Yawning Angel

Now there's a tricky question...

I've been very kindly loaned an APM 107 / 700mm (thank you @Uplooker), so after transplanting the imaging train from my Skywatcher 80ED I was desperately on the lookout for a clear evening! 30/10 wasn't awful although the relative humidity was showing 95% and stars a bit 'twinkly', it was better than solid cloud! Setting the rig up in NINA was trouble free, once I got my head around the already installed Lakeside focuser (I've a Sesto Senso on the 80ED). Weirdly the heavier tube seemed much easier to balance on the CEM60 (guiding was a little better too) M33 seemed a nice fit for the FOV (the scope has a x1 flattener). To have a usable dataset in the time I went for 15 x 120sec each LRG&B with asi1600mm @ -15degrees. 2hrs total, plus darks, flats & dark flats. Would have loved a run at the Ha regions, but perhaps another night. Processed in PixInsight an resampled 50%

The California Nebula: My first foray into creating a deep sky mosaic, to see how the process works. This is 2 panels each of 6 x 300sec with an Evostar 80Ed / asi1600mm x.85. N.I.N.A. handled the framing and sequencing perfectly - the manual rotator prompts where especially helpful! The usual raft of darks, flats and flatdarks (library files, not fresh) My first try getting PixInsight to mosaic it didn't looks so good, but good old MS Ice happily obliged to give something useable. As a practice, I think the acquisition was successful at least

A wobbly orb, capture through rather moist air last night. 25% each channel of 1000 frames RGB. After stacking and aligning, this was combined in PixInsight and the colours balanced and gently saturated with successive curves. Slight colour fringing removed with SCNR Green / Invert / SCNR Green / Invert back Click for the full image

Thank you! It's growing on on me 😆

I had intended to get some DSO work done tonight...but, yeah, weather. However, I did manage to grab a quick 1000 frames each RGB as the moon played hide and seek I then slewed to my intended target, got clouded out, parked the scope to wait it out then had to slam the obs roof due to a sudden downpour! Wiped everything down, dehumidifier on - so got on with processing this instead Hunter’s Moon: asi1600mm / 80ED @510mm (not ideal, but it was mounted) Inverted shows it off nicely: A little drab, even with the saturation pushed

It's likely the derotation misaligning the channels for the moons. I'd usually desaturate them, but left it be in this one

I do, and I did...but, it looks like I might have picked up the not so drizzled data in WinJUPOS 🙂 Sharp eyes, Vlaiv!

With this I've tried to push the data as far as it could stand (if not further 😇) : Skywatcher 80ED scope @ 600mm. Captured with an asi178m / LRGB filters AS!3 50% stacks (of 3000 captured) 1.5x drizzle (doh!) Derotated and combined in WinJUPOS Wavelet sharpening in PixInsight Topaz Gigapixel resize 2x Not bad, considering the FL & aperture (Ganymede to the left, Io on the right) Raw frame from the green .ser file

Thank you for the kind comments!

Good old Andromeda, RGB combination from Lancashire. A bit of an uphill struggle with skyglow / LP in the luminance layer 120 x 30 seconds each, LRGB. 80ED @510mm / asi1600mm

Check the collimation, even on a refractor. The stock focusers can be a bit droopy with a full imaging train hanging off them

I was trying for a n Ir + RGB mosaic, and I almost made it too! Clouds ruined the final set, the blue! Although on striking the green which looked awesome, I noticed a hole, right in the middle Oh well, never mind , the red turned out okay (click zoom for the full size) Celestron C8 / asi178mm / 25 x 1000 frames, 40% stacked. Stacked in AS!3, processed in PixInsight. Presentation in PS

Thanks Sean! The mono was a faf! Keeping everything correctly associated in processing was the hardest part - ended up with subfolders per frame. Winjupos is amazing, but as with may science tool, it’s is a bit ‘unique’. I started with this tutorial: https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/astrophotography/astrophoto-tips/use-winjupos-derotate-planetary-images/

Thank you!

This is about the most ambitious capture I've attempted. A short animation of Jupiter's moon Io crossing the planet, along with it shadow. Captured in the early hours of Friday the 13th August, over 2:30 hrs / 150 minutes The animation is 11 frame long, comprising: Red: 11 x 6000 frames, 25% stacked (1500) - red total66000 frames (16500 stacked) Green: 11 x 6000 frames, 25% stacked (1500) - green total 66000 frames (16500 stacked) Blue: 11 x 6000 frames, 25% stacked (1500) - blue total 66000 frames (16500 stacked) IR: 11 x 6000 frames, 25% stacked (1500) - IR total 66000 frames (16500 stacked) Total 264,000 frames captured, 66000 stacked (minus about 20 from a weird artefact in one SER file) Gear: Telescope: Celestron C8: 203.2mm aperture, 2032mm focal length + x2.5 barlow (5080mm) / Celestron motor focuser Altair Hypercam 174m ZWO 5 position filter wheel ZWO rgb filters Astronomik ProPlanet 642 BP IR-Pass filter iOptron CEM60 mount Software: SharpCap 4 pro / AS!3 / WinJupos / Photoshop I used the new sequencer in SharpCap 4 pro to automate the capture, once I'd manually settled on my settings. A very handy new feature! Processing: Each 4gb file was stacked and sharpened in AS!3 (Normally I'd use Registax, but AS!3 seemed to be doing a pretty good job, and it does batch processing!). The created 44 tif files ready for WinJupos. Firstly each file was measured in WinJupos and a measurement files saved, then each quartet of RGB and IR where derotated into a single tif The 11 tifs where loaded as layers in PS, and slightly cleaned up for colour misalignment on Io Created a Photoshop frame animation and exported as a gif I think if I tried it again, I'd go colour cam (qhy5iii-462) / ADC. The processing would be simpler, and I would have a higher frame rate in the final animation although less fidelity. anyway, here's a still from earlier in the evening: And not forgetting the ringed one, who sadly doesn't get his own post and must tag along with big brother...sorry Saturn!

Now with added derotation

Thank you to everyone for your kind comments! I'm so used to my maintenance free refractor I've been neglecting the C8 Yes, I found that I had to back everything off and come at the collimation fresh. Had one screw that never nipped up and the others far too tight...I'm just hoping it holds for a bit now 🤞 Focus...I have the Celestron motor on there, but I found a different technique that helped (I think). Instead of connecting it to Sharpcap and using the steps, I found using the native Celestron application and driving the motor at slow speed to be much more accurate (quieter too!)

I been feeling vaguely disappointed in my C8's performance lately, and getting the itch to replace it! With last night being unexpectedly clear, I thought I'd keep the wallet closed and spend the night fiddling to really nail down the collimation C8, x2.5 barlow, 174m RGB and 642BP IR The result: I might keep it after all 🙂

Thanks Mick!

I was surprised too! It's pretty much straight up and the moon very low, although none of this crossed my mind when I started 🙂

Data from last week, in the heatwave

Crescent Nebula, Sky-Watcher 80ED / asi1600mm / Baader Ha 7nm, Sii 8nm and Oiii 8.5nm filters / iOptron CEM60 24 x 300sec each in Ha, Sii and Oiii (the Sii was very thin). Capture with N.I.N.A, Processed in PIxInsight and Photoshop This was the first time I've been comfortable leaving it to do it's thing over night. Some hidden power management option (Unattended sleep, which would kick in when RDP disconnected) lost me some hours, but in the end N.I.N.A did the job really well

Western Veil nebula, Sky-Watcher 80ED / asi1600mm / Baader Ha 7nm and Oiii 8.5nm filters / iOptron CEM60 24 x 300sec each in HA and Oiii. Capture with N.I.N.A, Processed in PIxInsight and Photoshop