AMcD

The L-Extreme does seem to help somewhat, although around the very bright stars it does tend to generate halos. I find that processing the nebulosity and the stars separately courtesy of Starnet++ also helps to keep the stars controlled notwithstanding the images are produced with an achromat. It is always worth putting a camera on a scope - if only to see what happens!

It is pretty well corrected and the build quality is excellent, at least on this one. I picked it up second hand. Herewith two recent pictures - The Rosette is 10 hours of 300 sec subs with an OSC equipped with an Optolong L-Extreme. The Elephant's Trunk 24 hours on the same equipment.

This is another work in progress as I tried to escape the ever brightening moon by imaging as far away from it as I could get. This is 4 hours 35 minutes of 300 sec integrations taken using a QHY8 OSC with an Optolong L-Extreme narrowband filter through a TS152 achromat on a Losmandy G11. Acquired using SGPro and PHD2 and processed in Adobe PS. As the wind and rain has moved in again, we might be at the new moon before I get to add more data... M97_LFD_Stack_4hrs 35mins_Processed.tif

I do my imaging with a TS152 achromat. I could get better images with an APO but a 6 inch APO would require a lottery win 🙂 In any event, I have indeed developed a real soft spot for it.

Targeting the Rosette after three hours on NGC1931. If it stays clear SGPro is set up to move the scope to M97 at about 1am. I hope to be in bed by then 😴

This one has been a real struggle. I have extracted the best 15 hours or so of integrations from a total of a little over 21 hours in total but even then the data is not great. Probably because of that, and my still evolving ability, the processing has been a real struggle as well. Indeed, it has felt like wrestling a bear (not that I have ever wrestled a bear). This is 15 hours 45 mins of 300 sec integrations taken using a QHY8 OSC and Optolong L-Extreme filter with a TS152 achromatic refractor on a Losmandy G11. Acquired using SGPro and PHD2, stacked in DSS and processed with Adobe PS. Moving on... NGC1499_LFD_15hrs45mins_06.02.2022.tif

This is a work in progress. The reason the format is quite 'slim' is that, stupidly, I removed the camera to get rid of some moisture that was causing icing without remembering that I was only 3 hours through this particular target, on the way to 24 hours of data or more. Hence the need to give the stacked image a serious 'haircut' after adding 7 more hours of data, when I realised I had reattached the camera in a slightly different orientation. 🙄 This represents 10 hours of 300sec integrations taken with an QHY8 OSC and an Optolong L-Extreme filter on a TS 152 Achromatic refractor mounted on a Losmandy G11 under Bortle 5 skies. Acquired with SGPro and PHD2, stacked in DSS and processed in PS. Thanks for looking, constructive criticism always welcome... Rosette_10.1hrs_Final.tif

With respect to guiding with PHD2 it is worth joining the PHD Guiding Forum (https://groups.google.com/g/open-phd-guiding). You can upload your guide logs and get advice on what might be going wrong and what adjustments might help. The people who respond really know their stuff. When I sought help I got a response from Brian Valente of Losmandy no less. He gave me some excellent feedback on optimal settings and the behaviour of my mount (by coincidence a Losmandy G11) that resulted in a huge improvement in my guiding with PHD2. 🤓

Crikey - Suffolk has changed a bit since I grew up there...😀

This, as I happily discovered today, is also the method for achieving a stars only image in PS. 😀

I am not sure whether this would apply to a NEQ6, but I had similar problems using ASTAP and PlateSolve2 with my Losmandy G11. It turned out that the plate solvers were fighting with the pointing models created by the mount's Gemini system. The plate solvers were adding to the model and, at a certain point, the plate solvers stopped resulting in accurate pointing. Once I had cleared the models from the mount and adjusted the settings so that the plate solves did not contribute to making a new model the problem went away. I now 'cold start' the mount without a pointing model each time, sync it with a plate solve and thereafter the plate solving with ASTAP and PlateSolve2 is fine. As I say, the NEQ6 may not have this problem but your difficulties rang a bell so I thought I would throw this into the mix.

Stunningly beautiful image, and a real tribute to you expertise and hard work.

This was my first attempt at photometry and I got some good tips from the AAVSO website (www.aavso.org) which contains a good introduction to the topic of photometry. I also found a lot of assistance on exoplanet photometry from the Practical Guide to Exoplanet Observing by Dennis M. Conti and, in respect of the use of AstroImageJ, from his AIJ Cookbook (copies attached below). The guide itself also contains a good account of how to use AstroImageJ to create the light curve, as does the manual for that piece of software from the University of Louisiana and NASA (again, copy attached below). Perhaps the most helpful resource for using the software however, is the YouTube video created by Chad at Patriot Astro (link below). He explains the whole process step by step, and includes a number of stages that are not immediately apparent from the documentation that I have referred to above. And finally a word or warning. I became so involved in the process of analysing my data yesterday that I managed to entirely miss the fact that there was the most perfect clear night developing outside. By the time I noticed I had missed out on a whole evening's worth of imaging in circumstances where my QHY8 requires about 6 hours to de-ice after startup 😳 Hope this of some help. Practical Guide to Exoplanet Observing.pdf AIJCookbook.pdf AstroImageJ_User_Guide.pdf

First Attempt at an Exoplanet - The Result. Well here it is @Ian McCallum, @Astro Noodles, @rl, @tomato, @Alex E, @Muc and @FinleyChambers. All in all I am relatively pleased. Whilst my data is clearly not yet anywhere near good enough to demonstrate ingress and egress, and therefore nowhere near good enough to plot a proper transit light curve, it would appear that I did manage to detect a dip in the brightness of Wasp-33 as the planet crossed the stellar disc. I definitely need to do more work on exposure times and to acquire and understand how to use astrometry filters, rather than the narrowband filter I used to cut through my Bortle 5 sky. I also need to get far better at understanding the various parameters that go into making up the model of the light curve. Still, for a first attempt at exoplanets I will take it 😀

The software used to plot, or attempt to plot, the light curve has a steep learning curve to say the least...🤯 I am three hours in and still only at the stage of entering parameters...

😂 My wife keeps asking me whether “pushing some buttons and going to bed” is really engaging in the hobby of amateur astronomy! I find Meteoblue to be pretty accurate up to 2 or 3 days out. It stayed clear here and it looks like there might be further clear spells tonight 🤞

I am about to go to bed, leaving my set up to complete an imaging run on the California Nebula, before it slews, plate solves and re-focuses for a run to the Rosette for three hours or so. All being well, the system will park the scope and close the observatory roof at about 3am, or sooner if weather conditions become unsafe. If there are any problems the observatory will send me an email! As you say @Catanonia, quite amazing.

Thanks. I have an estimate of the brightness dip from the Swarthmore database of 12.5 ppt. Photon statistics are a bit beyond me at the moment and I need to get my head around those (a challenge for someone who failed their maths GCSE a grand total of four times before calling it a day!!!).

I have managed to capture the complete duration of the transit without the clouds rolling in (assuming that I have read the table of transit times correctly for my latitude and longitude 😳). I now need to do flats, darks and bias for this specific imaging run and then will turn to grappling with AstroImageJ. Hopefully I will have some results (positive or negative) in a few days...

It is amazing isn't it that this can now be attempted from a back garden with mostly second hand equipment. Who would have thought it? Certainly not me when I started out on this hobby.

I am not certain whether this post should go here or in Deep Sky Imaging, but I am tonight making my first attempt to capture the light curve of a star with a transiting exoplanet. The chosen target is Wasp 33 (HD15082) in Andromeda, approximately 399 light years from Earth. The planet, Wasp-33b, is a 'hot Jupiter' that has an orbital period of 1.22 days. There appear to be a number of challenges. First, I really should have tried some variable star photometry before diving straight into this. Second, my 6" achromatic refractor is rather small for this sort of observation. Third, I do not yet have any photometry filters so the comparison between the target star and the comparator stars might be somewhat challenging. Fourth, having read the material of AstroImageJ, the software that will produce the light curve, the processing of the images is not a straightforward affair. Fifth, the imaging run requires a meridian flip, which can make comparing the data spanning the transit tricky. Sixth, I have a little icing on my CCD. Finally, seeing is not brilliant tonight so guiding is not optimal. Still, I have managed to capture data covering the ingress of the planet onto the stellar disc at 18.09hrs and am keeping my fingers crossed that the clouds stay away until after planetary egress from the stellar disc at 21.00hrs. If it works notwithstanding the myriad of difficulties, I will post whatever light curve I manage in due course...😀

This image of part of the region around Sadr in Cygnus comprises 16 hours of 300 sec integrations taken with a QHY8 OSC and an Optolong L-Extreme filter under Bortle 5 skies, using a TS 152 achromatic refractor mounted on a Losmandy G11. Acquired using SGPro and guided with PHD2. It was my intention to gather 24 hours of data on this target but that will now have to wait until next winter as Cygnus departs the zenith. NGC6888_LFStack_16hrs_1.1.22Master.tif Center (RA, Dec): (304.619, 39.398) Center (RA, hms): 20h 18m 28.599s Center (Dec, dms): +39° 23' 52.903" Size: 57.7 x 88.1 arcmin Radius: 0.877 deg Pixel scale: 4.7 arcsec/pixel Orientation: Up is 97.4 degrees E of N

What a good thread. My plans for 2022 include: 1. Producing a passable light curve in AstroImageJ from a transiting exoplanet. 2. Completing my first mosaic of a DSO using SGPro. 3. If the weather maintains its firmly anti-astronomy outlook, looking into building an amateur radio telescope 😂 Wishing a peaceful and happy New Year to you all... A

Whilst sitting on my parents-in-law’s balcony in Miami filling out the extensive documentation required for return to the UK during Covid-19, I was greeted with this vista as the sun set. You will have to take my word for the fact that Mercury was visible as the sun sank below the horizon and Saturn is almost lost in the dusk. My excuse is that only have my iPad with me 😂

A quick grab of part of the Lobster Claw Nebula before the clouds rolled in. Approximately 3 hours of 300 sec subs taken using a QHY8 OSC and Optolong L-Extreme filter on a TS152 achromatic refractor mounted on a Losmandy G11 mount. Acquired using SGPro and PHD2 and processed in PS. Center (RA, Dec): (348.612, 60.230) Center (RA, hms): 23h 14m 26.877s Center (Dec, dms): +60° 13' 46.208" Size: 68.6 x 52.6 arcmin Radius: 0.720 deg Pixel scale: 4.7 arcsec/pixel Orientation: Up is 188 degrees E of N