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This is another target I spotted it in Tom O'Donoghue's @Tom OD Cassiopeia mosaic. A HaRGB image of a nebula and star cluster caught on Wednesday night. I think vdB4 refers to the dark nebula and I am not sure if the blue reflection nebula has any name. There was no structure in the Ha data - just background nebulosity that I added as a Lighten layer to the red channel. Before the target fell below the north wall of my obsy I managed to catch 24 x 10 min of RGB with the Esprit 150 and ASI071, and 6 x 15 min Ha with the Esprit 100 and ASI1600MM, sitting side by side on the Mesu200. So totally 5.5 hours. I was aiming to get more but missed that the temperature fell quickly from zero to -9°C and I therefore lost some subs due to bad focus. After this I pointed the scopes right up and caught the galactic interaction that I recently posted.

Thanks a lot Alan! I aimed at another of the nebula I found in your Cassiopeia mosaic: vdB4 and the Sailboat Cluster (NGC225). I am about to post it now in a separate thread. The Face of Mars will have to wait - seems like we will be clouded in until the next full moon.

Thanks Wim, good to know!

Thanks Don! Have to find out what the Hyperleda data base is.....

Thanks Ole Aleksander! Yes you are of course right. Actually, when thinking about it wherever we point our scopes there will allways be uncountable numbers of galaxies behind the ones with names or numbers.

I should check Simbad more often. I think I acually often do it since I think Aladin Sky Atlas i hocked up to it.

That is food for thoughts! I did notice those brown things in that area when I was processing and thought I would have to give the big SCT a good clean🤪. By the way - where did you find that info?

Thanks a lot Firas! You forgot to add three zeros. I now added the image from the big SCT, clearly showing those 22 000 light years of galactic bridge.

Thanks Wim! Yes, I see more galaxies in there.

Here are NGC5216, 5218, 5205 and at least twenty more galaxies, from last night. I really like the violent interaction that appears to be going on between the first two. The data is from both my Esprit 150 with ASI071 (sitting on my Mesu) and my Meade 14" (ACF) on the EQ8 with my newly modded Sony A7s. The Meade data is helping out on the three NGC galaxies in the centre. This is my first galaxy image of the season and first time I got my head around using the Sony A7s (just Ha modded by JTW - not that Ha was needed for this image). It is a full frame big pixel (8.4 µm) mirror-less DSLR that is supposed to be the most light sensitive one ever made by Sony. My hope is that it will be a relatively good match for the 3.55 meters of focal length of the Meade SCT (although still oversampling at 0.49 "/ pixel). However, it seems like I will have to run it with an intervallometer (which is low-tech and fine with me) since I never got the Sony capture program on my laptop to do what I wanted it to do, which wasted a few hours of imaging time last night. I am really surprised how well my old EQ8 handles the 40+ kg of SCT. Last night guiding RMS was sometimes even below 0.4 "/pixel. I think it got good help from the Lodestar X2 on the OAG, so I just bought another Lodestar X2 to give the Mesu mount the same treat soon. I also post the annotated image (from PI) suggesting that there are at least 23 galaxies in there. Totally about 8 hours of data. Comments most welcome of course! EDIT - I now also added the image from the 14" SCT.

That is a truely great result Martin! Not sure why you talk about needing more data. It really makes me tempted to start imaging with my Samyang 135 again. My problem is too many scopes and too few (good) cameras (I got one more ZWO on order but who knows when the Chinese will start shipping cameras again). And of course too many clouds.

Thanks a a lot Dan! And hold you thumb (a Swedish version of cross you fingers) - it is clear again tonight

Thanks Mick! Yes it is not the Rosette😉

I actually think I meant the double TECs.

Hi Tom, Thanks! Are you talking about Sh2-173 aka The Phantom of the Opera Nebula? It was next on my list and it shall be clear tonight, but if you also talk Olly @ollypenrice into imaging it with his double TAK rig maybe I should chose another Sh2 object😉.

and I see an APOD by Robert Gendler from Hubble and Subaru data.

That galaxy is a real beauty! PS. Is the reddish colour due to distance and red shift?

Impressive image Bryan! I got both the Samyang 135 and the ATIK 460 (and both being unused right now) so I should try it. I assume we all know that it is an extreme case of under-sampling (6.93"/pixel) and waste of real estate (the Samyang can illuminate a full size APS), but if it looks good, it looks good. Not sure what affordable camera would do it much better (ATIK 490 would still be 5.63"/pixel). I did buy one of these from FLO a short time ago with the aim of attaching one of my cooled cameras to the Samyang: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/astro-essentials-samyang-lens-to-m48-adapter.html

Yes, two mounts Rodd, that is the minimum of what you need to compensate for clouds😈 Next year I plan to run three (have a NEC6 in the closet that will get its own pier for wide field for the next season)

Looks really promising Rodd - have you decided to do the galaxy hunting this year with your 5" refractor rather than the 11" SCT? By the way, the sky will eventually clear although it has an annoying way of usually waiting until there is a full monlight

Thanks Olly - have you had a go at it? I found it by surfing around in Tom O'Donoghue's Cassiopeia mosaic, so thanks @Tom OD!

On Suday night I caught another nebula from the Sharpless catalogue. I think it is my 13th (not counting those that also have NGC numbers). This is a young and compact HII nebula, and the image also captures some of the dark nebulosity forming a larger ring. RGB was collected with Esprit 150 and ASI071 (OSC) and a TS 3" 0.79 x reducer (65 x 5 min). Luminosity was collected with the Esprit 100 and ASI1600MM (54 x 5 min). Sitting side by side on the Mesu 200 mount. I am still not happy with the TS 3" 0.79x reducer. I have tried all distances between 51 and 55 mm and 52.5 mm seems to do least harm to the image but the stars in the corners are still elongated (on my APS-C size chip) and I am starting to suspect that this is as good at it gets with this reducer specimen. The dedicated Esprit flatteners work perfectly and it is a pity that SW do not make dedicated reducers for the Esprits. The situation here was saved a bit by the Lum layer from the Esprit 100 (with flettener) and ASI1600MM, but you can see some resudual chromatic abberation in the corners if you pixel peep (so don't do it😉).

Great image(s) Ole Alexander! That camera clearly performs - you just have to live with the file size and be patient

A great image - dual Esprits on a Mesu should be waiting for everyone coming home from the pub on a clear night!

A fantastic way to present a stunning astrophotography achievement! Congratulations Tom! I cannot imagine anyone not bookmarking this,