Roy Foreman

I first saw this tiny bright blue planetary nebula more years ago than I care to remember. It has stayed in my mind all these years. No chance of imaging it back then, but advancing technology has now given me the chance to try. At 15" across it is smaller than Mars at opposition, so it presents a real challenge - especially riding low in UK skies ! Each year I have a go, and each year I fail. This is my best effort so far. I have seen better renditions, but for me this represents the best I can do at the moment. Knowing how to process the results was the hardest part. Celestron C9.25 XLT on a Skywatcher CQ350 mount ZWO ASI 6200 MC Pro (bit of overkill but it has small pixels) 21 x 15 sec at gain 100 5 x 30 sec at gain 100 50% blend of the two. Heavily cropped. Thanks for looking, and any comments on how to do better most welcome !

Nice capture for this time of year !

I saw that last night, a really beautiful sight. Nice image well captured.

Thanks Matt. Deep sky imaging has become even more of a challenge over the last few years. Very frustrating. Glad you like the image.

Very nice image despite the short focal length and great star colours. Well done.

Thanks Neil. Yes that SW 150 ED is a real beauty. Very sharp, no CA, covers a full frame sensor, and a real match for the Skymax 180. It's only downside is it is very long and unwieldy, but that's just physics!

Thank you, glad you like them.

Thank you for your kind words, and glad you like the images - it makes all the hard work worthwhile to know others appreciate them.

At 8am this morning I was in the garden, weeding. Then I saw the waning crescent moon fairly high in the sky. Off came the gardening gloves ! It was a bit hazy, so I opted to use my Skywatcher 150 ED refractor for hopefully higher contrast. Camera was an ASI 183mm teamed up with a Proplanet 807 IR filter. Processing was tough, trying to get rid of the haze, but I'm reasonably happy with the results, considering the conditions. As always, thanks for looking.

Very nice Plato image, Neil. I like it a lot.

Good detail for a single pane image, especially with so-so seeing. We have to make the most of what the weather hands out to us. I like the long vertical terminator mosaic. I have been meaning to do something like that a print it out and frame for wall hanging. When the weather and seeing allows !

Nicely balanced image. Good work.

Very nice. I have a skymax 180 and it really punches above its weight for Luna work, as does yours it seems.

Nice capture. Good contrast and detail. Well done.

Thanks very much for that info Neil, much appreciated. I squared the focussed to the secondary using an ordinary laser collimator, then used a special one for RC and CC scopes to do the secondary and primary, but not convinced it was spot on. Just been out and done a quick imaging run and the results are very soft. Really need a star in a dark sky to do the job properly. Will have a read if your link first. Cheers Roy

Neil, glad to hear your cass is razor sharp which bodes well for my 10". It also has 3 cooling fans at the rear. At 17kg it's a bit of a beast. Have you managed to nail collimation on yours or has it not needed it ?

Yes Neil it is. Mounted and ready to go but need to do some collimation tweaks first. Bit of a pain getting it spot on !

Thank you. Yes the very slim crescent is very evocative but as you rightly say so difficult to image. I choose daylight when it is higher in the sky, but getting the contrasts just right can be a real pain !

Funny you should say that, as I was considering if it was possible to stich images together in a movie to simulate flying over the moon ! Glad you like the images.

Thank you - having a large scope certainly helps !

Thank you Stuart, glad you like the images Roy

Clavius is my favourite crater. Think I prefer the second image. Very sharp, well done.

That's a nice sharp image. Excellent work !

Thanks Mike, glad you are impressed. I think it is the light gathering ability of the 16" that helps rather than its resolution. The scope and its mount have now been dismantled for refurbishment and upgrades, so for the next 12 months or so I will be using a 10" classical cassegrain for lunar work. Will be interesting to see how it fares against the reflector. Cheers Roy

Thanks Neil. I had to bump up the gain as the integration times were getting a bit long. The IR filter saps a lot of light. Next time I might use the PP642 which is less strong and still gives great results. I did run noise exterminator but at a gentle setting so as not to wipe out the tiny craterlets. There is always room for improvement which is what keeps us striving for better results !