gorann

Thanks a lot Sunshine! My Borte 2-3 sky and 17 hours with the RASAs did help, although the moon was up. I love that with this set-up since I can go searching for these difficult and rarely imaged oddities.

As far as I know this is the second image of this object. It is very faint but quite large (about the angular size of the moon) and dominated by Ha emissin but the NBZ filter appears to have picked up some Oiii signal. According to the first Astrobin post of this object by Jon Talbot (https://www.astrobin.com/ij5bkv/ it is now considered to be a likely planetary nebula in the HASH PN database. The open star cluster to the right of the possible PN is NGC 1245. Captured on the night 9-10 Feb 2022 with my dual-RASA8 rig with ASI2600MC and IDAS NBZ filter (gain 100, offset 30, -15°C) on a Mesu 200. 209 x 5 min, so a bit over 17 hours. Processed in PS and PI. Cheers, Göran

In November Andreas Zirke posted an image on Astrobin of what he called "EGB 10 - a mysterious image in Draco". It is a very very faint object and it got me excited and over two nights I aimed my dual-RASA rig at it, catching more data than ever before with this rig on a single object. The long integration time picked up a lot of Integrated Flux Nebulosity (IFN) in the area and this largely dominates the image. But still EGB10 stands out centrally as something rather special and "mysterious". Imaged 6-7 February with two RASA 8 with ASI2600MC with NBZ filter on a Mesu 200 mount. 439 x 5 min = 36.5 hours. Processed in PI and mainly PS.

This is a two-panel panoramic view of a whole bunch of Sharpless nebulae and unnamed ones in Auriga. It includes Sharpless 232, 233, 234, 235, and 237. The big open star cluster is M38. I wonder why Lynds and Sharpless in their catalogues left out some of the more striking nebulosity in this area, including the filametous nebulosity just above the Spider nebula (Sh2-234) and the big blob at the bottom of the image. Captured during the first days in February with my dual-RASA8 rig and ASI2600MC on a Mesu 200 mount. IDAS NBZ filter (dual band Ha and Oiii). Gain 100, offset 30, -15°C. 334 x 5 min, so about 28 hours. Processed in PI and PS. I include an annotated frame grab from Astrobin.

In November Andreas Zirke posted an image on Astrobin of what he called "EGB 10 - a mysterious image in Draco". It is a very very faint object in Draco and it got me excited and over two nights I have now aimed my dual-RASA rig at it, catching more data than ever before with this rig on a single object. My image is rather different from that of Andreas, with less pronounced limits to the Oiii and Ha emissions, but I used broader dual band filter (IDAS NBZ Ha & Oiii) that does not give as sharp edges of NB data as 3nm filters, but appears to pick up quite a lot of RGB data, in addition to a lot of Oiii in the object. Combined with the big aperture of the RASA it found a lot of Integrated Flux Nebulosity (IFN) in the area and this largely dominates the image. But still EGB10 stands out centrally as something rather special and "mysterious". So, two RASA 8 with ASI2600MC with NBZ filter on a Mesu 200 mount. 439 x 5 min, so 36.5 hours. Processed in PI and mainly PS. I add the annotated image from Astrobin, but as you see it found nothing to annotate but gave the coordinates, even if this is a wide field image with 2.3 degrees field radius, so it i quite alone out there..... Cheers, Göran (and I am happy for any comments)

You and me talked about it Cat. I can see the filter issue. But you really need a full frame APS sensor to make it worth while, or you only get half the FOV (and no more fotons collected). And then you need a big mount to carry the very heavy RASA 11. My Mesu200 would have no problem with that but I still went for a dual-RASA8 rig rather than a RASA11 (same light grasp). Maybe I rethink it one day, but a RASA11 with and APS-C sensor does not make much sense to me since I am after the big FOV.

Actully I have not tried it yet Steve. It struck me that it was simpler to have them aligned and keep them that way and then let them both take the next frame of the mosaic. Takes the same amount of time. So if I would have them do different things it would probably be different filters, doing HaOiiiRGB. Still to be tried out.

Yes so far both have been aimed at the same FOV with the same filter, to double the integration time, but there are the options, like using different filters or an instant two frame mosaic.

Just got my dual-RASA rig in action, unfortunately the bl-dy moon is quite near but I hope the IDAS NBZ dual band filters will keep it under control. I am iaming at a possible but hardly ever imaged PN. CS, Göran

Fully agree, athough I am an ateist!

Thanks. Bu no viewing I am afraid - nowhere to put the eyepieces🤔

No cable snags yet.......

I actually have a SW Evostar 72ED sitting on top of one of the RASA8, but that is my guide scope (I used to have an ST80 but I decided to blame its flimsy focuser for bad guiding some nights). On the RASA next to it is right now a Samyang 135, but I do have a small TS71 quadruplet that I could put there. However, the problem would be to align it perfectly with the RASAs, not sure what I could use for that which would be stable enough. In any case, I do not mind the slightly soft stars produced by the RASAs and most of the time I strive to suppress the star field as much as possible to reveal more of the structure of the nebulosity, like in this recent post:

I would not say that the RASA stars are that bad unless you are a bad pixel peeper, but I had the same idea but someone beat me by an hour from buying Olly's old Tak 106😥

As I just commented on the Astrobin post, this is lovely! So much going on there, including your Strawberry. The top right corner is interesting and probably not that much imaged, and as you say Olly, also the top left. Gave me inspiration. Cheers, Göran

Seems like you have a rather portable set-up so could you not make a trip to a darker site, just for the night or weekend? For an object like this, which is not NB but quite faint RGB, a dark sky really makes a difference. Here is about 10 hours with a RASA 8 and ASI2600MC at Bortle2-3. CS, Göran

Very cool Peter, and good use of that moonlit hour!

You would never regret it!

Friday night was clear and moonless so I could let my dual-RASA8 rig (with ASI2600MC and NBZ filter) add a second panel to my hunt for objects in the Sharpless catalogue in Auriga. Here is my previous post: With this second panel I made a panoramic view that now includes Sharpless 232, 233, 234, 235, and 237. The big open star cluster is M38. I wonder why Lynds and Sharpless left out some of the more striking nebulosity in this area, including the filametous nebulosity just above the Spider nebula (Sh2-234) and the big blob at the bottom of the image. I will add a plate solved image from Astrobin as soon as the system collaborates (which it is not doing right now). Now totally nearly 28 hours of data. Cheers, Göran

Why not first buy a suburban house with a dark sky and build an obsy? Would make much more of a difference😉

Thanks a lot Mr Spock!

An 8" TEC is only 50 lb, so you could easily handle that😉, so then you just have to find the 30 000 USD🥴

Thanks Tom! Yes, I really enjoy trying to find new things to image, and there are plenty of them if you look for them.

Thanks Rodd! There is no thing such as a scope for everything. You need different FLs for different objects. My idea right now is that if you have a great scope, buy another one like it an make a dual-rig! I got my dual-RASA rig for doing wide field, and this summer I plan to build a new obsy for the two Esprit 150 I now have after I got a second one cheaply.

Thanks a lot Steve! I am far from an expert on astronomical designations and catalogues, so I would not know how to proceed. I suspect that these structures are registered somewhere but just not in the catalogues used by PI or Astrobin. Maybe someone on SGL can enlighten us?