Daniel Karl

That's pretty awesome - did you take that with the 80ED? I've tried my luck on this pair, but from London I only have NB data in SHO and I haven't managed to process that in a way that looks quite right to me.

I did get SII and OIII as well, but haven't managed to get the colours balanced in a way that satisfies yet. I think I need to find a way to get some blue data despite the light pollution here ... still wondering if a H beta filter would help. Meantime the Ha in grey 130/800 Triplet Apo - reduced to f/4 with Starizona Apex L 0.65 | ASI 294MM | CEM70

Love it! I need to try to get some RGB stars some day ... tried this one from London last night despite the wind. Always find it fascinating how different the same objects come across in different colour and processing combinations.

Dragged the scope out into the wind yesterday and got about two shaky hours before the houses got into the way. 90mins Ha and 30mins SII through 130 Triplet Apo @f/4 (Starizona Apex 0.65 reducer) | ASI294MM | CEM 70 Really love how much is going on in this region - some day I'll have to get it from a nice dark site and get some RGB as well.

Love it!

@AdamJ Thank you With regards to how bad my light pollution is, I'm not quite sure to be honest - I would have guessed it's a 9, but ClearOutside seems to think my location is an 8. It's certainly not great for galaxy season - 😂

3.5 hours of Ha and SII and two hours of OIII with no nebulosity - haha - the last hour had some tree branches in shot that gave the nice diffraction pattern around my bright stars ... Thought I'd go for a bit of drama since it's such a dramatic name - haha - too much? 130/6 Triplet Apo reduced to f/4 with Starizona Apex-L | ASI294MM | CEM70

130/800 APO Triplet reduced to f/4 with the Starizona Apex-L 0.65 flattener CEM 70 | ASI294MM | 7nm ZWO SHO filters Got 4.5 hours before the powers noticed that I had new kit and rolled the clouds in ... there's a bit of tilt in the system, but for the first try on backfocus I'm quite happy with the reducer. Tried an all PS workflow with this one ... (except for stacking). Cheers, Daniel

Awesome

Got the reducer back on - still the old one, the Apex obviously arrived the morning after I can't seem to get the JPGs here to look quite right - the BG always becomes a bit darker and I lose a bit of the faint details, which is annoying because now it looks cut out ... some day I'll get my blacks to stay where I want them - maybe ... my dog still only stays if he knows I have a treat ... 130/6 Triplet Apo ("Super") | ASI294MM | CEM 70 | 4.5 hrs 7nm SHO

Tried again, this time with the old focal reducer (The Starizona Apex arrived the day after, obviously) ... bit of tilt in the imaging train as well, just to add a bit of dynamic 🤪 Managed to get 7.5 hours of data, and there is more nebulosity visible in the channels, but I like the contrast. Still haven't managed, to get the JPGs here to look quite the same as in Photoshop - the blacks are just a tad too dark and the transition between nebulosity and background becomes too hard. Maybe I'll get another chance with the Apex 0.65 tonight (that should almost fit the entire nebula) - but then again perhaps it's time to switch to a new victim?

My focuser doesn't even have threads, so the heavy camera with reducer and filter wheel just hangs off the 2" tube (which probably tilts as well under the load) ... and the tube is about 7cm out to get in focus. I also don't know if the focuser is square to the tube and I bought the refractor second hand, so who knows if the objective still sits square to the tube (I hope the elements are still aligned - 😄) I don't own a barlow or even a decent eyepiece and it's been 20 years since my last star test ... so at the moment my standards are: If I go full screen on my monitor and I can't see the distortion without squinting, I'm okay with it. It's a decent 32" 4K IPS monitor, so I'm still quite a bit away from that - hehe. But my eyesight is getting worse, so the problem might sort itself out over time ...

Nice detail - distortion is clearly not something that keeps you up at night (although I suppose the distortion free Tak still keeps you up at night - haha) I just ordered a new flattener, so I suppose I'll be entertained with shimming to find the right backfocus for the rest of the year and then trying to get the tilt sorted and the objective properly aligned ... maybe I should start saving for a Tak instead

@carastro Thank you, that's very kind! @CCD-Freak The Soul Nebula really surprised me actually - I'll give that another try when my new reducer arrives. @scotty38 Thank you ... It's kind of nice to have the London sky pollution as an excuse - haha. I think if I were to be in a dark location, I'd feel a bit of pressure - haha. @The Lazy Astronomer Funny, that you should mention that today - haha. I'm even lazier than you, because so far I have not taken any flat frames, but I just dragged the gear out to give IC 1848 another try with my old reducer and I was planning to get flats at the end of the night this time ... so I might be able to answer that tomorrow - or more likely have a load of questions - haha. I've also just seen some tilt on my first sub, but can't be bothered to try and fix that now ... I think I'll soon start a lengthy cry for help here to sort out my imaging train, because I haven't really figured out how badly my whole setup is out of alignment yet @TakMan Yeah - I was a bit surprised as well ... hopefully I can give that another try without distortion soon, but as things go. I'll probably end up not being able to get the colours like that again ... it seems they turn out differently on every attempt, even with the same data - haha. There's always another night ... (until there isn't but then I suppose I have more pressing problems) 🙂

Haha ... well, it took a lot of attempts in processing to get it even to this point - think that was attempt No. 7 ... next time I will get flat frames 😂 whoops - forgot to mention that ... it's a part of the Soul Nebula IC 1848 ... not easy to recognise from that mess - haha.