old_eyes

M104 - the Sombrero Galaxy from Pier1 @Roboscopes in Spain (250mm F6.8 Dall-Kirkham, ASI 294MM Pro, 10 Micron GM1000 with integrated OAG) All subs 120 sec 50 x blue, 57 x green, 84 x red 6.4 hrs total integration time. Processed in Pixinsight. Two slightly different treatments cropped from the full frame.

Still suffering from storm wides, rain and persistent cloud in North Wales, so here is something recent from Roboscopes in Spain. WR 134 in amongst all the LBNs and clusters in Cygnus. Pier 5 @Roboscopes (Tak Epsilon 180, ASI 2400MC Pro, Askar Colour Magic Ha/O3 6nm dual band, Paramount MX unguided). 108 x 60 sec, 49 x 120 sec & 44 x 180 sec. 5.6 hrs total integration time. Processed using HDRCombination in Pixinsight.

Some super images here already. Hoping to also see entries from @gorann, @ollypenrice and other masters of the widefield!

The filters used for these images were the Askar Colour Magic 6nm. I like them.

I played around with different balances of the two originals using the max(x,y) function in PixelMath and reducing the intensity of the HaO3 image. This is the one I like best - max(S2O3, 0.7*HaO3). What do you think?

Still playing with them, but the Ha is so strong it washes out the O3. I need to balance them up better.

Two panel mosaic of Heart and Soul from Pier 5 @Roboscopes in Spain (Tak Epsilon 180, ASI 2400MC Pro, Unguided Paramount MX). One using HaO3 dual band filter and the other S2O3. Total Integration time about 300 minutes across the two panels for each filter. Processed in Pixinsight. HaO3: S2O3: I tried blending them, but the Ha dominates too much. Better as two separate renditions. I think the S2O3 filter has produced a very nice image.

A spectacular image! +1 for the continuum subtraction process. It is the first tool that helped me add Ha in a way that felt remotely natural. This is the guide I used Advanced Narrowband Combination — Pixinsight Tutorial — Night Photons. I used Method 1 'Synthetic Color Flow'.

Another image pieced together over multiple nights, dodging the bad weather. It has been frustrating, but I managed to produce this M42 out of the fragments. My home observatory - Esprit 120 mounted on a Mesu 200, with ASI 533M Pro camera guided with Evoguide 50 and QHY 5L 2. 45 x 30 sec subs in R, G & B, and 45 x 180 sec subs in R, G & B. A total of 2.6 hrs per filter. HDR combined in Pixinsight. After processing a starless image of the nebula, I added in the 30 sec exposure RGB stars lightly stretched to make the trapezium stars visible. Not a great image, but I wanted to give the impression of the bright young stars that are driving the development of the nebula.

Very nice! Plenty of structure in the galaxies, especially M66.

I haven't imaged this yet, but it is definitely on my list. This rendition encourages me to push it up the priorities. A nice image.

I really have not had much decent imaging time this year. Even the nights which have been notionally cloudless have been foggy, but I managed to piece this M81 together out of fragments. My home observatory - Esprit 120 mounted on a Mesu 200, with ASI 533M Pro camera guided with Evoguide 50 and QHY 5L 2. Roughly 3 hours each R, G, B, Ha. I mixed the Ha in the red and green channels to get a more pink colour, and dialled down the foreground stars to better show the galaxy. It was fun to process.

ARP273 is two interacting galaxies, 300 million light years away. As far as I can find out about 2.6 arc minutes across. So I am pushing this image from Pier 1 @Roboscopes in Spain (AD250 f6.8 Dall-Kirkham 1678mm FL, ASI 294 MM Pro, 10 Micron GM1000). Still not bad I think. Good to see what you can do from a terrestrial scope of modest dimensions. Not the greatest image i have ever produced, but satisfying. Processed PixInsight. 3.5hrs Blue, 4.4hrs Green, 3.8hrs Red.

Had a quick squint at your M45 and M33. Very nice. The fatigue (and quite frankly boredom) of imaging all night pushed me towards greater automation. As I age, I find it a godsend. No finished projects from last night (I have several on the go that are partially finished), but I might put up a couple of "the story so far".

Nice images both!

So last night (17th/18th Jan), was cold and fairly clear throughout. There was a lot of moisture in the air so not a deep black velvety night, but good enough for some imaging. Using Voyager Advanced for control of my observatory I was able to run from 17:55 through to 06:50. Now there were interruptions for cloud, and some failed subs where the guide star was lost, but this is the longest imaging run I have managed for nearly a year! I know it is pretty stupid to be trying to do astrophotography in North Wales, but the last 12 months have been atrocious. I hope this is a harbinger of a better winter/spring season in 2024.

Here's my three-panel Christmas Tree to Rosette done a while back on the Tak Epsilon 180ED on Pier 5 @Roboscopes in Spain with OSC camera. A fun mosaic.

Another fabulous target Olly. Lots of interesting detail and a nice tailing away to the south(?). The nebulae seem nicely balanced in intensity as well, although I don't know how much of that is in the processing of the multiple sources you used for this. I look forward to the 'proper' image!

Nice mix of light and dark in this image. Data from Pier 14 @Roboscopes in Spain (Tax Epsilon E130, ASI6200MM Pro, Astronomik 6nm Ha, S2, O3 filters, unguided Paramount MX). 2hrs Ha, 3hrs O3, 4hrs S2 - processed in Pixinsight, Foraxx palette.

The lobster claw nebula (SH2-157), bubble nebula (SH2-162) plus clusters M52 and NGC 7510, and a couple of other nebulae (Sh2-159, SH2-159, Sh2-161). Captured on Pier 5 @Roboscopes in Spain (Tak Epsilon 180, ASI 2400MC Pro, Askar Colour Magic 6nm HaO3 and S2O3 filters, unguided Paramount MX). 4.3hrs HaO3 and 4.4hrs S2O3 processed in Pixinsight.

Definitely!

Welcome back. A nice image to start with. I am not sure I agree with @ollypenrice. I think your two palette image with RGB stars looks fine. After all, we are in no way 'authentically' representing the 'real' colours. As soon as we go to NB we are producing some representation that highlights the features in the target we find of interest or aesthetically pleasing. I would argue that in most cases with BB or OSC we also deliberately distort the colour balance for the same purpose. So the question for me is - do you find NB stars affect your viewing of the image? Does the fact that they are clearly not star coloured worry you? Do you like the representation that includes more natural star colours? In the end it is your creative choice. I have occasionally done RGB stars for NB images, but rarely found it worth the effort - for me. However, I am playing with an image that combines HaO3 and S2O3 dualband filters from an OSC camera. In this image the star colours are disturbing (to me), and I haven't found a solution yet except to de-saturate the star layer. That image might(?) benefit from RGB stars.

Lovely image Olly. When the target and the conditions are right, and the astrophotography gods smile, OSC can deliver fantastic results. Nadolig Llawen!

A lovely set of images. I recognise the journey. The delight at the very first image, then the ambition to improve leading to progressively more interesting (I won't say better!) images. Mirrors my own journey to an extent, except I have never achieved the heights of your latest version! Astonishing image!

Here are the top right hand corners of the image straight from WBPP and then after DBE and BX. Straight from WBPP. Only STF and Dynamic Crop applied With DBE and BX. The second centre is clearly visible in the data straight from WBPP and BX separates it into two stars. But, the effect is even there in a single sub! It must be something in the optics, unless we are getting a reproduceable jitter during a single 120 sec exposure? So I don't think BX is going to help in this case