AstroGS

@ollypenrice i have sent my AM5 + P200 to David in Spain and he set it up on a pier. I will be sharing some pictures shortly but, you will need i think:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/zwo-mounts/zwo-additional-silver-top-plate-for-tc40-tripod.html

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/harmonic-drive-mounts/zwo-pe200-pier-extension-for-am3-am5-mount.html

Finding targets during the galaxy season with wide field OTA is a bit challenging and restricting. However, I really enjoyed working on this target. Probably more data, would make the colours to pop more as well as the resolution.

40 x 120sec for each RGB channel

40 x 180sec for Lum

Redcat61 + ASI2600MM + AM5.

2 hours ago, Peds said:

One scenario I see is when you send your gear out to a remote hosting location and wish to switch between a reducer and a flattener. This often happens during galaxy season. A tech on site can usually switch adapters for you, but adjusting tilt perfectly is slow, tedious and typically not something they will do.

This is exactly my thought - not necessarily because the team will not do it but, because this - along with the PA - are the 2 tasks that you cannot manage remotely on your own.

Also, it might be a helpful feature for RASA owners but, again I never owned one so, I am just speculating based on posts that I have read.

A tilt unit that helps to correct tilt and back focus using electronically assisted methods - as per the title. 

https://www.asgastronomy.com/asg-electronically-assisted-tilt-eat-project/

They are also offering different other tilting systems and the prices  start from $695.

Over a year now and the mount continues to hold very well - even as a permanent observatory mount.

Imaging tonight M53 with the Redcat 61 and guiding is very stable at 0.5-0.6. I will be adding a 2nd rig on the mount (Samyang + ASI2600MC) soon and I am experimenting with the counter-weight and indeed, it seems to be delivering a more persistent solid guiding numbers.

Very pleased indeed.

RedCat 61 on a ZWO AM5, imaging the M53 from Spain (Pixel Skies Astro remote observatory).

Guiding is absolutely fantastic tonight.

17 hours ago, Fegato said:

OK, so I just averaged the two images together (half and half as we say in Wales)...  and like this one better!

Very nice and balanced - the dust is very well blended in the scenery, without forcing it or over-stretching it. Well done!

Just over 19 hours on Markarian's Chain and its companions - plate solving found over 50 galaxies, there might be even more.

This was with my Redcat 61 + 2600MM + Antlia filters.

Lum: 176 x 300 sec

RGB: 45 x 120 sec (each channel)

Calibration frames (flats, darks and bias): 50 each

Integrated and processed with PI and PS.

Note: I remain highly impressed by the ZWO AM5 that, continues to deliver excellent guiding as a permanent observatory mount. 

Apple MacBook Air, M2 processor + 24GB + 500GB SSD, used mainly to integrate and process images on Pixinsight and bit of Photoshop.

This is also used to manage remotely my rig.

As part of the tests that I did earlier this year, after setting up my rig in Spain, was to take about 6.5 hrs worth of Ha data.

The cone nebula is getting lower and on top of that I had the issue with the OIII filter so, I I abandoned this target for now. However, since it is Easter break and have some time to kill, I started working on the data to see how good it is and it seems....pretty good.

Stacked 39 x 600 secs of Ha + calibration files, integrated and processed in PI and very basic processing.

Thanks - I will most definitely try this at some point later this week and see if I can get it to work. I like though this PI sequence that you suggest, it does make sense.

10 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

You should be able to get far more of the long tidal tail to show, though it will run out of the frame on this crop, I think. It will be there in the data. If you have Photoshop,  just go to Image-Adjustments-Equalize and it should leap out. You can't just use that as a processing technique but it will show what you have in the data.

Olly

You are right 😉

I need to see how I can stretch further the image without clipping the core of the galaxies.

17 minutes ago, wimvb said:

Nice!!

The tidal stream of ngc 3628 is just visible.

Thanks - it is there in the integrated lum image (well defined) but, when stretching i cannot seem to be able to reveal it properly without blowing the centre of the galaxies. Im still experimenting a combination of GHS and Histogram stretching.

We have entered now the Galaxy season and the narrowband targets are limited so, a target that I have never imaged before was the Leo Triplet. I am still in the process of learning how to image galaxies through my mono camera - while I was busy with work, the night sky was really good and for that reason I decided to just take as much data as possible. Using my wide field rig (RedCat61 + 2600MM), I managed to capture:

Lum: 254 x 300 sec

RGB: 273 x 120 sec

Used flats, darks and bias

Integrated and processed with PI & PS

I am sharing the cropped image.

11 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

The spring is a lean time for short focal lengths but mosaics in the Coma-Virgo cluster can be fun. Sooo many galaxies!  Once the southern Milky Way starts to come up in early summer you can't go wrong. We're at Lat 44 and you'll be south of that but, even here, we get four hours of darkness in June. You can work through the year.  I'd look at the Eagle and Swan, Sagittarius triplet, The Great Sagittarius Star Cloud, Rho Ophiuchus...

Olly

Great! 🙂 You made it sound so exciting. Added in the list!

Thank you @Elp & @symmetal - i am indeed using these tools but, both those tools will not provide less common or obvious, i would say, targets. Also, i thought i would ask in case there are little hidden gems out there that again might not be the 1st choice for imaging.

So, I want to create a list of targets for the period between April - August for my imaging rig that is set in Granada/ Spain. Restricted by the short focal length (300mm @ f4.9): WO Redact 61 + ASI2600MM + LRGBSHO filters but, benefited by the quality of the dark skies (SQM 21.5+/ Bottle 1/2) and the fact that I can image from 26 degrees upwards.

Happy to do projects that require multiple nights on one target & I love SHO projects 😉

Currently working on the Leo Triplet on LRGB - I probably have close to 20 hrs on it already and recently processed M81/82 as well.

So, any ideas or suggestions will be highly appreciated - thanks in advance.

On 01/03/2024 at 10:38, 900SL said:

Can I ask a question about mono narrowband on the Jellyfish?

I've already shot 3 hrs of Ha a month ago, but then clouds and I'm running out of time now.  Here's a quick stretched starless Ha stack below, B5 location, Antlia Edge filters

So I may have a clear night with the moon not rising till late on the 3rd March.

Q: Is it better to shoot Sii or Oiii if you are limited in time? I may be able to bag another 4 hours but it's uncertain as to whether I can get any more this season.

HSS? or try to get the noisy Oiii which is pretty limited on this target, as I understand it, and which seems to need several hours to get the SNR up ?

 

Did not see it time for yesterday. OIII would have been my choice too but, it requires a good few hours (5+ I would say) @300 sec or even 600 sec exposures to really get some good signal. On the other hand my iteration of this image has no OIII at all and instead it is mainly Ha and SII, with RGB for stars.

 A new version - now that I found about stretching, I am playing around with almost all my images and trying to see if I can get more detail out of them.

Used for the first time also PI's new Gradient Correction module.

Thoughts?

2 hours ago, david_taurus83 said:

I did actually get round to doing a comparison of the AM5 guided by PHD2. As I suspected, the PHD results were more reasonable with an average guide rate of 0.8". The point of my thread was not to cast a shadow on the AM5 and its abilities, its a great mount and if I didn't have an AZEQ6 on my pier, I would have probably kept the AM5 as my main mount. I was trying to see if my long held suspicions about ASIAirs guiding graph figures were a bit on the generous side. Which they are!

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/415062-asiair-am5-guiding-results/

I had the chance to do a simple (by-the-eye) comparison of a few subs, from when I was using Asiair, with "excellent" guiding of 0.3-0.4" vs the "best guiding" I got so far through PHD2 and I can confirm that the 600 sec subs with PHD2 seem to be perfect with round stars end2end, while the ones through Asiair seem to not have the consistent look. I know that this is not a scientific experiment but, I'm really happy with the results when guiding via NINA.

AM5 now sits at a permanent observatory in Spain, carrying a WO Redcat61 with a mono setup, managing the imaging sessions via NINA and PHD2. I can say that it continues to impress me and having great guiding performance. I was concerned if this mount would be able to hold PA for a long period of time but, my concerns were unwarranted 

Here is an imaging session of the cone nebula, while shooting with a Ha filter @ 600 sec.

On 26/02/2024 at 19:33, ollypenrice said:

That IFN is really impressive.

Olly

@ollypenrice your latest advice on learning how to stretch an image has been an absolute revelation to me and has changed the way i process images. I genuinely spent probably over 6 hrs trying to stretch the images only, starting all over again and again, until i got the level of detail as best as i could. All the other processing tasks (combined) took less time to complete! Thank you 🙂

I have started using PS in combination with Pixinsight now and it makes so much more sense.

On 15/10/2023 at 10:15, david_taurus83 said:

I usually see mine running at around 0.4 RMS as well. Has anybody used their AM5 with EQMod and PHD2 to see if the figures tally up? I've long held the belief that the ASIAir gives optimistic guide graphs.

@david_taurus83 I just started using NINA/PHD2  and the results are pretty consistent as well. For a reason I feel that it performs better now (round stars end-to-end) than previously although the figures say the opposite! Here are some recent screenshots from PHD2. Also, I am using shorter exp times (1 sec) vs the 2 secs that I had with the ASIAir Plus. However, I would say that on an average is around 0.7-1 consistently and ham getting round stars to edge even at 600sec exposures.

12 minutes ago, JCIdaho said:

 

Excuse me - how did you widen the adaptor by 1mm? Filing?

It was with a metal grinder - it took forever but, job was done at the end.

21 hours ago, mareman48 said:

I like it 🤗

What is your setup?

Redcat61, 2600MM, Antlia Filters on an AM5