Cygnus Session

[Paul81]

Hi All,

The longer and earlier nights are starting to come back and last night was a rare clear skies at the weekend (with no work the next day) so how could I refuse?! Given this months AN focuses on Cygnus as the constellation of the month I decided to spend an hour or so with the swan, with a small incursion to Hercules at the end...

It was actually two first lights for me. Despite being the author I have not used LodestarLive live stacking for real (all my work has been using previously saved FITS files and running the app in test harness mode during the day), so it was a first light for live stacking. That and I recently obtained an Altair Astro 6" RC for electronic observing, so first light for the new scope.

The new scope is a very solid piece of kit, I was quite surprised just how so given the relatively low price. I have a Brightstar focal reducer operating at about 0.5X to yield 685mm focal length at F4.5. Collimation of these scopes has to be quite precise, I got what I thought looked pretty good during the day but the star test revealed it was still a little out so made some last minute adjustments. The focal reducer also means the focus sweet spot is very small. After the session I still think I need some more collimation tweaks and I might make a focus mask at some point. However, overall was very pleased with the scopes first night.

Despite the title of the post, I started off observing M27 in Vulpecula for 10 minutes (median stacking). You can just about make out the faint outer fuzz extending out from the core (bottom-left to top-right). This is one object that has got me seriously tempted to buy the colour Lodestar X2..

Back to the planned observing, a target I have never spotted visually but is very well covered by the imagers - NGC6888 The Crescent Nebula. I first tried median stacking for about 2 minutes but it came apparent this is one faint object (at least for my skies anyway), so I switched to sum stacking and observed for a total of 8 minutes. Although the stars are very washed out, some of the faint nebulosity is visible, but you can't really make out the 'brain like' structure in the deep images (there are maybe hints of it, but might be my imagination). I think I will try this one again but use a filter to see if it makes a difference. I had some eggy stars in a few of the shots, plus some cloud creeped in during the run,  hence the slight miss-registration.

The next target was NGC7008 The Fetus Nebula (excuse the typo in the image caption..). I find this quite an intriguing target, and again is another I might re-visit with a filter and also remove the reducer to get more FL (or step it down a notch to maybe 0.75x). Another case for the colour X2 maybe...? Total 5 mins observation.

 

Moving to the borders of Cygnus and Cepheus is NGC6946 The Fireworks Galaxy. At around 22 MLY (I think) its quite a pretty galaxy and is well known for supernovae - no luck last night. Total observation 7 minutes.

And lastly in Cygnus was the Witches Broom (NGC6960). Another really faint whisp of nebulosity from a supernova remnant. Sum stacking helped bring out the nebulosity (at the expense of bloating out the very bright star). This is another target I intend re-visiting with a filter, there is good visibility of some of the structure but I think a filter will bring out more. Total observation 4 minutes.

And lastly, a quick hop over to Hercules for a peek at a seemingly lesser known globular - NGC 6229. It often gets mistaken for a planetary, and I can see why. I think I over saturated the core in the exported image (I blame tiredness). It was first discovered by William Herschel in 1787 but mistaken for a planetary nebula. It was not truly classified as a globular until the mid 19th century. The cluster is about 100,000 LY away.

[Paul81]

Oh I forgot to add, now having used LL live stacking in vein, I am going to add the option to automatically add the stacking stats (i.e. number of exposures, exposure time and stacking mode) to the export caption - saves typing it in! 

[Martin Meredith]

Hi Paul

Brilliant to see that you've finally been able to use your own software in anger! Great write-up and images with the new scope. I tried the Fireworks galaxy a while back (prior to stacking) but only managed a weak signal but your results are lovely and detailed. 

I can see the colour X2 is going to be tempting. Having bought the earlier colour model relatively recently I may opt for the slightly deeper mono X2 if the price drops when the colour is released ;-) M27 in colour is really something.

Having the stacking stats on the image automatically will really help -- thanks!

Martin

[nytecam]

Brilliant results - well done

[HiloDon]

Excellent, Paul. You have given me some more targets to find. I'm with you on the color for some objects. I hope the price is the same as the mono. It should be. The old ones were. Good idea on the caption change.

Thanks for your efforts.

Don

[RobertI]

Nice one Paul, I'm really glad you managed to get the Crescent Nebula and the Fireworks Galaxy because I failed to find them last night and was curious to see what they look like through the Lodestar. I obviously need to get a GoTo mount for these fainter objects!

[Paul81]

I find my GOTOs are slightly inaccurate so often you have to star hop a little to get to the target - strangely I quite like this as it adds to the observing experience (like with visual where I star hop). I might get a decent finder for my new little scope and have a few sessions with no GOTO (currently I just have a red dot which suffices to get a bright star on the camera FOV for alignment of the mount - I then use the Focus Alignment Framing mode to centre the star).

FYI I star-hop in the Focus Alignment Framing mode switching between low exposures of 250ms - 1s to see the brighter stars to hop around, then when I think I have the target I take a 10s exposure to confirm (and refine the target alignment to the centre of the image) then switch over to Image Acquisition to start observing.

[RobertI]

Thanks Paul, it's good to know that I am not totally insane observing without goto. I shall apply more patience.

For your info I recently purchased a nice finder which I'm pretty happy with - it's the Explore Scientific 8x50 straight through correct image illuminated finder. It's a bit pricey but really nicely made and easy to use. Available from Telescope House. It's just about the only straight through correct image finder on the market. Some people prefer RACI finders though.

[RobertI]

I should mention the Explore Scientific finder has a non standard shoe fitting which doesn't fit any standard shoe - I had to tap a hole in the base to attach it to my adjustable ADM mini dovetail bracket.