michael.h.f.wilkinson

Despite efforts polar aligning the mount with drift align, the tracking was all over the place (must really get autoguiding sorted as well). Neverthe less, I tried to gather lots of short (15s) subs on the field containing M58 and NGC 4567/8 (Siamese Twins) as the latter contains a supernova (SN 2020fqv), which should be doable at mag 15.6 in a 6" scope with long enough exposure. As it turned out, I noticed several subs with eggy stars (wind), so stopped the process after capturing 132 subs for a total of 33 minutes exposure. I wasn't expecting much after stacking, but was pleasantly surprised at what came out. The full field really shows promise, so I think I will give it another go tonight, weather permitting (looking good, that would be 8 consecutive nights of clear skies). M58 is at the left, the Siamese Twins are to the right, with NGC4564 a bit higher up to the left of the twins, and IC 3578 near the right edge of the image. Zooming in on the twins, I noted a little speck of light in NGC 4568, to the right of its core Checking with other images, this is indeed my first supernova image. Good news after a frustrating night

After struggling with poor tracking (might have been the wind), I aimed the Meade SN6 at M13, figuring that with such a bright object would at least give me some results with lots of very short (15s) subs. I gathered 248 subs, for a total of 3720s, stacked these and combined them with the 25.5 minutes of data I gathered a few nights back. That had a different framing, but APP glues the two together seamlessly. As can be seen, galaxy NGC 6207 is visible towards the lower left. Closer to the cluster, a little stripe is visible, showing IC 4617. More data would make the background better, but I am pretty chuffed at this result, especially after a frustrating night

Congrats on that milestone!

Grabbed about 2 hours worth of data on NGC 2903 using the Meade SN6 and ASI183MC, and despite difficulties with the flats, got a reasonably good result (needs more data of course). I did spot an asteroid (main belt by the look of it) in the image on the left. That is the second time I have been photo-bombed by an asteroid. The background is a bit lumpy. Will try to even that out later.

Well on my laptop it looks fine, but on my desktop the noise in the background is a bit much. More data needed (as always)

Couldn't resist tweaking the image a bit. Makes it a bit brighter, and hopefully doesn't explode the noise too much

Indeed, there is no real option to put the manual controls back on. I don't mind, really. I started using the controls on the RA-DEC handset I had more than the knobs anyway

I am not a great fan of goto either, but you can just trawl around (release clutch, use the finder to get to roughly the right point, engage clutch, and use RA and Dec controls to get to the right point).

Just finished processing the two hours worth of data I got last night. By themselves they look pretty decent, especially from a Bortle 5 sky, for an object with such a low surface brightness. I then combined it with the set from yesterday, and the noise is a bit more controlled. Might go for another 2 hours on this target tonight. The only issue is that there are so many other tempting targets in the sky! Had we but world enough and time

The new SynScan GoTo upgrade for my old faithful Vixen Great Polaris mount arrived today. The previous, cheaper Sky-Watcher stepper-motor controller had given up the ghost just after I found my 27th comet. The controller has burnt out twice in five years, along with one of the stepper motors, not good at all, so I decided to get the SynScan upgrade for the EQ-5. These motors and controller make a much sturdier impression, and should make interfacing with the PC much easier. The kit arrived today, and was easily mounted. The only drawback is that the plastic housing of the RA motor doesn't quite fit the rather beefy housing of the Great Polaris mount. A little gap appears, which I will probably deal with with a little duck tape. Overall, the impression is good, and I am particularly glad to see the back of the flimsy plugs for the motors, which were held in place by thin strips of printed circuit board. The one on the DEC motor in particular could very easily snap off, leaving the (still functional) plug dangling on a piece of wire.

A Meade SN6 Schmidt-Newton

A 6" F/5 scope is quite a photon hoover 😁

After grabbing about 2 hours of data on M101 (still processing) I grabbed 51 subs on M13, before realizing I really had to call it a night (working from home, doing oral exams in computer vision on-line; talking with students online is no substitute for face to face conversaions, however). Quite pleased with this, although the stars do look slightly eggy when viewed at full resolution. Will add more data in the future

Made a slight tewak in curves using GIMP, just to brighten the image a bit.

I decided to give M106 a break on this fourth clear night without a moon in a row. Aimed for M101 instead. I used the usual set-up of the Meade 6" F/5 Schmidt-Newton with ASI183MC, on the Vixen GP-DX mount. Somehow I couldn;t get tracking sorted to my liking so resorted to very short subs (20 s) and lots of them (360 + the 3 single framing shots). APP has stacked this load overnight, and I must say it came out better than I was expecting. It is of course too noisy, and more data are needed, but I feel that for just 2 hours from a Bortle 5 location, this isn't bad at all. This scope and camera frame this particular galaxy reall well too.

Very nice!

Grabbed 4 hours of data on M106, from my Bortle 5 back garden, using the Meade SN6 and ASI183MC camera. I did have some issues with dew on the corrector plate at the end of the session. Must crank up the power to the dew strip. Using just these 4 hours I get this, which I feel is clearly better than my previous 2h efforts Adding the 2 h from the night before I get this: Which gives some improvement, I feel. Finally, adding data from April 15, which was taken with the camera rotated roughly 90 degrees with respect to the others, I get this The top 2/3rda are 8 hour, the bottom still just 6. I might get more in the coming nights to see what further improvements I can get. I might also go for a mosaic, to grab the wider area around M106, which contains more fuzzies. That said, extending my data on Markarian's Chain is also tempting. Choices, choices.

But also much more noise. I am working on an improvement

Mixed in the data from the previous night (only overlaps partially). It does improve S/N. I am hoping to gather at least another 2 h of data this evening, maybe even more. Saturday and Sunday night also promise to be clear, so I might well go for a total of 10-12 h. Fingers crossed. Need to reduce the colour noise in the background (more data will help too)

Really brilliant image

A lot depends on the monitor, I find.

Had a tweak of curves in Gimp, and ran in through astrometry.net. There are far more fuzzies visible in the shot. Might want to start looking up what they are (but first more data!!)

Grabbed two hours on M106, and quickly processed it Definitely needs more data, but I might be able to get a lot more over the weekend. I will also see how I can best combine this with Wednesday night's data

Stunning image!

Lots of detail there. Like the fact that you got the tidal tail of NGC 3628