gorann

On Google Maps it is just a 6 hours drive for you to get to Mesu's workshop with the mount in your trunk. I had a two days drive from Sweden to pick up my second Mesu, and me and my wife had some nice days in both Denmark and Germany on the way up and down. Not sure how long Lucas would need to upgrade it but maybe you could combine it with some local sightseeing and dining. Just a thought....

What I sometimes do when I cannot decide on a version is to make a 50-50 mix of them.

Yes, I would also be very happy with that image Rodd! Lovely color and detail, and a well-controlled star field.

Lovely images and the second one is clearly more striking with regard to details. However, you indicate yourself that you may have pushed the data a bit too far in the second image. Comparing the two makes me wonder if you for the second image used any AI procedure like Topaz that may create details that are really not in the data (typically hairlike structures in dust). I once processed Liverpool Telescope data of the Bubble (https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap180205.html?fbclid=IwAR1FQ7Zy_xk0fX8ei6rkiD3Z1MztKhLHYVA1iBfJXCcG-n3RX_GTRWMkxAo) and you seem to have details in the second image that not even this 2-meter RC telescope on a mountain top picked up. However, I may of course not have done total justice to the Liverpool Telescope data and your 0.4" guiding suggest that you had very good seeing.

Outstanding Olly! Stars look great. I usually start with Star XTerminator but if that does not do a good job I have started to use the new version of StarNet2. They are claimed to work according to different principles and sometimes one do a better job than the other. If I cannot decide I make a 50-50 mix. It is just so sad that the only time this object is above my horizon is around midsummer, so hiding behind an eternally bright sky.

Great image, and brilliant composition as Olly says! Of course including the shark is almost irresistible when you first start to think about it. A recent IOTD revealed even more creatures around (https://www.astrobin.com/ji4ems/).

Yes, great improvement in the last version Steve! The shark now stands out a bit better from the background. Not sure about the quadrant (or exactly what you mean). In images of this object there is often a dark area all around the shark that makes it stand out. Maybe you did some background procedure initially (like DBE or Gradient Exterminator) that created some oddities in the dust and melted the shark into the dusty sky around it. You can have a look at my RASA version (https://www.astrobin.com/rwtxv1/). PS, you need to flip the image again😉

Well after you and me left the linear image and started stretching our data with rather subjective curves (at least in my case - I go for whatever looks like an improvement) and used various kinds of procedures, I am not surprised that we ended up quite differently. For example one filter I used in my last processing attempt was Camera Raw in PS and I used its sliders to reduce the contrast and slightly increase highlights. A rather new procedure to me and I have no idea about the algorithms behind it, but I liked what it did.....

I just checked my notes. Like you, no filters. A dual rig with an Esprit 150 and Esprit 100 on my Mesu. I had my ASI 6200 MM (so full size APS) collecting Lum (120 x 2 min) on the Esprit 150 and 58 x 5 min RGB with an ASI071 OSC (now sold) on the Esprit 100. So totally 8.8 hours.

Olly, you inspired me to have another look at my Esprit image of this area from 2020, and to reprocess it using StarXTerminator. Made quite a difference(https://www.astrobin.com/ckh269/C/), so I should probably go through all my pre-starless-era images. I may be done in a year if I get enough cloudy nights🤔

For 250 pounds, I would go for something like a used Canon 60D - I had a lot of good experience with that one but of course it is not like a cooled CMOS.

A great idea Olly, but I wonder if those still holding on to their CCDs would ever be prepared to go as low as 250? But if nitram100 finds one he should go for it.

Not sure why it happens but adding Ha to images often makes the structure of the dark nebulosity much more clear in my experience. I guess it has to do with the atmosphere having less impact on the Ha data, making it sharper.

Brilliant image Olly! The dark nebulosity is strikingly sharp, as if you had sneaked in some NB data, but I trust you😄. I have seen the blue reflection nebula (NGC6914) called "The Running Man in Cygnus" (https://www.astrobin.com/f3dspw/), and it does show similarities to the much bigger running man in Orion. Göran

Se comment above, sorry for the double post 😉

Phyllis, thank you for giving us that insight into a mysterious name. I found the story now also mentioned here: https://astro.i-net.hu/content/deer-lick-group-ngc-7331-and-stephans-quintet

Outstanding Wim, with both nice details and a lot of IFN coming through!

Excellent first light Dave! Stars look great and you caught a lot of peripheral dust. Congratulations!

I found this explanation for the quite complex and rather messy star spike pattern of JWST (source https://webbtelescope.org/). It is created by both the struts and primary mirror(s).

Well, we optimist just call mottled data IFN😄

Talking about stars, this is really an image that could benefit from starless processing of the nebulosity. Did you try that?

I hate star spikes, especially when processing. After all they are artifacts, but we all have our preferences. Love the image!

Love it too! And discovered in 1998 by Russian and Ukrainian astronomers. Times are changing.....

Yes, it must be something of a show-off for politicians and maybe the public, but to me it is a terrible waste of space-flight money. I remember that in school (nearly 50 years ago) I calculated what would happen to the velocity of a Volkswagen beetle if it would crash into a truck, and it was not good🤪

Well, that is not what NASA says. What are the unknowns here? They just want to know what happens to a body in space with known mass and velocity when it is hit by another body in space with known mass and velocity. We all had to calculate that in school....