gorann

I assume one reason we know so little about the internal workings of a friction driven mount like the Mesu 200 is that they virtually never brake down or need service so no one except Lucas Mesu may ever have taken one apart.

This is what my wide-field Samyang 135 captured while piggy backing on my dual-RASA8 rig aiming at Barnard 343 (the RASA image posted here yesterday). Apart from many well-known objects, including the Crescent Nebula, I like the 3D feeling given by the ringed tube-like red nebulosity extending towards the center from the lower left. I have added about 50% RASA data to some parts of the image. Even if the moon was at 75% (but close to the horizon) my Bortle 2-3 sky may have helped while I was shooting between the clouds. Material and Methods: Samyang 135mm (@f/2) with an Omegon veTEC571C and IDAS NBZ dual-band filter (Ha+Oiii). 39 x 5 minutes, so just over 3 hours. Processed in PI and PS, including StarXTerminator. Cheers, Göran

Thanks a lot! My problem is to figure out how I could fit a third RASA 8 on the rig🤣

Thanks Steve! Yes, we could make good use of all that hydrogen down on Earth right now😁

After two weeks of clouds, it partly cleared and I could catch 8 hours of usable subs with my dual-RASA rig, shooting between the clouds. The moon soon came up but the NBZ filter is as usual quite good at keeping it in check unless you go for very faint objects. There is no clear centerpiece in this image, maybe except for the dark area centrally given number 343 in Barnard's catalogue. However, there are actually quite a number of interesting details all over the image, including numerous red filaments (don't know what they are), so please zoom in. Caught with RASA8, ASI2600MC, IDAS NBZ (dual band Ha+Oiii) filter on a Mesu 200. 98 x 5 minutes. Processed in PI and PS, including Star XTerminator. Cheers & CS, Göran Crops showing some of the red filaments intermixed with dark nebulosity (bok globules?):

Interesting, but I feel tempted to wait until someone makes a PI process that will make this for me. Will it work for both mono and OSC?

Cloudy over here so I take the opportunity to process data from last X-mas that I had not given enough attention. The rather faint SNR known as Abell 85, CTB 1 or LBN 576 has no popular name as far as I know but Sh2-170 near the bottom is known as the Little Rosette Nebula. I am a bit excited about that nebulosity in the centre of the image. It has some of those curved Ha arcs that could indicate a SNR, but maybe someone knows better.... Equipment: Dual-RASA8 rig with ASI2600MC and IDAS NBZ (Ha+Oiii) filters, on the Mesu 200 in my home obsy. 122 x 5 min, so about 10 hours. Processed in PI and PS, including both StarXTerminator and Starnet2. Cheers, Göran

But it is a CCD OSC, never tried one but never hear anything good about them......

The combination of full moon and rain has got me into processing data from earlier this year, now equipped with the latest starless and noiseless procedures, which makes quite a difference. There are very few images of these objects from the Sharpless catalogue on Astrobin. In the upper left corner the open star cluster NGC1857 can be seen, and near the bottom is the small but very bright Ha patch known as PK169-001 (aka IC2020 which is misplaced by the plate solve). It was once misidentified as a planetary nebula, see http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=PK%20169-00%201%20. There are also some very large patches of Ha emission in the image that may not have any designations. Caught with my dual RASA8 rig with ASI2600MC cameras and NBZ (Ha+Oiii) dual band filters. 193 x 5 min, so 16. 5 hours, and the night was moonless so I could get quite deep at f/2. I have tried to keep the Ha signal under control since I have noticed that I can easily make it go over the top! Cheers, Göran

Good, so we only have one mystery galaxy then!

Wow, Tomato, aka Steve, has found a new galaxy, with a little help from his friends👍😁 What about the fuzzy I spotted in his image Wim?

PS. You seem to have caught another unidentified faint fuzzy just below PGC2775989.

I really like the image and I think that main galaxy is new to me. A gentle touch of the new NoiseXTerminator could alleviate the effect of imaging the obsy wall half night😉

I am with you there Steve. Imaging is in never ending development and therefore creating an urge for those new tools. Visually, optics have not changed much (or at all) compared to cameras, imaging filters, mounts, control systems and new software. Moreover, for imaging more that one telescope and rig really pays off as you can image several objects at the same time or double your integration time with dual rigs. And you need more than one scope if you like galaxies as well as large DSOs, and if you want a travel set-up as well as the home obsy (or in my case obsies). But, visually, I can see that one great scope could be enough. After all it would be a bit mind spitting to observe more than one object at a time.

Here is what my Samyang 135 caught sitting on top of the RASAs, so same night (16-17 October) as my previous entry. The image contains Sh2-140 and 12 more from the Sharpless catalogue, and quite a few LDNs and LBNs. All in Cepheus. Camera was Omegon veTEC571C (a budget alternative to the ASI2600MC I have on the RASAs but seemingly as good). IDAS NBZ dual-band filter (so Ha and Oiii). I have added about 50% RASA data to the centre of the image. Processed in PI and PS, and starless processing of course. Cheers, Göran

Thanks a lot Martin and Rodd, much appreciated!

Martin, I now made a more serious attempt to tame the red that had clearly gone quite a bit over the top, and thereby also increasing the dynamic range of the image. I also now realized I could post it to the SGL challenge😁. Cheers, Göran

Here I aimed my dual-RASA rig at an area south-east of Sh2-140 in Cepheus, and area which looked quite interesting on Aladin Sky Atlas but nevertheless seems to be very rarely imaged. The image reveals that it contains many interesting features including long red filaments. Could they be bow shocks of a unrecognized supernova remnant or somehow pushed out by the stellar wind from the partly obscured star cluster in SH2-140? Since the spectral widths of the NBZ dual-band filter is rather broad I am not sure which of the blue areas are Oiii or blue reflection nebulosity. Caught 16-17 October. Two RASA8 with ASI2600MC and IDAS NBZ dual-band filter (Ha+Oiii). Sitting on a Mesu 200 mount at my home obsy. 240 x 4 min, so 16 hours. Processed in PI and PS, including Star XTerminator to bring out the nebulosity before adding back the stars. Cheers, Göran

or why not the frog-babies:

Maybe this pair also qualifies as an example here: https://www.astrobin.com/giffb5/C/

sorry, wrong post

With narrowband filters (especially Ha) it is possible to image DSOs under a full moon, but aim at bright ones and away from the moon. This is what my Samyang 135mm (f/2) with an Omegon veTEC571C camera (cooled colour CMOS) caught during last full moon through an IDAS NBZ dual-band filter (Ha+Oiii). Of course the image would most likely have been better without the moon. Cheers, Göran

No, right now I use my cameras on my triple rig with two RASA 8 and a Samyang 135, and there I do not even need flats since the acute light cone of these f/2 scopes does not show dust bunnies. And the slight vignetting is easily taken care of in processing (Gradient XTerminator or DBE). On an ordinary refractor I would probably have to use flats, but I would not worry about any other calibration frames (darks or bias) for these cameras. I think others are experiencing the same thing: that darks and bias are remnants from the CCD era, but I am sure some will scream "I object"😁

Liberated! Well done Olly!

With the previous generation of cooled astrocameras, like the ASI1600, you definitively needed a master dark to get rid of the amp glow, but with the newer ASI2600 and ASI6200 without amp glow I do not use darks and see no reason to use them (and I would not be surprised if they actually introduced noise).