geeklee

Having a quick look at the new TIF, it's been stretched to it's limit (and beyond really). I don't think 5 x 150s (12.5 minutes) is really enough to pull out the strong nebula detail you're looking for. Perhaps, as @happy-kat mentions, the Orion nebula would offer more at that sort of integration though. You've also got a huge FOV, so detail may be limited due to the image scale. How dark are those skies rated as the gradient I pulled off (shown above) seemed quite strong. Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with dark skies myself 😁 I've looked out some old data I never used and stacked 12 minutes: (taken with an F4.9 scope and dedicated astro camera (bortle 5/6 skies), just a UVIR cut filter. No calibration or processing except stretch) It's not really jumping out either. Start by capturing (much) more data and I think you'll see a improvement.

Hi @UberStar I've had a quick look at the TIF and the Heart and Soul is very very faint but you can just make it out. I take it you didn't use the CLS filter as the skies were so dark? Is the A7iii astro modified so it's recording more Ha? How many images and what exposure time are you using? I'm not as familiar with DSLRs but the above information will assist with others providing help for you. Was this image already stretched a little? After removing the background gradient, quick colour calibration and stretched (a bit too much): Here's a 1:1 crop of the Heart (top right) and Soul (bottom left) with stars: Without stars: A lovely 1:2 crop of the Heart and Soul (top left) with the Double Cluster in the bottom right. Really nice star colours 👍 Were you getting the same (or more) yourself?

That looks great @mightymonoped You've got to grab those chances when they come up. Despite the FL, it's a lovely FOV above (fellow RedCat owner)

Another beautiful and rare to see (for me) set of galaxies. NGC4399 is fascinating with that tantalising bit of detail. Thanks for the information in the write up too.

Plenty of great images in this thread already! @wouterdhoye your large scale mosaic linked to is stunning in it's depth and clarity 😍 My own favourite is definitely this two pane mosaic, taken last April. Using a SkyMax 127 and my ASI533, it was 500 frames per panel with the best 25% used in each (125 frames per panel). I think almost everything was excellent that night. I was blown away by the image before processing and was even more surprised at how hard I could push it. The shot below doesn't do it justice, so do click through and view at 1:1.

That's awesome @tomatoThanks for the inverted sub, makes sure I am seeing it correctly on the Lum stack. As you mentioned further down, a reminder of just how amazing it is that we can capture and distinguish this type of detail from our back garden.

What a great journey by images Alex. The latest one (and a few before that) are real stand outs.

One of the most unique and beautiful images I've seen on here. What a great image @alan4908

HI @BrendanC I think the Clavius info above will help you find the part of the moon you're in, but if not, it's the south. Here's a snippet of an image I took recently with a very rough drawing of your capture area. Yours is much more interesting with its shadow - the one below was near full moon but hopefully you can still match up the craters. The crescent of craters on Clavius's floor is a good guide to start.

That's looking great @Rustang The OIII is subtle enough to still play a part and help the bi-colour palette. I'm probably biased as I love the golden hues with blue Between that and your Soul nebula, it seems like the effort you've been putting in since purchase is paying dividends - especially with the higher integration time too.

Stunning Tristan. Great processing too, Holmberg IX very clear with some detail. What a difference in the star flare.

Yeah, that's beautiful @Spongey Great job on all fronts. Amazing to see this target still pop up with new images at the moment. As Tristan says, it's long gone from my view now unfortunately.

Thanks Adrian, just to clarify, do you mean trying to get the spikes as thin as possible on stars? I noticed how close mine was to the tripod during a flip during my recent captures. Two nights I babysat it and the third night I let it do its thing (viewed via security cam).

Great image Tristan. As Adrian mentioned, this is one of those just enjoyed where you can view the whole (or most of) the image on the screen (as I'm usually all about enjoying the 1:1 viewing 😉)

Fantastic Adrian. Just 80 minutes too, wow. Is that at native FL or did you have a reducer on? Great colour and details too.

Thanks John. A slightly faster F8, increased aperture and dark skies should all be in your favour, good luck. It would be great to see more of those faint arms - there's so much more to be seen there. Thanks Michael. I've been keeping an eye on your great updates to this target recently and waiting to see your next "data dump" update. Hopefully you get a chance during the up and coming new moon period. I think my night 1 and night 2 had a little moon impact in the early morning (it was rising around 01:42 one day IIRC). In all honesty I wasn't being very selective in the stacking so could probably take more subs out without damaging the image too much. At F9, with light pollution I'm not sure what it would take to get more of those arms for me... too much I think.

You're right, just looked out the window again and it's all snow! I swear just before I posted the above, I'd stuck my head out and could see plenty of stars! Maybe it was hope more than anything!

I think it's a deceptive night up here in NE Scotland. All the forecasts look iffy, but looking out shows a lot of clear sky. That's way too risky to get all the kit outside!

Thanks again Adrian 👍 Good luck if you decide to go for this one in the next clear spell. Thanks Gerr, I'll keep an eye out for your version if you decide to go for it. You're right, Ursa Major, and pretty high throughout the night IIRC. Thanks, really appreciate the feedback. Trust your gut. Walk away 😅 On a more serious note, the image above is not perfectly collimated at all - likely well hidden by big stars and some challenging guiding. Saying that, it was done by eye with a Cheshire in 15 minutes. Is that good enough, only you can be the judge. Personally I won't be spending silly amounts of time or clear skies if it needs constant attention or if the stars are really poor - clear skies and life is too short! I've messed up the collimation and put it back many times (some on purpose to really see bad collimation), including three evenings recently where I tried to improve on my first eyeballing. The best bit was when I thought I could tweak it while star testing... ho ho ho... after I gave up and put it back inside I realised I'd made a complete pigs ear of it trying to do it on the mount. There are so many guides out there, so many ways describing how to do it, a few variables for a perfect collimation (secondary, primary, focuser). Below is a great thread where a simple method is described but I haven't got there yet. Here's the post with the link to the document davies07 kindly put together. I have an artificial star as well, but find it difficult to get a location with a long enough distance to put between scope and star. I quickly put the scope on the AZEQ6 mount to grab this photo of my basic setup just in balance in DEC: I take it your Meade can't be put onto another mount and/or isn't as good as you'd like for imaging? Thanks @tomato, there's a surprising amount of detail considering it's a little soft. At full resolution before resampling, there really was nothing else to see. That image scale didn't show anything further with my skies and equipment/capture/skill. With a reducer, say 0.75x, the image scale would be ~0.75"PP so I'd still resample that - maybe there I'd lose a little compared to the above (1.14 vs 1.5), but I'm not sure it would be noticeable. Thanks @vlaiv I'll get it out the box and take a look next time! Your image scale discussions throughout SGL are what prompted me to make sure I didn't bother with the 1x1 image. So, thanks for your guidance.👍

I'd definitely agree there. That's come out really well. 😁

Worth viewing at full resolution as there's loads of detail in both the galaxies @ParallaxPete Great work. Echoing Adrian's comments, removing the slight green(/blue) cast should produce a more balanced colour, especially in the galaxies.

Ever since I first saw NGC 3718 I've wanted to image it at some point so I decided to dedicate some precious clear skies to it recently. This was taken over three nights where the moon was rising well past midnight so it's effect varied as the early hours came round. Using the StellaLyra 6" RC and ASI533, it was taken at native focal ratio, so a very pedestrian F9 🙂 Original image was ~0.57"PP, so this was IntegerResampled in PixInsight (2x) before starting processing. In total, 333 x 120s (~11 hours) of subs were integrated. Captured with Voyager, stacked & calibrated in APP and processed in PixInsight. Any and all feedback welcome, even "take the reducer out the box". Thanks for looking. Here's what an average 120s sub looked like for each night and the final stack. All AutoSTF in PI.

Excellent Adrian. That's come out really well. Lovely colour and clarity of the core.

No problem Steve, not necessary. With such a long thread, I just wanted to be sure you'd be able to find the information again if you were looking at sizing. Awesome. From the photo you put up into the Lounge, you've got all the jigsaw pieces, just need to put it all together for first light and you'll be off!

Nice and bright + wide too just to make it as difficult as possible if you do try and use the frame! Perfect shot