Rodd

Ha! I had no idea what you meant. Wierd bthough in that I took a picture not a video! The 24/7/365 cover works great. My scope has been through hurricanes, gales, sleet, snow. LlThey work as advertised. Rodd

This project was a long time coming. While not an observatory per se, it marks a big step for me. I have been leaving my rig set up under the 24/7/365 cover for months at a time-0-with no security, other than a fairly hidden location next to a farm. When I worked at home it was one thing--but now I have to go to work everyday, and I have been worrying about my scope and mount (not to mention all the other stuff that is part of the rig. I couldn't afford a roil off observatory--even the material for a DIY one would have been too muchj. But I had to do something--after being spoiled by just walking out, plugging in and imaging, I was not relishing the prospect of starting from scratch every night (as if-once a month these days) Anyway--here is my solution--a roll off box that can be locked for security, Now I will not worry so much. Wind is my biggest concern now. A big gale glow up and I will take the scope inside. Another benefit to the experience, is now I will feel confident building my 8'x8' observatory (8'x8' because plywood is 4'x8' and it would not require cuts!)

Yes I used Devonvolution in the subsequent versions and I was surprised how much of an effect it had. Usually I use like .03 dark ring control with a star mask for local seeing if. I usually find 40-60 iterations works best, and sometimes it is not worth it. This image only needed 10 iterations and no deringing and the effect was huge

I dropped the red a bit in the non Ha areas--it was getting a bid crimson

Thanks Dave. Need to bring down the red a bit Rodd

Thanks wim. That probably explains why I could not sharpen that effectively. I will revisit Rodd

Ireprocessed the data--being more careful with the Ha cleaning--still not cleaned very well--a lot of stray Ha speckles I had to remove. But I think this is a better image--no synthetic luminanmce--I found it dulled the image down noticeably. Trying to sharpen the image but not having much success.

This is data from the Liverpool Telescope that Goran was kind enough to pass on to me. For that I am grateful as I am not sure how to obtain it, even though its publicly available. I do not know how many subs went into each stack--but this consists of a red, green and blue stack, and Ha as well. I integrated a synthetic luminance and processed the image as an HaLRGB. Not quite like Hubble data--but a 42 inch (I think) telescope does provide nice data. This is my first image using publicly available data. I see why Deep Sky West or other places like that are pretty nice. Wish they were a bit more economical.

Another good example from a DSLR. Very natural looking. More data would make this image first class. Rodd

Not to beat a dead horse, but I made an improvement. While the image as a whole is a 50-50 blend with the FSQ widefield shot--the cores of the nebula are full TOA cores. Don't know why I did not think of this before--but they are definitely improved--though it may seem minimal to most. I have found that the devil is in the details so to speak.

Very nice--I like the orientation and framing as well. Rodd

Pretty cool Doc....The jet is clear as a bell. Amazing. Rodd

Stars are small--very nice Rodd

Looks good to me. Very clear. Rodd

I came up with this idea--I resized this image and blended with my widefield shot (that hadb a lot of data)to quite the noise. Still trying to decide if it is worth pursuing. EDIT: Actually--I cant decide which level of brightness I like--a little bit more or a little bit less. Seems trivial--but with this image it is critical. Which one is the stronger image? On my computer both are quite dark. On my ipad the second one is much brighter (so is the first-but not as much).

Thanks Alan-Don' we all! ?. A camera will help indeed. Rodd

Thanks AKB! One of my favorite nebulae. Rodd

Some fine scale sharpening. Not much more I can do.

Thanks Gonzostar! I am sure you can--Keep at it. Rodd

TOA 130 and STT-8300. This is some old data that I was never able to process very well. The shortage of blue and the general noisiness of the data were obstacles I could not overcome. I wish I had gotten more data--I really like M78 at this scale. The image is still pretty rough, but much better than previous attempts 17 10 min red 17 10 min green 6 10min Blue

Several steep learning curves! If its unguided then you did quite well the first time out. Keep at it and you will get great satisfaction in having overcome the steep climbs. I'd say you are right at the edge of weight for the mount (not sure of your whole setup--but I think the mount is rated for 18kg or so). Not sure about that mount but often you take half for imaging. Make sure you balance the system well ans get as good PA as you can. Fortunately you are shooting at a fast focal ratio and not an overly long focal length. Rodd

Pretty good. Its funny, many folks choose M42 to image first....maybe that is one reason there is a reputation for a really steep learning curve in AP--its one of the most difficult targets to get right! And for the first go, a almost impossible. You have done well. You had a bit of a guiding problem-but I did not notice it for quite some time. How do you limke the 12" newt? (another tough one to get started.). Rodd

That can be tricky. Rodd

I was referring to Jamessedon85's image--the first one.--but now that your mention it, that is what it is. I must have had a "bad eye day" Rodd Rodd

Dont leave us in suspense...what is it? The keyhole nebula? Rodd