Allinthehead

Thanks Peter, it's a great region of the sky. Much overlooked I feel.

Couldn't resist posting this work in progress, reckon I'll need at least 15 hours on this as it's heavily noise reduced. 5 hrs in 120 second subs at gain 100 Tak Epsilon 160ed mounted on an AzEq6 Zwo Ai 2600mc Richard.

Great image Wim, you've managed to get lovely colour in the stars. Any tips for this?

Thanks very much Tom.

Wow, that's a great image Tom. Some test of the optics with all those stars.

I agree with Dave here, while you can shoot Ha with a colour cam the resolution and speed of a mono can't be beaten. I shoot ha with my 2600mc but not for stand alone images, only to add to rgb images. If I had the budget I'd compliment my 2600mc with the mono version.

Very nice, looks like you captured Nessy. There're some great targets in this region, unfortunately for me they're in the most light polluted part of my sky at this time of year.

If it's a choice between the 1600mm and the 2600mc my money would be on the 2600mc. The 2600mm however is in a different league and if you're dealing with light pollution then it really is the best option. Cost always plays a part and with the 1600mm you can get away with 1.25 filters, the issues on brighter stars drove me nuts and really detract from an image. No such problems with the 2600mm but you need at least 36mm filters. Good luck.

I do, otherwise I'd have very little to show in a season.

Thanks Goran, I'll try to give it a go over the weekend. I did use starnet on it but worth giving Star Xterminator a try I suppose.

When I sold my first 130 I was warned I'd regret it and I did. Hard to go back to slower scopes especially in this climate where opportunities are rare.

Very nice M45, lots of lovely dust.

Very nice Goran, those twin turrets are proving to be very productive.

Cracking image, beautifully processed.

Thanks, looking forward to some long, crisp, clear nights hopefully coming soon. Many thanks. Thanks Padraic, I really just had to take any window when it came. Some questionable data thrown in to the mix too. Hopefully things pick up for you soon.

Thanks, nice to get my first image of the season done. Already on to the next one. I see you have the Epsilon for sale, are you going for another Apm?

Thanks Jody, glad you like it.

Looks great Goran. Is that ha at the bottom of the frame?

This is Barnard 174, at least the dark area in the bottom left of the frame is. I framed it this way as I was hoping to get the lovely blue nebulosity in the top right. It took nearly 6 weeks to acquire the data for this image, started late August and finished early October. I believe it was nine nights in total and was down to the terrible conditions for imaging in East Cork lately. 270 * 120 second exposures at gain 100 -10C Rgb 80 * 180 second exposures at gain 100 -10C Ha with the Stc duoband filter Takahashi Epsilon 160 mounted on an AzEq6 Processed in Pixinsight, APP and PS Richard.

It all starts with a single exposure that no doubt you stared at for hours in disbelief at what you managed to capture. I too started out with a dslr, Sw scope and Eq3, fast forward a few years and the joy and excitement of stacking the data still remains, despite my much lighter pockets. Great improvement there on Andromeda, since you asked for pointers the obvious one for me is to just keep adding more data. Try to get the data when the target is as high as possible and be ruthless in getting rid of poor quality subs. Richard.

Congrats on the new setup Olly. I have to agree with Vlaiv on the first image as my eye was immediately drawn to the oval halos, with the second image the dusty nebula steals the show.

Hi Adam, I found I got my best results by extracting ha and oiii, processing separately and combining as you would with a mono camera.

This is lovely, can't beat a fast scope. I've often looked at imaging this region with my Epsilon, hopefully get around to it this year. I've only managed 6 hours of imaging in two months however.

That looks great, some lovely detail from the 135. Pity about the cooling but it really doesn't show.

That's a great first light, beautifully processed as always.