R1k

Stunning!

Last night's image, again over Coniston Water. This is the other side of the Milky Way facing North East. This field of view contains several deep sky objects including The Andromeda Galaxy, The Pleiades, Double Cluster in Perseus, the Heart and Soul Nebulae and the California Nebula. 6 x 2 minutes for the sky (tracked) 1 x 2 minutes for the foregroun (untracked) Samyang 14mm f2.8 at f4 Canon 800d SW SA Pro 2i

Thanks once again. No filter at all, I apply a little glow and saturation boost in my post processing using the Star Spikes Pro plugin in photoshop.

Last of my spam from my night out in Coniston on 2/9/21. This is a widefield image taken looking East just before Midnight. I have included a labelled and unlabelled version. Equipment: - Canon 800d (modified) - SA pro 2i - Samyang 14mm f2.8 - Manual intervalometer Acquisition: - 1 x 2minute exposure at ISO 1600, f4 tracked for sky and untracked for the foreground.

Thanks Paul, yep IR mod only!

This is my first proper attempt at photographing the Milky Way. This image was taken from Coniston Water (Bortle 3) and is a vertical 2 panel mosaic. Details below. Keen to receive feedback Equipment: - Canon 800d - Samyang 14mm f2.8 - SW Star Adventurer Pro 2i - Intervalometer Acqusition: - 2 panel vertical mosaic - Each panel comprised of 5 x 120s tracked light frames shot at ISO800, f4 - 120 second untracked for the foreground - Darks: 1 Processing: - Sequator - stacking - MS ICE - stiching - APP - colour calibration - PS

Ursa Major 1/9/21 Lake district, near Millom Canon 800d/Star Adventurer/Samyang 14mm f 2.8 2 minutes tracked for the sky, ISO1600 2 minutes untracked for the foreground, ISO1600 Hi-res here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/189414873@N06/51419763476/in/album-72157719467920594/

Bortle 6 North West UK. Equipment: - Skywatcher HEQ5-pro (Rowan Belt Mod) - ZWO ASI 294MC-pro - Explore Scientific ED APO 102mm F7 FCD-100 Triplet Carbon Fibre - Hotech SCA 1x field flattener - ZWO ASI-120MM-mini guide camera - Skywatcher Evoguide 50ED guidescope - 2 inch mounted Optolong L-eXtreme Acquisition: - Sharpcap polar alignment, ASCOM guiding/dithering with PHD2 - APT image acquisition - Lights – 57 x 300s at -10c, gain 200, offset 30 (total integration 285 minutes) - Darks – 30 - Flats – 30 - Dark flats - 30

12/7/21 around midnight Lochinver, Scotland Canon 800d and samyang 14mm f2.8

Incredible! What Bortle skies do you have over there?

Had this exact issue yesterday evening and your very helpful post sorted everything out. Thank you so so much!

Partial Solar Eclipse - 10th June 2021 Annoyingly very cloudy during the eclipse for me today in NW UK which scuppered plans to take a timelapse, however did manage to snap this image during a short break in the clouds. Equipment: - ES102ED CF Triplet - SW EQ6Rpro - Canon 800d - Baader solar filter Acquisition: - single image at f7, exposure 1/6s and ISO 1600, colourised in PS

This looks great! Thanks for having a go.

Thanks very much.

Shot M 13 last night. Happy with this overall for the integration time but was quite disappointed to see that the faint stars in the central cluster were very soft, despite excellent focus with APT's Bahtinov Aid. Is this likely to be a feature of my seeing/Bortle class (6)? Equipment: - Skywatcher EQ6R-pro - ZWO ASI 294MC-pro - Explore Scientific ED APO 102mm F7 FCD-100 Triplet Carbon Fibre - Hotech SCA 1x field flattener - ZWO ASI-120MM-mini guide camera - Skywatcher Evoguide 50ED guidescope - Optolong L-pro Acquisition: - Sharpcap polar alignment, ASCOM guiding/dithering with PHD2 - APT image acquisition - Lights – 70 x 30s and 50 x 60s at -15c, gain 125, offset 30 - Darks – 30 - Flats – 30 - Dark flats - 30

M51 (21/4/21 and 22/4/21) Bortle 6, UK First photons for my first dedicated, cooled camera over the last two nights; this is 5 hours exposure from my back garden battling a 50% (approx.) illuminated moon. Keen to receive feedback, are the settings generally considered optimal for broadband in Bortle 6? Equipment: - Skywatcher HEQ5-pro (Rowan Belt Mod) - ZWO ASI 294MC-pro - Explore Scientific ED APO 102mm F7 FCD-100 Triplet Carbon Fibre - Hotech SCA 1x field flattener - ZWO ASI-120MM-mini guide camera - Skywatcher Evoguide 50ED guidescope - 2 inch mounted Optolong L-Pro Acquisition: - Sharpcap polar alignment, ASCOM guiding/dithering with PHD2 - APT image acquisition - Lights – 100 x 180s at -15c, gain 125, offset 30 (total integration 5 hours) - Darks – 30 - Flats – 30 - Dark flats - 30

echoing the comment above re: star field, wow!

Hi guys, bought a new Canon 800d about 12 months ago, IR modded about 10 months ago. I've noticed (particularly recently) that my dark frames are becoming less and less effective at correcting for thermal sensor noise, and on closer inspection of my dark frames, this appears to be due to worsening sensor banding as time progresses. I have uploaded a series of autostretched master darks to demonstrate this effect over time. Is worsening sensor banding a recognised problem as DSLRs age? Is the sensor failing slowly? I have not checked the shutter count but suspect it'll be >10,000 and < 25,000 acutations. Image 1: August 2020 Image 2: November 2020 Image 3: January 2021 Image 4: April 2021

Thanks so much, this is helpful and I see it now too. Will have a play! BW Rik

Not overly sold on this result, but happy to receive feedback as always Equipment: - Skywatcher HEQ5-pro (Rowan Belt Mod) - Canon 800d (modded) - Explore Scientific ED APO 102mm F7 FCD-100 Triplet Carbon Fibre - Hotech SCA 1x field flattener - ZWO ASI-120MM-mini guide camera - Skywatcher Evoguide 50ED guidescope - 2 inch mounted Optolong L-Pro Acquisition: - Sharpcap polar alignment, ASCOM guiding/dithering with PHD2 - APT image acquisition - Lights - 77 x 180s ISO200, 12 x 180s ISO400, 20 x 30s ISO1600, 8 x 120s ISO1600, 15 x 240s ISO400 (total integration 353 minutes) Software: - APP and PS

Hi guys, happy with this overall, but would like constructive feedback as always. In particular, I've noticed a real difficulty with achieving nice star colour, I've managed to tease out some colour in the orange stars but really struggled to achieve any colour in the hot blue ones, even after star colour calibration in APP or photometric colour calibration in Siril. I suspect this is because my subexposure duration is so long (to overcome lack of dynamic range of shooting with a DSLR), but nonethless if anyone has any tips or tricks for this they would be greatly appreciated, thanks again. Equipment: - Skywatcher HEQ5-pro (Rowan Belt Mod) - Canon 800d (modded) - Explore Scientific ED APO 102mm F7 FCD-100 Triplet Carbon Fibre - Hotech SCA 1x field flattener - ZWO ASI-120MM-mini guide camera - Skywatcher Evoguide 50ED guidescope - 2 inch mounted Optolong L-Pro Acquisition: - Sharpcap polar alignment, ASCOM guiding/dithering with PHD2 - APT image acquisition - Lights - 67 x 300s ISO200 (5 hours 35 minutes) - Darks – 25 + 25 - Bias - 30 + 30 - Flats - 30 + 30

Nova Cassiopeia 2021 - Nova image - 21/3/21 – single 30s exposure - Reference image 3/11/20 – single 420s exposure Very excited to share this! On 18th March 2021, a “Nova” was discovered in the constellation of Cassiopeia. A nova is an explosion from the surface of a white-dwarf star in a binary star system. This occurs when the white dwarf, which is an electron dense core of a small/medium star which has exhausted its fuel, accumulates gas from its nearby companion star. At a critical point, an expolosion is triggered on the surface of the White Dwarf. For a brief time, this star system can shine up to a million times brighter than normal. Note that this is different from a supernova which is a much more violent stellar explosion that can shine as brightly as an entire galaxy of billions of normal stars. I photographed this Nova last night (21/3/21). I was lucky enough to have also photographed this area of the sky (it is close to M52 cluster and the Bubble Nebula) in November last year, so I have overlayed last night’s image on this reference frame for comparison. nova cas 2021 final.mp4

Hi guys, very proud of this image as I think it's probably my best yet, nevertheless, as always I am more than keen to receive constructive feedback. Used a very helpful Youtube tutorial which can be watched here. https://youtu.be/bEinmXFXEyk Details as follows: Rosette Nebula NGC 2237 and open cluster NGC 2244 25/2/21 and 26/2/21 in 97%+ moon 4,500 light-years in the constellation of Monoceros HOO palette Bortle 6 NW UK Equipment list: - Skywatcher HEQ5-pro (Rowan Belt Mod) - Canon 800d (modded) - Explore Scientific ED APO 102mm F7 FCD-100 Triplet Carbon Fibre - Hotech SCA 1x field flattener - ZWO ASI-120MM-mini guide camera - Skywatcher Evoguide 50ED guidescope - 2 inch mounted Optolong L-eXtreme Acquisition: - Sharpcap polar alignment, ASCOM guiding/dithering with PHD2 - APT image acquisition - Lights - 60 x 300s, ISO800 (5 hours) - Darks - 24 - Bias - 40 - Flats - 40 + 40 Processing: - APP - Starnet - Photoshop - Topaz Denoise AI and Colormancer denoise

First light with new scope - I'm not particularly pleased with this and think it would greatly benefit from more integration time Equipment: Skywatcher HEQ5-pro (Rowan Belt Mod) Canon 800d (modded) Explore Scientific ED APO 102mm F7 FCD-100 Triplet Carbon Fibre Altair Lightwave 0.8x field flattener/focal reducer ZWO ASI-120MM-mini guide camera Skywatcher Evoguide 50ED guidescope 2 inch mounted Optolong L-Pro Acquisition: Sharpcap polar alignment, ASCOM guiding/dithering with PHD2 APT image acquisition Lights - 26 x 240s, ISO800 and 23 x 360s, ISO800 Darks - 15 + 15 Bias - 40 + 40 Flats - 40 + 40 Processing: Raw images stacked, calibrated and autostretched in APP using all default settings (adaptive airy disc) in photoshop, denoise of red channel and blue channel set black and white points selective curve stretch on galaxy star colour boost using star mask and saturation sliders, star reduction using mask and filter - minimum several iterations of selective contrast and saturation in enhancement to galaxy using layer mask Denoise again including lum and colour using camera raw filter Significant Crop to area of interest

incredible image, wow!