ramdom

Hi, I'm wondering about the rules for this contest. I posted a collage of images I had taken from Aug - Oct 2019. If I can have only one entry then this is what I'd like to be counted but I'm wondering about creating images that had some data from the period and additional data from another period. In other words, does every single frame for this contest have to be captured in the period of Aug through Oct 2019? Secondly, I posted a collage but I don't know if the individual images could be entered into the contest by themselves (i.e., it isn't excluded due to it being considered a multiple submission. --Ram

Hi all, I created a collage using Photoshop CC consisting of images with data captured during August - October, 2019 only. I created another collage that consists of overlapping data (i.e., some data captured in July or added data outside of the two month period) but I don't know i it would qualify or not. I also wasn't sure if I could submit the individual images as entries after submitting the full collage (i.e., if it would count as a multiple submission). Very detailed capture info and writeups for almsot all these objects individually is available via my astrobin page (https://www.astrobin.com/users/ramdom/) except for two images that are still a WIP and I've posted the individual images on the imaging forum here as well. But the collage is a new creation just for this contest. I also created collages of all my images in 2019 which I will post separately on the imaging forums. These are very big images when they are generated so the uploaded image is only about 5% of the original size. The full resolution image for this collage can be gotten here: http://www.ram.org/images/space/collages/collage_aug-oct_2019.jpg --Ram

It's a beautiful image. If you did an HOO image, the white bits are due to the strong signal in all three channels = RGB = white. You see it in the SHO images also. --Ram

Total integration: 1303 minutes/21.7 hours (*42 x 300s for Ha + 24 x 300s for O3 + 42 x 300s for S2 + **109 x 420s for OSC). Inline image uploaded to the forum. Full sized image is here: http://ram.org/images/space/scope/1.4+7.4.5+6/ic405_c_shorgb_42x300+24x300+42x300+109x420.jpg Cameras: *QHY163M (16mp mono) and **QHY247C (24mp OSC) CMOS cooled to -20 and -15 degrees C. Telescopes: *Takahashi FC100DF Steinheil fluorite doublet and **Stellarvue SV70T triplet apochromat refractors @ f/4.9 and @ f/4.8. Reducers: *Takahashi FC-35 (0.66x) and SFFR70-APO (0.8x). Mount: Paramount MyT. Filters: 1.25" Astrodon 5nm Ha, 3nm O3, 3nm S2 and **2" Baader UV-IR-Cut Software: TheSkyX Pro, Sharpcap, PixInsight. The Flaming Star nebula (IC405) is fairly unique nebula in the constellation Auriga with obvious emission and reflection components. Specifically, there's this smoky wisp that is present in the centre of the nebula (see E, which is processed to highlight it). However, both components are due, either directly or indirectly (via dust), to the illumination of the bluish runaway star AE Aurigae. It lies ~1500 light years away from Earth and is about five light years across. https://www.astrobin.com/hrbn9j/A/ through https://www.astrobin.com/hrbn9j/D/ are combination images of the Flaming Star nebula consisting of both SHO data as well as RGB/OSC data (https://www.astrobin.com/hrbn9j/E/) and is still overall a work in progress with the goal of best highlighting that reflection smoky wisp against a background of emission signals as well as the creation of a largely widefield panorama. I initially wanted to create a two panel narrowband image of the IC405 and IC410 (Tadpoles) and then get more data for the OSC image that covers both in one panel in my SV70T and QHY247C but I attach what I have so far since I'm not sure if I'll be able finish it this year (I am also not happy with my framing of both these nebulae in my OSC and so will reshoot with a new framing and see if I can't merge the two datasets which will improve the OSC image). The combined image is best appreciated in the context of my earlier narrowband images of IC405 which is available at: https://www.astrobin.com/318364/ with (A) Ha as well as (B,D) SHO and (D) HOS data along with the capture details (a total of 9 hours). These images were created with Photoshop CC which is not used here. There's little O3 data for this target, so I used the blue channel to combine the G and B data from the OSC image, with my final combination looking like this: R: S2 + R-OSC G: Ha + R-OSC B: O3 + G-OSC + B-OSC I tried many different weighting schemes until I found a few that were okay and selected the best two (https://www.astrobin.com/hrbn9j/A/ and https://www.astrobin.com/hrbn9j/B/). For these, I did the combinations using PixelMath and rather than rescaling, I let it clip in blue so it looks saturated at the parts where the smoky bits overlaps with narrowband data. The narrowband image itself had some clipping since this was one of my first AP images and I wasn't sure what I was doing then. In addition, based on feedback provided online, I tried another strategy using LRGB combination where I set the L channel to be the entire SHO data with the separated RGB images from the OSC data (https://www.astrobin.com/hrbn9j/C/ and https://www.astrobin.com/hrbn9j/D/) which produced my personal favourite (D). So there are many ways to skin the cat and I believe I will be coming back to this once I collect even more data and eventually do the two panel. It seems like a lot of work but all I really want to is transpose that smoky bit from the OSC image onto the na<rrowband image I previously generated. It's not straight forward since I think perhaps there's some emission signal that can just be amplified (the smoky bit is where the S2, Ha, and O3 data most converge - so it's even arguable this image was necessary). But worst case, this also illustrates the difference between using Photoshop CC (which is what was done to generate the images on astrobin) vs. using PixInsight to do the Hubble palette tweaks. As always, thanks for looking! --Ram

In my view, the problem is going to be due to the fact that a lot of the NB targets (in my case, half) don't have O3 data at all or it's (sometimes much) lower than S2. So for those targets, even though bicolour could work, it'd have to be Ha and S2. But there are enough targets so you certainly can plan it so that you do the HOO ones first, then do the SHS ones every season/year or so (which is what I do in terms of cameras/scope combinations). It's going to be very target dependent whether RGBHO works or not for any particular target. I too use a five position EFW but I've decided to not do RGB imaging and instead do a OSC for my RGB images but I just started that this year. The first two years, I stuck with only doing SHO (and L) images. There are so many NB targets out there that I could probably spend the rest of my life doing only SHO images but again I think switching filters once a year isn't a big deal. Another option is to go with LRGBHa as a first pass for targets and then once you've done a few dozen, you can come back to the ones that are most interesting and redo them with SHO if needed. --Ram

Also includes: Galaxies IC2005 and IC2027. Total integration: 12.8 hours/770 minutes = 31x7m for S2 + 49x7m for Ha + 30x7m for O3. Camera: QHY163M (16mp mono) CMOS cooled to -15 degrees C. Telescope: Stellarvue SV70T triplet apochromat refractor @ f/4.8. Reducer: SFFR70-APO Mount: Paramount MyT. Filters: Astrodon 5nm Ha, 3nm O3, 3nm S2. Software: Sharpcap, PixInsight. Inline image with reduced quality uploaded to forum. Full sized higher resolution image is here: http://ram.org/images/space/scope/1.4.4.5/ngc1499_31x420+49x420++30x420_777m_12.8h.jpg The nebula, so named due to its shape resembling the current borders of the state of California, lies at about a distance of ~1300 light years from Earth located in the constellation Perseus. Coincidentally, it transits with its zenith in central California, since the latitude matches its declination. Its width is just a bit under that of the diametre of the moon when viewed from Earth (~ half a degree), but its length however is 2.4 degrees, roughly five times that of the moon's apparent diametre. The bright star close to the centre is Xi Persei aka Menkib which is primarily responsible for exciting the gases in the nebula and its resulting fluorescence, apparently due to ionising hydrogen beta radiation (which isn't one of the emission lines being measured by my filters, cf. the Balmer series). The image as you see it consists mostly of Ha and S2 data. There is some O3 signal that is very faint but I did manage to pull it out. These images are minimally processed. I spent some time doing sophisticated processing but it went nowhere, whereas this is a simple linear combination of the three filters' light frames, followed by stretching and colour manipulation of the combined image in PixInsight to roughly match its namesake's colours (again, no Photoshop CC this time), and that's it! Lurking in the background of the image are galaxies IC2005 and IC2027, which are magnitude 16 galaxies. The latter is visible at the top left if you look very closely. The former is in the top left quadrant, apparently behind the nebula. Ha only image: https://www.astrobin.com/m4znjp/B/ Alternate version with more yellow instead of golden tones: https://www.astrobin.com/m4znjp/C/ As always, thanks for looking! --Ram

Wow, thank you so much - that is a much better tip than using ACDNR. It doesn't change the image from a global perspective but does get rid of the colour noise when zoomed in. You can take a look at the result here: http://ram.org/images/space/scope/1.4.4.5/ngc7822_153x420+52x360+155x420+52x360+168x420+80x360_4556m_76h.jpg You know, every time I'm near completion of an image, I say to myself "patience" and not to rush things but then either due to excitement or being tired, I just rush to push it out. Thanks for your tip - I've saved the process now and should be able to apply it to other images easily. --Ram

Thanks Carole, there are other colour palette choices on my astrobin page for this target. My wife and my 11 year old daughter are my image choice consultants and they said that while the typical palette I prefer actually looks better, there's also a "sameness" to all the images (not to us APers but to laypeople) so I decided to change it up a bit! And you're right about the noise too. I did try to reduce the noise using ACDNR which works but it changes the colour and as you note, it's only apparent when zoom in. I do it typically on most of my images but I didn't for this one - I think I'm just tired of looking at it! There apparently is another way to do denoising with Pixinsight I've not fully learnt yet (TGVdenoise) but it's on my list of things to do. Finally there's the issue of the pixel scale - with the 70mm scope and the sensor size, there is a slight amount of undersampling. It's good enough for wide field but for detailed imaging a higher resolution combination would be needed. My goal was to produce a nice wide field image... --Ram

Total integration: ~76 hours/4556 minutes = (153x7m + 52x6m for S2) + (155x7m + 72x6m for Ha) + (168x7m + 80x6m for O3) Camera: QHY163M (16mp mono) CMOS cooled to -15 degrees C. Telescope: Stellarvue SV70T triplet apochromat refractor @ f/4.8. Reducer: SFFR70-APO Mount: Paramount MyT. Filters: Astrodon 5nm Ha, 3nm O3, 3nm S2. Software: Sharpcap, PixInsight. Inline image with reduced quality uploaded to forum. Full sized higher resolution image is here: http://ram.org/images/space/scope/1.4.4.5/ngc7822_153x420+52x360+155x420+52x360+168x420+80x360_4556m_76h.jpg NGC7822 is the designation given to young star forming complex (Berkeley 59) in the constellation Cepheus, whose surrounding environment has a distinctive skull-like appearance. The emission nebula (core region) is Sharpless 171 aka Cederalbad 214 and the wider field object with the loop/ear-like structure consists of both NGC7822 and the cluster of stars to the upper right that look like little white flecks of paint is NGC7762 (the ear within the ear). There is more to this nebula that goes down below and fleshes out the skeleton shape, but obviously doesn't fit within my FOV. The emission nebula contains examples of objects known a "pillars of creation", active star forming regions that use the material in the nebula to shape the overall structures until there is no more raw material left creating a cavity in the middle (which is why some of these nebulae may start to look the same). The region is 3000 light years away, so it probably is still active. The field of view spans over 40 light years. The region also contains a supernova remnant somewhere (G118.3+0.48). As of now, this is the target I've spent the most time on, taking 17 nights to do it all over a month (largely automated of course, but still) to end up with ~76 hours of useful data. It was a tough target for a variety of reasons but because the surrounding loop region is fainter than the central core, extra time was necessary to obtain some contrast and detail. Unlike with relatively brighter nebulae, where a few hours with each is enough and diminishing return sets in fast, I found that the longer the total exposure, the greater the contrast and detail I was able to obtain. I am confident that what you see (particularly in the nominally processed versions D and E) is what you get if you go deeper with this target---there are a lot of dark regions that are real. Ha only image: https://www.astrobin.com/0n8mh1/C/ Aggressive processing, palette choice 1: https://www.astrobin.com/0n8mh1/0/ Aggressive processing, palette choice 2: https://www.astrobin.com/0n8mh1/B/ Nominal processing, palette choice 1: https://www.astrobin.com/0n8mh1/D/ Nominal processing, palette choice 2: https://www.astrobin.com/0n8mh1/E/ An additional frustrating thorn in my side was clouds. Multiple forecasts would state "clear", I would set up, go inside and then the clouds would come and go. There were few days of data collection where this issue didn't exist but fortunately PixInsight's image integration worked its magic and was able to register all but a few frames (though a few hours worth were weighted very low and this is after manually discarding over 50 frames that were completely cloudy). I did some integrations ignoring the worst frames but the difference was so tiny (and it was arguable as to which version was better) that I decided to use all the data I collected as long as the software didn't mind. Finally, another milestone with these images is that this is the first time I didn't rely on Photoshop to do the Hubble palette tweaking, relying only on PixInsight to do it. My eventual goal is to do what I did with IC1396/Elephant's Trunk, which is to image in detail the Sh2-171 area in the middle to complement this widefield of the entire region. In that case, I did things the other way (core first, widefield later), but here I may be able to use this data to augment any detailed imaging of the core region. As always, thanks for looking! --Ram

Total integration: 510m/8.5h (102 x 300s). Camera: QH247C (24mp OSC) CMOS cooled to -15 degrees C. Telescope: Takahashi FC100DF Steinheil fluorite doublet apochromat refractor @ f/4.9. Reducer: Takahashi FC-35 2". Mount: Paramount MyT. Filters: 2" Baader UV-IR-Cut. Software: TheSkyX Pro, Sharpcap, PixInsight. Inline image is uploaded to the forum. Full sized image is here: http://ram.org/images/space/scope/1.7.4.6/ic348_c_102x300s_510m.jpg The Omicron Perseus Cloud is an open cluster that is associated with some nebulosity, including dark oily patches of dust that are illuminated by a tight cluster of stars. IC348 is the designation given to 2-million-year-old star forming region (seen in the middle) with roughly 400 members that is ~1000 light years away from us. I'm fascinated by dark nebulae/regions of space and I've been wanting to image one that had more of a three dimensional oily quality to it, unlike my previous ones with the Cocoon, Iris, and Pleiades. From my observations, dark regions/nebulae can either look like they are embedded/embossed within the sky background (see Cocoon image: https://www.astrobin.com/414567/) or sometimes they can appear as swirls or clouds of dust around reflection nebulae (see Iris and Pleiades images: https://www.astrobin.com/413899/ and https://www.astrobin.com/421142/) and sometimes they can appear like an patch of oil. This nebula has all these types of dark regions (Barnard 3, 4, and 5) in the context of other reflection/emission nebulae, but the oily patch in centre-right (B3) is what attracted me to this target. As the name suggests, this nebula/cluster is part of the constellation Perseus. Specifically the triple star system illuminating the dust is Omicron Persei, a binary pair of which are known officially as Atik (the top brightest blue one) and Ab. This nebula is part of the giant Perseus molecular cloud that is largely invisible (unlike the Orion molecular cloud) except for two star forming regions, this one and NGC1333 (also known as Embryo nebula). While not associated with this region, there are over a dozen small galaxies in the background some of which you can make out if you look closely. The final images represent an integration of data collected over two nights. For the very first time, I had to use flat frames to remove some dust tracks/motes from somewhere in my imaging train for reasons that are not entirely clear. Normally I don't need them, but it could be due to the nature of target, since I had to bring up the background to highlight the dark regions or it could be due to my new settings. Either way, after some trial and error I made it work. Aside from working on doing the calibration properly, there is minimal processing in the above image. An alternate version with a bit more aggressive processing to highlight the dark nebulae is here: https://www.astrobin.com/i32wrg/B/ I'm always curious to know which version people prefer. As always, thanks for looking! --Ram

Thanks! Not in these final compositions. When I first did the 240 x 15s stack, I tried it with and without flats and didn't make much of a difference (either that or I still don't know how to do flats properly - I can get rid of the smudges, etc. if they are present but I've never been able to cure gradients with flats). There is some vignetting but it is at the very tip of the corners. The fall off is due to me being very aggressive with the curves... --Ram

Total integration: 240m/4h (90 x 120s + 240 x 15s). Camera: QH247C (24mp OSC) CMOS cooled to -15 degrees C. Telescope: Takahashi FC100DF Steinheil fluorite doublet apochromat refractor @ f/4.9. Reducer: Takahashi FC-35 2". Mount: Paramount MyT. Filters: 2" Baader UV-IR-Cut. Software: TheSkyX Pro, Sharpcap, PixInsight. Inline image is uploaded to the forum. Full sized image is here: http://ram.org/images/space/scope/1.7.4.6/m45_c_90x120s+240x15s_240m.jpg The Pleiades (M45) is an open star cluster and corresponding reflection nebulae in the constellation Taurus. It is the first astronomical object I recall in my memory: I remember looking at it through a small courtyard from our first floor home when I was a child---it sparked my fascination with science and astronomy and getting to know the night sky, as well as the associated mythologies different human cultures have created around these objects. The Pleiades was the easiest object to remember, not only due to its brightness but also its distinctive twinkle and the challenge of distinguishing the stars within it. The nine brightest stars in the Pleiades cluster are named after the Seven Sisters in Greek mythology, along with their parents: Alcyone, Atlas (father), Electra, Maia, Merope, Taygeta, Pleione (mother), Celaeno, and Sterope/Asterope. The cluster however contains more than one thousand confirmed members, fourteen of which can apparently be distinguished by the naked eye. Unlike the typical emission nebula I image, all the light is due to reflection of blue light from the hot young stars on the dust in the interstellar medium - there is no ionising radiation and therefore it is not a narrowband composition but reflects largely what the sensor has captured. The Merope and Maia nebulae are the major ones in this star cluster. The dust responsible for the nebulosity is not uniformly distributed, and is concentrated in two layers. These layers may have been formed by deceleration due to radiation pressure as the dust has moved towards the stars, making them appear as though waves of hair are flowing the stars and giving us a sight to behold through powerful telescopes or ordinary imaging equipment. If you look closely you can see the waviness of the dust lanes observable to the very edges of the blue nebulae. The 110 million year old cluster is about eight light years across and about 136 parsecs away, making it one of the nearest star clusters to us. It is expected to disperse within the next 250 million years. Here are a couple of other processing attempts, so you can see that no matter what I do, the overall result looks very similar. The second used a very different processing pathway, which brings out the blues more and the last one is a version with less data but also sharper/smaller stars. But I like my final version above since it brings out some of the dust lanes (which the first image below does as well) and also shows how much further out the reflection nebulae extend. https://www.astrobin.com/421142/B/ https://www.astrobin.com/421142/C/ I was going to keep collecting data on this but for now decided to focus on other targets if the sky clears up since it's full moon out and I think this camera works best when it is fully dark out and I want to swap the cameras between my two scopes to do something different. As always, thanks for looking! --Ram

Love both images. For me, I think the right colour scheme would be something in between the first and second. I like the second one but perhaps it's a bit too subtle - perhaps if you could keep the dark nebula as in the second and make it darker and but bring out the golden hues and the icy blues in the second it may be worth trying out to see what you think. Anyways, just my thoughts but if I had to pick one absolutely as is, I'd say the second is better colour scheme wise. --Ram

Total integration: 458 minutes/7.64 hours (*77 x 120s for OSC + **139 x 60s + 10 x 120s for L + 13 x 300s for Ha + 8 x 300s for O3 + 8 x 300s for S2). Cameras: *QHY247C (24mp OSC) and **QHY163M (16mp mono) CMOS cooled to -15 and -20 degrees C. Telescopes: Takahashi *FC100DF and **FS128N Steinheil fluorite doublet apochromat refractors @ f/4.9 and f/5.7. Reducers: Takahashi *FC-35 (0.66x) and **TOA/FS 130-R (0.7x). Mount: Paramount MyT. Filters: *2" Baader UV-IR-Cut and **1.25" Astrodon 5nm Ha, 3nm O3, 3nm S2. Software: TheSkyX Pro, Sharpcap, PixInsight, Photoshop CC. Triangulum is yet another member of our local group of galaxies, about three million light years away and is the third largest behind our own Milky Way and Andromeda, one of the distant permanent objects that can be seen with just your naked eye under the right conditions. Imaging this galaxy ended up being a complicated process. I collected all the data that went into one of the final images over a couple of years. I had earlier collected the luminance and narrowband data on my Takahashi FS128N with the mono QHY163M camera in 2017 but I decided to redo this one in OSC with the colour QHY247C camera and the FC100DF tube. I then went about creating an image that combined all of the collected data by first creating a synthetic luminance channel which combined the luminance data from both the colour and mono cameras, then created a new LRGB image combining this with the separated red, blue and green channels and then added the Ha, O3, and S2 data to this image at a 80:20 ratio using PixelMath. The great but sometimes frustrating aspect of astrophotography is that there are so many ways to produce a "final" image. I find the variant without the narrowband data and just only with mono (L) data just as aesthetically pleasing (and it is interesting to observe the differences). In addition I tried out different weightings for the channel combinations and also different approaches for combination including PixInsight's NBRGB combination script. At this point, this is just one of the few choices among what I considered aesthetically pleasing and also reasonably accurate in terms of representing the data. Short of combining all the respective channels, I ended up doing little post processing for now. Normally I've been tending towards combining RGB channels in linear form and then processing them further but this time I created the final "look" of each channel as I wanted it and just combined them which locks you in with earlier choices. This can be both good and bad, since as I write above, there are many branch points and they largely seem to produce interesting results. To this end, I also put up the synthetic LRGB only image (containing all the luminance and OSC data) and also the complete luminance image for comparison: https://www.astrobin.com/418204/B/ https://www.astrobin.com/418204/C/ As always, thanks for looking! --Ram PS: As many of you may already know, the prominent pink blob on the top right hand side is one of the nebulae in this galaxy. I always want to travel in space like Star Trek nd go from sight to sight in our galaxy or even galaxy to galaxy and astronomy is one of the ways I can come close to achieving this dream in my lifetime but I was looking this up and was blown away by the sheer scale of things. The pink blob imaged through the HST looks like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangulum_Galaxy#/media/File:Nursery_of_New_Stars_-_GPN-2000-000972.jpg which is a large nebula in its own right and at its core is a cluster of about 200 stars each of which is as many as 15-60 times bigger than our own sun (recall that 1.3 million Earths can fit in our sun). And then you can think about the scale on the other side (how many atoms are present in a body, how many subatomic particles, etc.). It's amazing we're at this particular scale asking these questions and taking snapshots of the upper end and doing simulations of the lower end...

Thanks - yeah, it turned out bit better than I thought but I was just giving some targets a try specifically for this contest while I waited for m33 to rise which was my imaging goal for the night. I also did the Pacman nebula which was okay too but this one turned out a bit better so I went with it. As far as m81, if you look closely you can see the overall spiral shape of the galaxy there but it's very faint and short of using masks I couldn't pull that out without blowing up M82 also. The problem IMO is the lack of stacking - I think if I could stack a bunch of 1 second images (with higher gain), even limited to 30 seconds total, it might turn out better. Short of that, a dark site and going for a mosaic like the milky way sounds like a winner to me. --Ram

This is the best I could do. This is harder than I thought. Camera: QH247C (24mp OSC) CMOS cooled to -15 degrees C. Telescope: Takahashi FC100DF Steinheil fluorite doublet apochromat refractor @ f/4.9. Reducer: Takahashi FC-35 2". Mount: Paramount MyT. Filters: 2" Baader UV-IR-Cut. Software: TheSkyX Pro, Sharpcap, PixInsight. 30 seconds (best out of 10 frames). --Ram

Total integration: 960 minutes/16 hours (20+10 x 6m for S2 + 61+20 x 6m for Ha + 34+15 x 6m for O3). Camera: QHY163M (16mp mono) CMOS cooled to -15 degrees C. Telescope: Stellarvue SV70T triplet apochromat refractor @ f/4.8. Reducer: SFFR70-APO Mount: Paramount MyT. Filters: Astrodon 5nm Ha, 3nm O3, 3nm S2. Software: Sharpcap, PixInsight, Photoshop CC. Inline image with reduced quality uploaded to forum. Full sized higher resolution image is here: http://ram.org/images/space/scope/1.4.4.5/veil_sho_20+10x360s_61+20x360s_34+15x360s.jpg The Veil nebula and regions within located in the Cygnus constellation are known by many names, including Filamentary, Cirrus, Network, and Witch's Broom. This capture is my first attempt at creating a (two panel narrowband) mosaic and perhaps my last since after doing this I feel I should stick to my general philosophy of using the right sensor/reducer/OTA combination for the right target (though the North America nebula beckons and I don't see how I can get it to fit in a single panel unless I switch to using camera lenses). It was a PITA to get the brightness and noise levels of the panels matched up properly and also bring out the faint wispy details while imaging during moonlight though I learnt a lot about PixInsight doing this. This was an interesting target for many reasons, beyond my two panel struggle. The Ha areas largely over encompass the O3 and S2 regions, but both of these also have very strong signal and if I had done an image excluding Ha it would've looked rather similar (except for the very faint bits prominent only in Ha. The S3 overlap is near 100% with the other two elements and if I hadn't brought down the Ha (which is still overwhelming) there would've been a lot of white as a result of the RGB combination. I chose to find a balance between choosing a post processing scheme that aesthetically looked good from afar while also showing the details of the filaments but the Ha only image really shows how intricate the filament work is. IMO, these narrowband images take a lot of artistic license and are best appreciated in comparison to the monochromatic signal from the individual filters, particularly Ha. Other versions (Ha, darker background with more subtle processing, and basic SHO without HP tweaks) are here: https://www.astrobin.com/416486/B/ https://www.astrobin.com/416486/F https://www.astrobin.com/416486/G/ My plan is to repeat this with my OSC on the SV70T and by rotating the camera by 90 degrees I can get it to fit, which will a generate a colour image, and and then if possible I will create a merged SHO-RGB image by combining all of these captures. As always, thanks for looking! --Ram

Total integration: 210m/3.5h (105 x 120s). Camera: QH247C (24mp OSC) CMOS cooled to -15 degrees C. Telescope: Takahashi FC100DF Steinheil fluorite doublet apochromat refractor @ f/4.9. Reducer: Takahashi FC-35 2". Mount: Paramount MyT. Filters: 2" Baader UV-IR-Cut. Software: TheSkyX Pro, Sharpcap, PixInsight. Inline image is uploaded to the forum. Full sized image is here: http://ram.org/images/space/scope/1.7.4.6/ic5146_c_105x120s_210m.jpg Still having lots of fun with the QHY247C (third image). This is a widefield of the Cocoon nebula. I had earlier imaged this target with my C925 in narrowband but had done a terrible job and I also wanted to do a widefield that would capture the dark snake like nebula (Barnard 168) trailing the rose-like emission/reflection nebula.

Total integration: 172.5m/2.9h (85 x 120s + 10 x 15s). Camera: QH247C (24mp OSC) CMOS cooled to -15 degrees C. Telescope: Takahashi FC100DF Steinheil fluorite doublet apochromat refractor @ f/4.9. Reducer: Takahashi FC-35 2". Mount: Paramount MyT. Filters: 2" Baader UV-IR-Cut. Software: Sharpcap, PixInsight, Photoshop CC. Inline image is uploaded to the forum. Full sized image is here: http://ram.org/images/space/scope/1.7.4.6/ngc7023_c_85x120s+10x15s_172.5m.jpg This is my second image with my QHY247C. It's a widefield of the Iris nebula, a reflection nebula. I experimented with combining short exposure images with longer exposure ones on this one using HDRComposition but there's the school of thought that for each object you need to find the optimal exposure length and gain and stick with it. I'm not wedded to any single approach but obviously if the goal with an OSC is to minimise the work done, then the latter approach has more merit purely from an efficiency perspective. I also wonder if the smoky background areas could benefit from more collection but my goal is to work harder on the NB images (especially with the data collection part) and use the OSC for quicker shots (especially of things not easily accessed by NB imaging). That said, the QHY gain scale makes it difficult to assess the best settings to capture the most dynamic range without trial and error since there's no EGAIN header in the fits files. Thanks for looking! --Ram

Total integration: 150m/2.5h (600 x 15s). Camera: QH247C (24mp OSC) CMOS cooled to -15 degrees C. Telescope: Takahashi FC100DF Steinheil fluorite doublet apochromat refractor @ f/4.9. Reducer: Takahashi FC-35 2". Mount: Paramount MyT. Filters: 2" Baader UV-IR-Cut. Software: Sharpcap, PixInsight. Inline image are uploaded to the forum. Full sized image of the 150m version is here: http://ram.org/images/space/scope/1.7.4.6/m31_c_600x15s_150m.jpg These are my first image(s) with my QHY247C OSC. I think it turned out okay relative to the mono image which was the first one I did with the QHY163 (http://ram.org/images/space/scope/1.4.1.5/norm_m31_Stack_32bits_360frames_5400s.v6.jpg). You can see the evolution of my gear and technique since the last two years. The mono image was taken on July 15, 2017 which was purely Sharpcap based livestacking, no dark subtraction, etc. on a Celestron AVX mount. Now the OSC image is a bit longer (though the 360 frame one looks good and I processed it a bit differently which I also include here) and the mount is a Paramount MyT and the processing is all done using PixInsight. I processed a total of 720 15 second frames (3 hours total exposure) in PixInsight stacked the best 600 or 360 frames to produce these images using SubframeSelector. Inline version of the 360 frame version (processed a bit differently) is below and full sized image of the 90m version (360x15s) is here: http://ram.org/images/space/scope/1.7.4.6//m31_c_360x15s_90m.jpg Thanks for looking! --Ram

steviemac, I agree entirely - it's really more art than anything else with NB but I'd say this is somewhat true of AP in general particularly in terms of the difference between what is collected and what the final output is. Even when I did my old EAA with a lodestar X2 and my final image was just the livestack slightly processed, there were some choices I made in colour combinations and what to highlight than not and so on. My Bode's Galaxy is purple for instance... I've been discussing this issue of processing mono images (and how far off from "reality" we get) and apropos to that and your comment I've been meaning to do this for a while but I really want to put up at least my Ha only images for these in astrobin (and perhaps the O3 and S2 as well, especially in cases like this where I got a lot of decent data). I think if I wanted to stick to reality I'd only use the mono image and if it had be a single image, it would be the Ha image. I think they're beautiful in their own right (and there's no tricks of colour being played there). OTOH, I've shown these mono images to the non-astronomer or AP person and the response isn't the same (and even me from an artistic viewpoint don't find the mono images as appealing but from a scientist's viewpoint, the minimally processed mono images are the best). I really appreciate AB for this reason, that it lets you put up different versions of the same image. --Ram

Total integration: 784 minutes/13 hours (31 x 7m for S2 + 40 x 7m for Ha + 41 x 7m for O3). Camera: QHY163M (16mp mono) CMOS cooled to -15 degrees C. Telescope: Stellarvue SV70T triplet apochromat refractor @ f/4.8. Reducer: SFFR70-APO Mount: Paramount MyT. Filters: Astrodon 5nm Ha, 3nm O3, 3nm S2. Software: Sharpcap, PixInsight, Nebulosity, Photoshop CC. (Minimal processing.) Image resized to 19% in the attachment. Here's the link to the full image: http://ram.org/images/space/scope/1.4.4.5/ic1396_full_sho_420x40+420x41+420x31_784m.jpg It has been about a year since I did my last image and although I wanted to play with a colour camera I decided to "retrain" by taking another narrowband image of a target I had gotten partially before with the FC100DF (i.e., IC1396A or the Elephant's Trunk region of IC1396). --Ram