Mr Thingy

Stunning image. As has been said above, the colours are really nice.

I stacked about 30 subs the other night and missed that one had a trail, which then featured in the final stack. Default settings (since I haven't yet researched what the various settings do!).

I will try changing some settings next time to see what gets rid of trails. 

Good to know I don't need to ditch these subs, particularly when they are 5 min each.

1 hour ago, tomato said:

Based on your image, and this one from me, it happens more often than you might think.

BTW, There is no need to throw them away, any stacking software worth it’s salt will fix satellite trails, even ones that go right through the object of interest.

For some reason, when I stack in DSS the trails remain, albeit fainter. I assumed it would scrub these as each particular trail is present only in 1 sub and therefore deemed as noise.

Maybe I need to change settings? I've been ditching about 10% of my subs due to trails.

A little package from FLO.

Expanding my narrowband capabilities from just Ha to now include OIII.

Now hoping for a clear night to add OIII data to my current target of IC 410 before Auriga goes out of view.

You're making me jealous with all the clear nights you have.

Another great, interesting picture. 

Wow! So many galaxies. 

Great picture.

I didn't realise how rich Auriga was with targets and this one - IC 410 tadpole nebula - is a little gem, with the fantastic tadpole structures so vividly on display.

Due to the orientation, I only managed 1.5 hours in Ha before it went behind my house.

I look forward to grabbing some data in OIII and SII.

SW 72ED, ZWO ASI 183GT, 5 min subs.

3 minutes ago, rnobleeddy said:

I guess that's depend. I'd imagine most kit would survive a little rain, so perhaps a rain sensor plus the app would work? 

 

I suspect you are right. Maybe I just need sn emergency tarp to hand, just in case

11 minutes ago, Clarkey said:

I use an app called Rain Alarm. Seems quite good as it uses real time radar data and costs about £2 per year. If the rain is very light or fog it can miss it.

There is weather equipment you can get for observatories etc, but I am not up-to-speed on these.

I think I would feel most comfortable with some weather equipment. 

Interested to know what is available, short of installing a radar station (wife might not be impressed with a radar on the roof).

I guess you can fit a rain sensor but if it triggers then it's already too late.

An interesting topic for me as I had the same question. 

I've only been imaging since new year and so far I only do so in waking hours, so I can attend.

After 2 late nights and feeling less than alert for work, I was considering leaving overnight. My main concern is the weather.

Is there equipment you can get, or maybe Apps, to alert you to impending rain?

I was just sitting here contemplating what imaging will be like once flights resume at a more normal pace. I live on an approach to Stansted and in normal times I see a plane approaching from the East around every 2 minutes 😬

Also blessed with another clear night. This time I'm pointing at IC 410 to see some little frogspawn (or was it tadpoles? 🤔).

First image looks OK in preview with the little amphibians definitely visible (plus some nice amp glow).

5 mins in Ha.

Some rare clear skies here. Same forecast for tomorrow too 🥳

I took some snaps of M3 whilst taking in some sights with my binos (including looking at M3 for the first time).

Look closely to see the glowing cats eyes in the image. My little "helpers" have a new trick of rubbing against the tripod which does wonders for the images 🙈

Some lovely examples of M42 shared here 😁

On my first attempt imaging M42 I stuck to 1 exposure time (45s iirc). To solve the issue with a burned out core I stitched in the core from my unstretched file (which I stretched a little to get the right luminosity). Allowed me to shoot all the data at 1 exposure time. 

Image below with about 45 min of data.

Really nice image. So many galaxies.

7 hours ago, Adam J said:

What scope will it be used with? 

They are for my SW 72ED.

New set of RGB + L3 filters, to replace my existing ZWO set. Hoping this will tame the bloaty stars I get when shooting blue / Luminance 🤞

7 hours ago, The Lazy Astronomer said:

I'll be interested to see the results you get with the rgb filters, I keep thinking l want to upgrade mine (pretty sure the ZWO ones are causing reflections in my images).

I'll post a comparison when I get a chance. 

I get a lot of reflections and halos with my Zwo filters, so I hope the Astronomik ones decrease/eliminate those as much as they claim.

I didn't know enough about the subject when I bought the Zwo filters last year but now when I look back at the transmission chart, there's a very notable part absent; the X-axis starts at 400nm so you can't see at all how it performs in the critical range below that. 

On 26/02/2021 at 02:07, The Lazy Astronomer said:

In my experience, the difference is significant. The L3 greatly reduced bloating in L and B channels.

I was out earlier with my planetary camera and took a couple of single 20 second subs of a random area near Polaris: one with the ZWO luminance filter and one with the L3 filter, pictures attached.

I had to stretch them a bit, because the difference wasn't really visible in the linear data, and to be honest the difference still doesn't look massive, but the halo is definitely larger with the ZWO filter (much more obvious if you download and flick between them) - if l was smarter, I'd have found a big bright blue star to do this with. 

No idea why the ZWO one has the whole pacman thing going on either...

Finally made my mind up and ordered a set of astronomik RGB filters and an L3 to go with them.

I debated throwing that money towards an APO triplet, but I guess I'd still need better filters in order to do that justice, so I'll get filters then maybe an APO somewhere in the near future.

Hopefully these filters will tame the bloat 🤞

On 07/03/2021 at 08:26, domstar said:

Jellyfish Nebula is incredibly faint and more of a target for photographers- I couldn't find a magnitude for it. 

Mag. 12 according to Stellarium, so it's very faint.

To put in perspective I was shooting this a few weeks ago and using exposures of 5 mins (albeit in Ha) and even then the images are still quite faint.

14 minutes ago, Snoani said:

You may find that you also need some luminance to provide your image with some of the finer details.  You can use the H-alpha as a luminance channel but this may washout the colour of your image to make it pink.

I tried this recently on the Rosette nebula and it did indeed wash the colour out, to turn it a pinky colour. 

Not sure if I'm doing something wrong but using Ha as the luminance layer just doesn't seem to lead to a pleasing finish.

I also tried HaRGB on M42 to mitigate the effects of the moon, with the same effect. In the end I created a luminance layer from the RG channels, which improved the image.

I want one (but maybe not the price that inevitably comes with it)...:

https://youtu.be/akFaEhcuHcQ

13 hours ago, Stu Wilson said:

Its nowhere near what i wanted but its a start.

1 houe 36 mins on monkeys head nebula.

Clouds coming and going (More of a mist really)

Emjoy.

 

Clear Skies

 

Stu

 

I think it's a very nice image. As Alacant says, there is nice detail for 1.5 hours.

I wasn't aware of this nebula - and what a great name it has - so thanks for drawing my attention to it. If the clouds part then I may give this a shot.

What exposure time were you using?

Fantastic cake. Happy birthday. 🥳

At least you can enjoy that scope whatever the weather 

Managed to sneak in 15 mins each of RGB - enough to put some colour into it. Needs much more integration time but so far so good.