Snoani

Here's my pick of the bunch: Rho Ophiuchi - Taken from Isle of Wight between 12 - 17 degrees. Not as good as if captured further south, but I'm proud if this one. Askar FMA180 and ZWO ASI 294MC Pro. Veil Nebula using Askar FMA180 and ZWO ASI 294MC Pro. M31 using Askar FMA180 and ZWO ASI 294MC Pro. Flaming Star Nebula using William Optics GT81 IV and ZWO ASI 1600MM Pro Orions Belt using Askar FMA180 and ZWO ASI 294MC Pro.

Hi all I decided to take advantage of what has been a rare clear sky with the weather that we have experienced recently to point to Orion with the widefield scope and OSC filter that I bought this year. Cloud still rolled in during the night, the only clear night I saw in December, so this image is only made up of 2h of narrowband data captured with the Optolong L-Ultimate and 1h of RGB. The scope is the Askar FMA180 Pro and camera is the ZWO ASI 294MC Pro. It is nice to be able to capture Orion's belt in its entirety and I am pleased with the detail that I have been able to pull out despite the limited data. Jem

These are a great start with your new scope. I bought the Askar 180 earlier this year having ordered the original version and was lucky enough to be sent the pro version as it was being released. I am so happy with it. It is a brilliant little scope in my opinion, and I am sure that you produce many great images with it.

I am sorry to hear the extent of your problem. As I have only experienced in once, I haven't delved into it too much. I wonder if it is a problem that really only affects some 1600MM cameras, therefore being a bit of a lottery. I have looked closer at the subs for the image that I mentioned above and notice that it was only really occurring in the RGB and not the luminance. I don't know if this is significant though. I tend to use the same exposure length for all LRGB filters and as the luminance lets more light through than the colour, maybe I have oversaturated that star somewhat. I'm not overly convinced by this suggestion and I think I am clutching at straws.

Thank you very much. Honestly, microlensing has generally never been a problem for me using this camera. I've owned this camera for 3 years and the first and only time that I have come across microlensing was earlier this year when I was imaging the ghost nebula in Cassiopeia. Gamma Cassiopeiae came out square in that image but I hadn't experienced it previously or since.

Good evening all The weather on the Isle of Wight has been pretty rubbish lately, with so much rain and flooding. Clear skies have been rare and when they have arrived, there has been rolling cloud and a risk of showers. My rig actually was rained upon last week unexpectedly, which has made me a bit nervous with the weather as it is. I have however managed to capture a little data during this period and so I present a quick Flaming Star Nebula. This was captured with a William Optics GT81IV, ZWO ASI 1600MM and Antlia LRGB-V Pro & 3nm HA filters. Once I stripped out cloud impacted frames it is made up from 3.5h of Lum, 1h of each RGB (binned 2x2) and 3h of Ha, processed in Pixinsight. This is the third time that I have attempted to capture this target and the first two times I really struggled to draw out the nebula while containing the stars but on this occasion it seemed to happen naturally. If I am being honest I think I have overcontrolled the larger stars on the left somewhat. I looks like the rest of this new moon period will continue to be a wash out so I hope t be posting again after the next period with some Orion related activity. Thanks for looking.

Thanks for confirming. You are shooting at a reasonable f ratio (5.9) so I again think that you need to capture more data. I'm sure that you'll notice a difference between processing 30 minutes of data to a few hours+ worth.

To be honest considering the amount of data you have, they look ok. You have colour and detail, my personal feeling is that you need more data. I don't know what equipment you are using to capture these, so don't know how much light you are able to gather etc, but generally 30 minutes isn't a lot in my experience. I would think this is why you are having to stretch the data aggressively. The more data you gather, the less you need to push it when processing. Again it is hard to say not knowing your equipment but I would personally always be looking for a minimum of 2h and then as much as I could get after that. All in all these are better than my first tries and you learn from experience, so keep going 🙂

Good evening I have recently purchased a new set of HLRGB filters to replace the Baader set that I have been using for the last few years. After some deliberation I plumped for a set of Antlia LRGB-V Pro and an Antlia 3nm Ha filter. Given the cost of them I was somewhat anxious about whether they would deliver significant improvements but following this first test I am pleasantly surprised. This image below is 2 hours of luminance, 1.5 hours of each RGB. I also captured 3.5 hours of Ha and tried to incorporate it into the red channel but I didn't notice much of a difference to the details other than the colour. However, I'm very much still learning to use Pixinsight and think it was a processing issue. The image below is therefore pretty much LRGB but I have included the Ha image with a very basic stretch just to give an example. The stars are purely LRGB and they appear a lot tighter than when using the Baader filters, especially in the blue channel. I was experiencing some blue bloat even though I am using an APO. All in all I am happy with the difference they given in this first test.. I next plan to test them further on the Flaming Star Nebula, as the large stars there have always caused me issues both with colour and bloating. After that and look forward to using them further on some of the features in Orion in the near future. For reference other equipment used is a William Optics GT81IV scope and ASI 1600MM. Thanks for looking.

I absolutely love it. Great capture and processing. Well done.

Thank you very much for the kind words Martin. The standard of entries was really high and I wasn't expecting to be placed. Congratulations to the other winners and a well done to everyone who entered.

I thought I would aim for something a little different and I present Brocchi's Cluster, otherwise known as the Coathanger. The data consists of 1 hour of each LRGB captured using a William Optics GT81, ZWO ASI1600 and Baader filters. All data was captured in August and September 2023.

It's the new pro model. I absolutely love it.

Here is another widefield of the region around Sadr. The nebula is 7 hours and 20 minutes taken with an L-Extreme filter and 3 hours of RGB for the stars, using an Askar FMA180 scope and ZWO ASI294MC Pro. All data was captured this month and processed in Pixinsight.

Thanks for the comments. All images are taken with an ZWO ASI 294MC Pro. The nebulae are primarily about 4.5 hours of narrowband data using an Optolong L-Extreme, with some RGB data for the stars. Andromeda is 5.5 hours that was taken with just a ZWO IR/UV cut filter.

It's not been the best of summers at times but I've found a few opportunities to get my new smaller rig out, and boy am I glad that I did. I know these targets aren't the hardest to capture but I am really happy with them and how the scope is performing. This is probably my best capture and process of M31 to date, I just wish I had had another night to capture some Ha data for it. I'm heading to the Black Mountains in a couple of weeks and will be taking this rig with me, I just hope for clear skies while I am there. I hope that you like them.

Hi all I've dreamt about capturing the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex since I started this hobby but living in the UK I have resisted, hoping for trip to southern Europe in which I could take some equipment. But alas the opportunity hasn't arisen yet. Living at the bottom of the Isle of WIght I am lucky enough to have a southern sky with little light pollution and so I decided to experiment this week. From my location Rho Ophiuchi sits between 12 - 17 degrees above the horizon at its peaks and so there is a lot of atmosphere to image through, which is far from ideal. In total I captured about 7.5 hours of data which I narrowed down to 4.5 hours used and processed in Pixinsight. All in all I am really happy with the outcome given the limitations. I'm sure that the colour and detail would be better under better circumstances and would still love the opportunity in the future to try from a location where it is high in the sky. Equipment used was an Askar FMA180 Pro with a ASI 294MC Pro and a Skywatch Star Adventurer GTi, guided. This is just my second outing with the Askar and so far I have to say that I am loving it. It is a great little scope. Thanks for looking.

Good morning After considering the best option for me to provide a widefield setup I settled on the Askar FMA180, which by happy accident was ordered at the time that they swapped over to version 2, because works great with an EAF. I have created a system that while not as streamlined as it is out of the box, it is still small enough that it fits in my travel astro bag with my Star Adventurer GTi and therefore gives me a goto setup that I can take almost anywhere with me. It arrived in early March and typically I have had the longest period without a single clear sky around the new moon periods that I have experienced and so have only just managed to test is property this week. Due to a light polluted northern sky widefield objects are currently limited at my location at this time of year. I therefore chose IC1396 and battled a heavy gradient in processing but I have to say I am very happy with the performance of the scope and the resulting image. The detail is good and gives exactly what I was hoping for. This image is 6 hours of L-Extreme data and 2 hours of RGB for the stars, processed in Pixinsight. I'm really looking forward to widefield crack at M31 in a few months. I hope that you like. Jem

I am going to agree you about my comfort zone and may stay away from this one. I have Googled variations of black nebulosity and receive results for dark nebulosity and carrots. If I try Arthur Sidebotham I receive family tree options. A variation of Arthur Sidebotham and black nebula(osity) brings up some random stuff so I am genuinely perplexed already……unless it is a DC comic character.

What an accolade for a fantastic image. Well done.

This is genuinely unexpected and a welcome delight to me. Thank you very much to the judges.

Hi all I captured this data back in November but really struggled to process it with my intermediate skills because there are so many stars in the region, so every attempt just looked like a starry mess. Despite owning Pixinsight of a little while, I'm still processing predominantly in Photoshop because I've really struggled to find a mono workflow that I could make work, but after failing to process this in photoshop I have given Pixinsight another go. It isn't perfect to me, but I am reasonably satisfied given it is probably my 10th attempt at this data, although I did have to use a tiny bit of Photoshop at the end to reduce the stars. Whether the PI workflow I used will also work with my other mono data remains to be seen. I captured 2 hours of each LRGB using an ASI 1600MM Pro, Baader LRGB filters on a William Optics GT81 mounted on an HEQ5. Critique and guidance is always welcome. Thanks for taking the time.

It is frankly stunning. I've had a few attempts at wide field Orion with reasonable results but this blows them all out of the water. The detail that you have managed to capture of the various objects by undertaking such a large mosaic is what makes it for me. This is dedication to the hobby and I can only hope to replicate something like this one day. Great job.

I present a selection of my humble images. All taken from my Isle of Wight garden using my 80mm APO and mono camera.