power PCB for identification purposes. They have just replied and said it needs to be sent to them for inspection via the original retailer so there is a united front on how I should proceed. Then again, I suppose the European manufacturers of Astro cameras don’t readily sell spare parts to Joe Public either. However, it’s good that SW seem to be more accommodating on this issue. I’ll just wait now until CNY is out of the way.

Superb image, puts the dust around M78 into context.👍🏼

Will it have open access to all brands of equipment, unlike the ASIair?

This galaxy is on my list to have a go at during this galaxy season but in the meantime I found some data from 2020 which had not yet been processed with the RC suite of Xterminator tools. So here it is, 9.7 hrs taken with the Esprit 150/ASI178 LRGB dual rig, originally imaged at 0.47 arcsec per pixel(!) but now down sampled x 2 prior to processing. There were some massive coloured flares from the bright star in the lower left, but these were easily dealt with using the cosmetic correction tools in Affinity Photo, once they were separated out with SXT.

Superb detail, what was your seeing like for those 25.5 hrs?

Great image, and for some reason I think M38 being in there really adds something to it.