Yawning Angel

During our family holiday in Wales last week, I was able to sneak off one evening to try out my shiny new Sigma 14mm f1.4 lens

This is the Milky way over Bangor, shot from Beaumaris across the Menai Strait. 30 x 10sec, Sony A7iv

1 hour ago, Kon said:

That's amazing!

Thank you!

56 minutes ago, Rusted said:

Well done! 

I was trying to think what the fierce activity reminds me of:
The effects of a nuclear bomb on structures within the blast radius?

Its quite eerie, like something is hiding inside

The seeing went a little in the middle. PlayerOne Mar-M / APM 107 / Quark.

1:30hrs, 120 frames

Its a busy day up there!

Daystar Quark, 4 panel mosaic

6 hours ago, TakMan said:

A super capture 👍

Saw that (well the lower half) on the GONG image and thought that’d be a good target - if only it wasn’t a work day….

Lucky you!

Damian

Thank you Damian! I was a work day for me too, but I can run the scope from my home office 🙂

35 frames, looped. about 45mins. Quark / PlayerOne Mars-M

Having only a brief window of time (and a new lens to play with) I popped outside just long enough to grab a burst of 52 images. Taken at f/8, ISO 100, 1/125th. Sony A6400 with the 200-600G @ 600mm

Loaded the RAW images into PIPP, aligned them and outputted as an SER file. The SER was then run through the usual AS!3 and Registax.

M106 and it's fuzzy companions. 

APM 107 / 700mm - asi1600mm - Baader filters - iOptron CEM60

150 x 120sec Luminance
60 x 120sec each RG & B
48 x 300sec Ha

Total integration time 15 hours. Processed in PixInsight - The RGB was a fight, as it was captured under a full moon, but a clear night isn't something to be squandered 🙂

10 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

The background looks a bit warm to me

Thank you Olly! Now that it's against the forum pure black background that the warmth of the background looks so obvious 🫣

I had a go in Photoshop as you suggested, but didn't have any joy - it's something I'll practice and see it in action for myself. It sounds like a potent technique, especially with my Lancastrian skies! Your comment did however point me back to a simple step that I might have missed in PixInsight, which was the Background Neutralization. It seems to have helped tame the beast a little:

This is put together from 5 hours luminance, 2 hours each for RGB and 4 hours of Ha, across 3 nights, Bortle 6 and a practically full moon. 

I had a bit of a mare trying to tame the background, which was a mess. I used the Normalize Scale Gradients script in Pi to simplify the job, but it's had to be processed harder than I'd like. Should there be the opportunity, I'm going to re shoot the RGB subs, sans moon!

APM 107x700mm / asi1600mm

I love all the extra fuzzies that accompany this FOV (slight crop for composition)

On 09/04/2023 at 16:34, Swoop1 said:

Love the detail!

Thank you!

20 hours ago, Kon said:

Nice details and subtle colours.

17 hours ago, neil phillips said:

lovely colour balance  Alex

9 hours ago, Space Cowboy said:

Very nice!

Thank you all for the comments!

Taken on the evening of the 3rd, before starting a session of deep sky. This is from my APM 107 x 700 with a 2x Powermate and asi1600mm with filters

At 2x this only just fit on the sensor! Stacked in AS!3, aligned with imPPG and processed in PixInsight, and Photoshop for cleaning up some colour fringing

Lancashire! The land where clouds settle down to retire 

I don't think I'd even have checked the footage if it wasn't for this alert, so thanks!!

59 minutes ago, MartinB said:

Walk away from it now!

Thank you! I know what you mean too…I’m leaving it at least for now

22 hours ago, Yawning Angel said:

Surprise clouds!

I hadn't noticed in the video, but the moonlight is reflecting off my house windows and lighting up the observatory walls! Even pointing so far from the full moon, there is NO ESCAPE!

1 hour ago, ONIKKINEN said:

Very pleasing image to look at as it has a bit of everything, plenty of stars, dark nebula, reflection nebula, emission nebula.

Really nicely processed too, everything looks very nice.

Thank you! Lovely feedback 👍🏻

15 minutes ago, Elp said:

So many features to see in one area, looks great

It's a lovely complex little knot of features. Thank you!

23 minutes ago, Bargy said:

Was that a cheeky Meridian flip at about 12 seconds

Yep, I love how N.I.N.A. handles them. Still freaks me out if I'm not aware it due and the mount suddenly starts slewing at full speed!

2 minutes ago, Bargy said:

Oh happy days 🙂

 

 

IMG_0702.MOV 74.17 MB · 0 downloads  

 

Oooh, congratulation on the new toy! Just in time for the snow 😁😁

Dreyer's Nebula - IC 2169

I though I'd finished with this for the year, as its slipping slowly toward my house roof. But in the hunt for something to shoot under the full moon, I realised I could snag some Ha

APM 107x700mm / asi1600mm. Bortle 6

L = 70 x 180sec
B  = 19 x 300sec
G = 12 x 300sec
R = 12 x 300sec
Ha = 44 x 300sec

Total of 10hrs 45min

The background is suffering a little, for which I think I need more RGB - but I'm happy with it, especially for a target I stumbled on which panning around in Stellarium 🙂

Surprise clouds!

Added another 90 mins of L to the LRGB

Less integration time than it deserves, but with no end in sight to the grey blanket this is what I have so far:

24 x180 sec L
12 x 300 sec RGB and Ha

2 versions presented, one without the Ha and one with a gentle dusting added

LRGB

LRGBHa

Thank you for the kind comments!

APM 107/700mm, x2 Powermate, PlayerOne Mars C-II. Mosaic of 18 x 3000 frames

AS!3 (Stacking) -> PixInsight (Batch crop and sharpening) -> ICE (Mosaic) -> PixInsight (Colour balancing) -> PS (Defringe and tweaks)