Budgie1

Back in January, @ollypenrice posted an image of Sh2-261 and I said at the time that I would have a go at this target. Well, a month of so later and I finally had clear skies, be it under a full Moon, and manage to capture some data on it. Taken over the 24th & 25th February, I was fighting thin high cloud but managed 6 hours 5 Minutes on this, so far, using SHO filters. The kit is as follows: HEQ5 with Rowan belt conversion ASI1600MM Pro at -10°C, Gain 139 & Offset 50 Skywatcher Evostar 100ED DS Pro with 0.85 FF/FR Evoguide 50 guide scope with ASI120mm Mini camera Filters: Baader Ha 3.5nm 1.25" Baader Oiii 4nm 1.25" Baader Sii 8nm 1.25" The Ha had the strongest signal with some Sii and hardly any Oiii showing. I've tried to drag as much out the 6 hours as I can but it was quite noisy and needs more data, less Moon & clouds to get it better. Here's the data so far, comments welcomed as always.

I think it assumes you start & finish a session in a known position, like the Home or Park positions. I mark my mount with a Sharpie on the RA & DEC, so I can release the clutches for balancing etc, then put the axis back to where I parked it. Never had any dramas and it also means if you do need to reset the position (a cable got caught or something) then you just tell the mount to go to the Home Position and reset the axis with the clutches released. Like Ivor, I tried using the EQMOD PPEC on my HEQ5 but it actually seemed to make the guiding worse when it was switched on, so I don't use it now.

Thanks David, all 6 hours were taken on the 29th January. I'm actually imaging at the moment! It maybe nearly full Moon but it's clear, so imaging we will go.

Thanks, He's laying on his back with the top of his head on the right hand side, or rotate the image 90° anticlockwise. Edit: I did this to help.

Not had a lot of clear nights this year and lost 3 of them to COVID, yes it's still around. 😷 So, this is my only image to date in 2024. I'm still playing with the data but this is the best I have so far. This is a total of 6h15m integration using 25 x 300s subs on each filter. Captured using APT and processed in PixInsight. The kit is as follows: HEQ5 with Rowan belt conversion ASI1600MM Pro at -10°C, Gain 139 & Offset 50 Skywatcher Evostar 100ED DS Pro with 0.85 FF/FR Evoguide 50 guide scope with ASI120mm Mini camera Filters: Baader Ha 3.5nm 1.25" Baader Oiii 4nm 1.25" Baader Sii 8nm 1.25" C&C's welcomed and I hope you enjoy it.

Sorry Roy, I wasn't aware of the ASI1600MC camera and I note it doesn't have the set point cooling. In that case, the distance is 6.5mm from sensor to camera body, plus the 11mm spacer, making your 17.5mm. ZWO also supply M42 x 21mm & M42-M48 x16.5mm extenders, when added to the 17.5mm on the camera it takes the distance to the required 55mm. As Elp has said, it's always handy to have some 1mm thick spacers for fine tuning if necessary.

Could you confirm the camera you have? There is no colour version of the ASI1600, just the mono version which is the ASI1600MM and has a 6.5mm distance between the sensor face & the front of the camera body. If you have the ASI1600MM Pro, are you using any filters or a filter wheel with the camera? There is the ASI2600MC Pro camera, but this is 17.5mm from the sensor face & the front of the camera body. The links on both these cameras have diagrams for setting the correct distance to your scope and a list of the required adaptors, so I hope that helps.

Not missing a thing, the centre of the Isle of Man is around 54° 12.0N 004° 32.0W. I also notice the Park Position is set to a Defined Position and not the Home Position (telescope up, counter weights down).

Overall, for a first image, I'd be happy with what you've achieved. Apart from what the others have said, my advice would be: Concentrate on the basics, read lots, watch loads of videos and get out there and practice. There's a difference between Star Alignment and Polar Alignment. Star Alignment makes it easier for the mount to find a target for you. Polar Alignment make sure the mount will track with the rotation of the Earth, so your target won't drift out of the frame, your stars will be rounder, meaning you can take longer exposures. Do you're Polar Alignment first, then your Star Alignment. You can download free apps which help you with the Polar Alignment and there's also instructional YouTube videos. Calibration Frames: There are four basic types of calibration frames: Lights Darks Flats Bias I'm sure there are others, but I found this link handy when I started using calibration frames: http://deepskystacker.free.fr/english/faq.htm I know the Samyang 135mm F2 lens is out of range at the moment but, it's a really good lens, both for astro and terrestrial photography. It gives a good field of view and the ED lenses don't bloat the stars or leave a magenta halo around them, like cheaper lenses will. Keep an eye out on the second hand market as they do come up from time to time.

Are the dew heaters 12v or 5v USB powered? I run the ASIAir Mini powering an EQ5 mount, ASI294MC Pro. ZWO EAF & ASI120mm Mini connected to the camera, plus a couple of cheap 5v USB dew heaters. This seems to work okay on my setup. My main rig is all run through a laptop with 12v dew heaters, so no help with those.

It should work okay, the larger ASI cameras have a built-in twin USB2 hub on the back and I use that for guide scope & focuser with an ASIAir Mini. It may be wise to use a powered hub, if you can find a 12v version, just to be on the safe side.

When I built my obsy, I use 200mm dia x 1.5m long plastic ducting as the outer casing and filled it with concrete and re-bar. The base was 700mm square with the ducting sat on some bricks in the bottom of the hold, so the base & the pier would be one sold concrete structure. My build is in this thread: The pier I copied is in this thread: This is the ducting I used: 8" Plastic Duct Round Solid Ducting Tube Pipe Ventilation Extractor Fan I think these are the discs I used for the pier head, best measure the diameter of the HEQ5 base, but these discs have a 60mm hole in the centre: VAUXHALL CORSA B Front 93 to 00 236mm Set Bosch Good luck with the build and keep us posted with the progress.

Welcome to the SGL and the money pit that is astrophotography. I started into astrophotography with an EQ5 Pro and Evostar 100ED DS Pro and a Canon DSLR hanging on the end of the scope. It worked, but the scope was a little too big for the mount really and the field of view (FOV) was a little restricted. I still have the scope, but it now resides on the HEQ5 mount and works really well on that. If I were to do it again then I'd start off with the Evostar 80ED DS Pro. It's smaller, lighter, has wider FOV and is cheaper than the 100ED, but still gives good quality images. If you want to check the FOV for the different scopes & cameras then try Astronomy Tools to get an idea of what you'll achieve. Also check the second hand market because you can get well kept equipment for about 3/4 of the new price.

I've installed the "LightBox - for film displaying" app on my Android tablet and use that as a flat panel. It has sliders which allow you to change the colour temp & brightness and it gives an nice even light. Obviously this relies on your tablet being larger than your scope opening but it works really well and saves having to buy a flat panel.

Which software are you using, is it PixInsight? If so, then what White Reference, QE curve & filter settings you were using? Also, did you run the ImageSolver script before SPCC and did it complete without reporting any errors? It almost looks like its applied an SHO pallet to the image.

Excellent. Have fun & I hope it's warmer then the -7°C it was up here last night! 🥶

If you need to fine tune the spacing, you can get various packs of thin spacers covering 0.4mm, 0.5mm, 0.6mm, 0.8mm & 1mm.

Your ASI585MC should have an 11mm M42 spacer ring attached to the front of it, this makes the total distance from the sensor to the front of the spacer 17.5mm (see diagram below). To reach your 55mm, ZWO have two other spacers in the form of a 16.5mm M42-M48 and 21mm M42-M42 spacer. Once added to the front of the camera this will give you your required spacing.

I've just tried the star de-emphasis script on a wide-field image taken with my Samyang 135mm and it works very well. This example is just ABE, STF stretch, create the starless version and then apply the star de-emphasis script, jst as a tester. No stars are gone and the larger stars & their halos remained at original size. Thanks for finding this script, it'll came in handy.

Try it without dithering, if it results in walking noise then dither. Simples! .

I was going to go into great detail but the main headlines for Lochaber: -4°C Looked clear Wasn't - high cloud Didn't bother Try again tomorrow 😂

Passing snow showers with a thin layer of snow on the ground, so no imaging up here tonight.

Have a look at MorphologicalTransformation. Using the settings below, it maintains the brighter stars (with their coloured halos) but reduces the smaller ones. I think you increase the "Amount" setting to reduce further, but I've not really played with it that much.

Have a look at this script:

I've seen it referred too as "Lower's Nebula".