Whistlin Bob

Managed to get 90 minutes on the Cygnus Wall last Saturday- half an hour of RGB then 60 minutes of Ha. Might wait a bit for the other channels to get the best contrast. The nights are short but it's definitely still viable if you go for brighter targets. Nice time to observe as well- sat out in the warm splitting doubles and doing low mag views of milky way star fields. A couple of weeks ago I could see the bridge of light on M51- I live in a Bortle 5, and I'm not convinced the twilight is that much worse than the bright street lights I put up with the rest of the year.

Excellent report. I have the same problem from home. I must try the same thing.

Funny this should pop up again- I was doing this earlier in the week in a Bresser 127l. I was using the Baader zoom and the seeing was a bit wobbly, but at 12mm they were split and staying split, so bang on 100x.

I've an 8 inch dob and a slightly smaller Mak than the ones you're looking at. I think the short answer to your question is that either would do just fine. For those targets I wouldn't worry too much about light pollution as both the moon and planets are pretty bright. For my money the dob will give slightly better views and would also allow you to start going after DSOs more successfully if your interests move onto these later, so that's the direction I'd take. However- a dob has the downsides of being larger (for storage) and also needing collimation more frequently (a Mak very rarely needs collimation). To repeat- either of the choices you mention would give fine views of the moon and planets .

Another Whirlpool... I was having an observing session on Sunday night when I spotted the "Bridge of Light" between the 2 galaxies in the dob and started thinking it was worth setting the imaging rig running. I planned 15 mins/channel RGB then onto luminance but unfortunately clouds arrived after 40 minutes and put paid to that. Last night was clear again though and gave me a chance to get some luminance too- this is a couple of hours worth to combine with the RGB. Very pleased to get the tidal tale. I hear a lot of people stopping due to the lack of astro darkness, but I'm beginning to think that for those of us who battle urban light pollution anyway and who aren't so far north (I'm in the English midlands) it doesn't make so much difference- just a shorter window during which it's vaguely dark.

I use one of these- it's great and not subject to the astronomy tax that you're talking about. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Leifheit-Multi-Seat-Niveau-White/dp/B0000DH7KA/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=ironing+chair&qid=1622217849&sprefix=ironing+cha&sr=8-3 I notice that there are cheaper ones now as well. Only downside is that Amazon spam you about disability living aids for about a month after you buy it...

Terrific detail in this.

It's a couple of years since I imaged M13, and I had an hour last night before clouds were due so it was nice to have another go. This is 40x 30s per channel RGB on an ASI1600mm/Explorer 200p combo mounted on an HEQ5. I love seeing contrasting colours in stars, so I've deliberately over-saturated- just a taste thing really, it's not supposed to be realistic, but hopefully nice to look at.

Thanks for posting about this @John, it's a new one for me. I had a little session last night, in a 14" dob it was relatively easy to find and obvious as a glob even at quite low mag. With my baader zoom it was a bit of a smudge at 8mm, but in my binoviewers (which give me x264) I was able to resolve faintly around the edges, even though seeing wasn't especially brilliant last night. Small, but neat and pretty! 😁 I'm now wishing I'd posted my thanks last night because I would have seen your other observations and could have had a go at then as well. Ah well, save something for next time...

Yes- it is nuts, for all the reasons you've outlined. But it's not as daft as observing. At least with imaging you can capture the full beauty of the object, even if it's a pricey way to achieve worse results than a Google search. For most objects, observers catch a faint hint that's barely recognisable and then get all excited about it. I say this as someone with a passionate love of both pursuits. I've been observing for 6 years now and imaging for 4, and it has enriched my life even more than it has emptied my bank account. All a bit silly really, but I'm very happy with it.

Took this one back in March, but just re-processed and more pleased with the result. This is an 60x 1 min subs on an AA183c, with a 50mm f1.8 Canon "Nifty Fifty" and a Baader Ha filter, getting a good chunk of Monoceros.

...and this is my second effort, from 16th April, this time on Messier 106 and friends- 90 minutes luminance and 90 minutes RGB taken with the same setup and with some of the dust and patchy background left in .

This is my first effort-from 6th April. Originally posted in the imaging section a while back, but suddenly occurred to me it could live here as well: the old favourite of Bodes and Cigar. Been having a play with with it- It's a smarter looking image without the dust, but less realistic, so I've decided to keep it in. This is 3 hours of Luminance and 90 mins RGB captured with an ASI1600mm Pro in a SW 200p Explorer on an HEQ5. Plus my new secret weapon: an IDAS D2 filter over the Coma Corrector (brings out the Ha really nicely!).

Excellent report- quite an inspiration. Loving the phrase "averted imagination" as well. I definitely suffer from this on occasion.

Thanks Vlaiv- I like that second spectrum above- that all makes sense. I'm a bit guilty of taking the pretty picture approach to astro images, but I might have a go later at seeing if I can match the Ha to what I can see through a filter held up to a light.

Thanks @Ken82- yes it looks that way! I think the IDAS has an especially high transmission for Ha. The colour balance is pretty awful (despite what the marketing says!), but Pixinsight sorts that out easily. @vlaiv that's really handy- thanks!

I bought my ASI1600mm back in December 2019 and have been very pleased with it ever since- it comfortably outperforms my cooled, modded Canon 550d, especially on narrowband. However, one area that I've had to work hard to match my previous camera is with Ha regions on galaxies. I used an IDAS D2 filter on the Canon, and it picks out a bit of Ha as per this M81/82 from 2 years ago with a 200p: I returned to this target last year (in a 130pds) for the image below. As you can see- the hints of red are much weaker: This is partly down to a smaller scope and I can compensate for this by taking some Ha subs, but I don't understand why that should be needed when the DSLR managed quite well without them. As an experiment I dug out the IDAS filter and attached onto the front of the Coma Corrector and ran an LRGB sequence against the same target (back on the 200p). This was the result: I'm really pleased with this, to the extent that whilst I took a 40 minute stack of Ha subs, I haven't bothered incorporating them, because I can see that they're not going to add a lot that isn't already there. I'm still not sure about my attempts to leave the dust in, as it looks a bit noisy and patchy, but I can have a play with that later. The reason for the post is that I've always understood the received wisdom to be that you don't add an LP filter over your LRGB filters and I've never understood why that is. The usual domain for these filters is on an OSC camera over a bayer matrix, and I know from my DSLR days how much they can help with picking out detail. Following this experience I'm definitely inclined to continue using the IDAS filter for LRGB work, even if that's not what the textbooks tell you to do, but I wondered if anyone could shed light on what the thinking is behind all this... is it just a misunderstanding on my part?

Just laughing at myself... Your star hop sounds identical to mine but is 180 degrees in the opposite direction. What an amazing coincidence, I thought, that similar asterisms of stars exist around the same target in opposite directions. Then I spotted your location. 🤦‍♂️🤣

Loving the references to dob wobbling. It's a very effective technique on galaxies, but also works really well on nebulae. I was able to pick out the tadpoles nebula the other night with it, and nearly the whole extent of the reflection area around the Pleiades.

Great report Joe. I liked your description of getting to the Sombrero- it's a good star hop and a great sight when you get there 👍

It's called Bluelight filter but doesn't seem to be on the play store now. Like like there are loads using the same name so hopefully one of those will be ok. It literally dims my screen and cuts out blue light in a controllable way, which is exactly what I need.

I'll second what @Stu said- I use Sky Safari too, using the custom equipment menu to get the exact fov for my finder and most used eyepieces. I'm pretty lost now without it. I'm using the Android version- and I use it with a blue light filter downloaded from the Play store to preserve night vision. I used it at a Bortle 2 site a couple of years ago and it was fine.

I clearly got greedy!!! Subs like you had a good time with M3. I was just heading there when it clouded over, but I need to save something for next time 🤣

Wow- this had been my best session in many months. Forecast suggested it wouldn't be great, so a really nice surprise. From my log: Leo triplet. All three. Very nice. M51- very good views in 30mm and 7mm. Really nice. Bridge and disks clear in 7mm M101- very faint. AV only The beehive- rich stars. Too much mag even in 30mm M105 and two satellites nicely seen M96 and M95 at same time. Fab view. M91 AV only. Barely seen. M88 much clearer. Easily seen Markarians chain. Just a phenomenal view. M87 / Virgo a. And satellites. Phenomenal. M89 nice and clear M90 bit trickier but I got it Porrima- nice split. Like two cats eyes. Nice and even M104 sombrero first time from home M53- nice view. Hint of resolution in core Ngc5053 Really faint. AV only and needed sky Safari to know where to look. M64 black eye. Clearly seen. No detail. NGC 4725 nice clear view NGC 4565 needle shape really clear NGC 4494 nice little splodge Cor Caroli- white and yellow, clean split. Fantastic view Arcturus- gold in the eyepiece Izar- very nice clean split ... And then it clouded over. Never mind- that session will keep me going for a while.

I guess clusters aren't quite as photogenic as nebulae and galaxies so I don't often go for them, but during winter I always enjoy doing a little tour with my dob through the clusters of Auriga and down to Gemini so I thought it was high time I did a little collection. These were taken with an ASI1600mm on an Explorer 200p with an HEQ5 mount, each image is 10x30 secs per RGB channel @gain 250. Stacked in DSS, processed in Pixinsight and then put into a collage with GIMP.