HunterHarling

This past week I've set up my Edge HD scope for some deep galaxy imaging, and I've almost gotten the spacing/ colimation right, almost...  Anyway, the clouds are back till Tuesday but I got enough exposure to process this image.

Edge HD 800 sct w .7 reducer

ASI1600mm

LRGB: 24x300s per filter, total = 8 hours of exposure. 

I was quite surprised by the amount of hydrogen visible in the arms of the galaxy. Usually I need several hours of Ha exposure to get to this level... It sure does look like the large Pinwheel Galaxy though!

This image is quite an aggressive crop, not sure if the resolution can handle it:

Thanks for looking, questions/ comments much appreciated!

1 hour ago, ollypenrice said:

I'd accept a smaller galaxy on screen, with a reduced grain from the noise.

I agree. I'd like to see a larger field, perhaps with less stretch/ sharpening.

It is a great image though!

Thanks, I'll check the log. I tried to change the meridian flip time to -4 degrees hoping that the mount just didn't like going past the meridian, buy it said "your mount does not allow flip prior to meridian".

Seems a bit strange... I'll have to do more testing.

Very nice shot!

On 04/04/2020 at 06:31, gorann said:

This is my last galaxy shot for a while.

Same here. Except it's raining here as well:(

When sequence generator pro has been conducting a meridian flip recently, it has failed at the slew part. From what I can tell, it slews a little bit (I believe just to the meridian line since it was a bit past) and stops at the meridian line instead crossing it and flipping to the other pier side. Would there be something in SGP or Eqmod that would fix it?

Thanks in advance,

Hunter

Thanks everyone. 

10 hours ago, alan potts said:

Lovely capture there, a lot of galaxies in that shot.

Alan

There are!

Hello all,

This is data from a while ago that I processed recently. I had forgotten about some older data and I'm now working through some of it while I capture my next image. Unfortunately I didn't capture any Ha for this one but I did get 11 hours of LRGB and was able to get a decent result.

Also a full resolution L image for faint fuzzy's:

Link to Astrobin solved image: https://www.astrobin.com/full/3lj001/0/

Equipment:

ASI1600mm Pro, Edge HD 800, Moonlite CHL, ZWOLRGB filters, Orion Atlas mount.

Exposures:

L: 50x300s

RGB: Each 27x300s

Total: ~11 hours

Thanks for looking and as always questions/ comments much appreciated!

I'm currently working on this target with my Edge HD scope and strangely enough I also have slanted stars. 

I would try rotating the camera to determine if it's scope/ camera issue. Mine is likely the collimation of the scope although it could be vibration.

12 hours ago, Rob said:

Certainly a change for me being on the outskirts of the City. Less pollution, less lights and virtually no planes from Southampton Airport (was 80% flybe)

I'm on the outskirts of a city and I have seen LP levels drop as well. Maybe that has something to do with it?

11 hours ago, JamesF said:

I might find plausible the suggestion that significantly lower levels of particulates in the air might reduce light scattering and thereby lower light pollution.

This might be true. Car exhaust and factory pollution should be down quite a bit.

With all the nearby casinos closed my sky has gotten darker in some parts. Some areas of the sky are at least 1 bortal scale darker while it seems as though the whole sky is ~.5 bortal darker! The clouds in my northeastern sky are dark grey now while last month they were light grey.

At least this is one good outcome from the virus.

Has everyone else noticed darkening as well?

Excellent image! I agree that the processing is great.

On 21/03/2020 at 05:26, wimvb said:

A mask? Sometimes masks don't work with scripts. In that case you can do the process on a clone and afterwards combine with the original with the help of a mask.

Masks don't work with HDR combination. There must be some way to do it in pixel math though🤔

Thank you Wim, Andy. The thing about Pixinsight's HDR tool is that the shorter exposure image affects the longer one's background, thus increasing the noise. Or is there some way to protect the background?

Hello all,

I have finally finished processing the large amount of data I had for this image . I captured this data in January and February but only recently started processing it. This is my first decent m42 capture and it was nice to return to this target since the last time was a few years ago. This was also my first HDR image and it took a while to figure out on PS. Does anyone know how to do that in Pixinsight?

The total exposure for this image is about 17 hours (and probably the same amount of time for processing!). I left the resolution largish so it should be zoom-able to the core:

Capturing info:

ASI1600mm

FSQ106

Atlas pro EQ6 mount

HaLRGB filters

Short exposures:

All filters (HaLRGB): each 30x15s 

Long exposures:

RGB: each 30x300s 

L: 40x300s

Ha: 45x300s

Thanks for looking and clear skies!

Hunter

Excellent image! Very sharp details and great color.

I added RGB to my previous luminescence image of NGC 2903. There was some loss of details when combining the RGB to the L layer in Pixinight, I might have a go at using PS to do the combination. For the PS users out there, what is the best way to do LRGB combination in Photoshop?

Image details:

ASI1600mm

FSQ106

L: 50x300s

RGB: 30x300s each

Total~ 12 hours

Thanks for looking

On 02/02/2020 at 07:45, tomato said:

Nice, I’ve just started imaging this galaxy myself, it’s  hard to see how Charles Messier missed it from his catalogue when other objects of similar size and brightness close by were included.

Yes, it is a bright galaxy compared to some.

On 03/02/2020 at 06:58, Rodd said:

Wow--the FSQ 106 and the ASI 1600, coup;ed with your acquisition and processing skill ARE AWESOME!  the luminance looks great.  I recall now that the RGB will impart a chaotic nature to the disc and core--but you have certainly processed the lum to be very structured.  I will have to add this to my goals.  Its amazing how the full frame looks just as detailed despite its reduced size.  I am always in a quandary whether to crop or not.  Based on your full frame...no need, indeed!

Rodd

Thanks Rodd! I was surprised by how we resolved the galaxy was, even before deconvolution.

I'm really hoping that weather will allow me to finish this one soon and add the RGB.

This is the luminescence stack of about 6 hours of NGC 2903. I shot this one in Leo Constellation while I was waiting for the Triplet to rise:) I'll hopefully get the RGB data tonight and finish it. I found about 10 known asteroids in the field using Tycho software, pretty interesting. The dim galaxy directly above NGC2903 is magnitude 18.00, PGC27115. The first image is a severe crop.

ASI 1600mm

FSQ106

L: 50x300s 

Leo Constellation

Thanks for looking.

Full frame:

1 hour ago, Rodd said:

Looks great--The ASI 1600 is a great camera for the FSQ 106 (perhaps that should be reversed!).  Either way--the large FOV and small pixels are a lot of fun.  Throw on the .6x reducer and you will be unable to contain yourself!

Rodd

The price on the FSQ reducers are scary though  

23 hours ago, carastro said:

Very nice Hunter the hours of integration show a very smooth image. 

Regarding the RGB stars, I am trying to make a habit of doing these, and I do very short 150sec binned RGB subs and I find just for the stars about 3 of each is plenty.  150secs x 3 x 3 = 900 secs (15mins), I just do them in sequence whilst capturing the Ha and Oiii and once I have 3 of each I stop capturing them).

Carole 

Thanks, Carole. Would binning 2x2 be helpful for a CMOS camera? I'm surprised that 150s is enough, I'll have to try this on my next image.

Thanks guys, I'm glad you like it

3 hours ago, carastro said:

@HunterHarling

What filterwheel are you using Hunter?

Carole 

A ZWO 8 position EFW. It is 20mm thick but thinner on the inside.

I captured OIII data the other night and was able to get a bi-color image. This is my first color image of 2020 and it looks like it's going to be a good year for astronomy.

This is a pretty quick process, I'm considering adding RGB for the stars but there are other great targets that I could be imaging... Probably won't be adding SII though, since my SHO images seem to turn out worse than my HOO ones.

Ha: 55x430s

OIII: 45x430s

Thanks for looking, as always comments appreciated.

I honestly don't know why they would make such expensive filters with that thick rim... if you want to get Astrodon I recommend you go for the unmounted filters even though they are more expensive.

Here is an image I got this morning/ last night. This is about 6.5 hours of hydrogen alpha through my new 3nm 1.25in filter. Unfortunately the filter's rim is so thick that it got caught on the inside of the filter wheel🤔 however, I found a solution by reversing the front plate of the wheel so that it is inside out  A bit odd but it works.

So far moving to a narrow bandwidth filter looks promising, less light pollution and stars visible.

Processing for this image is just a stretch and re sample.

ASI1600mm

FSQ106

Astrodon 3nm Ha: 55x430s

Happy New Year