The "No EQ" DSO Challenge!

[Nigel G]

First try at a mosaic, I have rushed this as I'm off out for a couple of hours, 3 images of 45x45s each stacked then processed before aligning in PS. its a little crude but I will take more time second try.

I have 3 more sets that could be added too for a large mosaic, I might try them too.

Cheers

Nige.

[Filroden]

So that's Rosette, Cone and Lower's Nebula with the Christmas Tree cluster? And probably Hubble's Variable Nebula too? And you're only a few panels away from all the biggies in Orion! That could be one very large mosaic!

[Nigel G]

8 minutes ago, Filroden said:

 And you're only a few panels away from all the biggies in Orion! That could be one very large mosaic!

I might continue this tonight to reach the Orion bunch.

[SteveNickolls]

3 hours ago, Filroden said:

However, on closer inspection my stars were terrible; looking almost like crow's feet. I'd taken the images at f2 (one stop in from open) but I think I will have to experiment and maybe drop back as far as f4 and then maybe take a similar number of subs but at 15s exposures. So I have no images to show for the night but I'm getting closer!

Sorry to hear of this trouble Ken, I haven't yet been able to try out my Canon 85mm f/1.8 and the semi-apo filter to see what I can get from the local light polluted sky. It was clear for a few hours here last night and I spent the time experimenting with my new laptop and BYEOS and the camera/finder scope set up. It has all come together well and I need to stack and process last night's imaging (of M81/M82) as I did some comparison light frames with the semi-apo filter attached to the camera (I have an adapter). Hope to post the differences soon.

Good luck imaging tonight if the weather is agreeable.

Cheers,
Steve

 

[Herzy]

Nige, I'm very interested about your horse head nebula. Last night I couldn't see even the slightest trace of it in 3 min subs. I don't understand how you got that much detail with such short integrations. Would you mind posting a single picture for me to compare to?

Thanks, 

Hayden

[Nigel G]

20 minutes ago, Herzy said:

Nige, I'm very interested about your horse head nebula. Last night I couldn't see even the slightest trace of it in 3 min subs. I don't understand how you got that much detail with such short integrations. Would you mind posting a single picture for me to compare to?

Thanks, 

Hayden

Here is a 30s and a 45s sub, converted to jpg to reduce file size. Taken with modified 1200D and CLS filter, ISO1600.

HH visible in both.

Nige.

 

[Herzy]

The difference might be the CLS filter. I stretched my 3 min sub and I can just BARELY see the horse. Really it just looks like a dark patch because you can't see any features. All of my 3m subs are bright orange.

[Filroden]

19 minutes ago, Herzy said:

The difference might be the CLS filter. I stretched my 3 min sub and I can just BARELY see the horse. Really it just looks like a dark patch because you can't see any features. All of my 3m subs are bright orange.

Here's a 45s sub of mine along with a copy with a standard stretch. At full resolution you can see the HH in the unstretched sub too but it's not as obvious from the screenshot. I think because there is such a small difference in brightness, any light pollution will make it harder to see by eye but the data will still be there at 45s. It will just require a background removal to see it.

[Nigel G]

1 hour ago, Herzy said:

The difference might be the CLS filter. I stretched my 3 min sub and I can just BARELY see the horse. Really it just looks like a dark patch because you can't see any features. All of my 3m subs are bright orange.

I tried taking subs without the CLS filter,  the difference is massive,  now I wouldn't use the camera without it unless I was at a proper dark spot. 

Once modified, without a filter it will pick up far more red than wanted, sodium and most artificial light. This has to be blocked. 

A professionally modified camera should have a replacement infared filter installed to block the unwanted. 

[Herzy]

1 hour ago, Nigel G said:

I tried taking subs without the CLS filter,  the difference is massive,  now I wouldn't use the camera without it unless I was at a proper dark spot. 

Once modified, without a filter it will pick up far more red than wanted, sodium and most artificial light. This has to be blocked. 

A professionally modified camera should have a replacement infared filter installed to block the unwanted. 

That's a good point. I noticed that my pictures are very red. Not just the DSO's, the actual background is much more red then before. I think you're right. I'll be ordering an IDAS LPS filter to see how that helps.

[Herzy]

3 hours ago, Filroden said:

Here's a 45s sub of mine along with a copy with a standard stretch. At full resolution you can see the HH in the unstretched sub too but it's not as obvious from the screenshot. I think because there is such a small difference in brightness, any light pollution will make it harder to see by eye but the data will still be there at 45s. It will just require a background removal to see it.

 

Interesting.... I stretched my files and it wasn't at all visible. Not to worry, though! It turns out there were some wispy clouds over where I was imaging because all of my pictures for that 15 minute period (including the only pictures I took of the horsehead) are washed out. 

[Nigel G]

To cloudy to continue the mosaic last night so I have added 2 more of the original images to the mosaic.

5 images merged in PS. 135mm lens, modified 1200d + CLS filter, 45x45s @ ISO 1600 .

For some reason the tiles are not lining up spot on, stars seem to be in the wrong place ? probably lens error or something but I'm pleased with it so far despite the aligning.

I'm pleased to see the dark lanes clearly.

I haven't put this through any further processing yet.

As soon as I get a chance I will work my way to Orion

Cheers

Nige.

 

[Filroden]

You could have field distortion so the stars are slightly misaligned at the periphery. Not that I would notice. I'm just too busy enjoying the image!

[Filroden]

Rosette Nebula

15s subs at -20C, 139 gain and 21 offset: 89 x L, 33 x R, 40 x G, 40 x B on the Skywatcher Esprit 80 with the ZWO ASI 1600MM-C and ZWO RGB filters. This was almost destroyed by the neighbour's heating vent pushing steam across my imaging area. I discarded the worst frames but there is still a bad background. Plus I didn't have long before it went beyond the side of the house. Processed in PixInsight with some final touches in Adobe Lightroom.

I processed it anyway as I thought it was a fitting wreath to dedicate to Carrie Fisher.

[Nigel G]

7 minutes ago, Filroden said:

 

I processed it anyway as I thought it was a fitting wreath to dedicate to Carrie Fisher.

RIP Carrie Fisher. I have always had a spark for her, I had a big poster of Princess Leia on my wall for years.

A very fitting wreath.

Nige.

[Filroden]

And I added some more subs to my Jellyfish to create a version 2. Unfortunately they were also affected by my neighbour's vent so I had to throw away all the L subs and most of the R. So this is just an additional 30s x 20 B, 20 G and 8 R though I did extract a super luminance from the RGB to add to the existing luminance. Some of the really feint stuff jetting out of the jellyfish can now be seen. I think this is another target that needs lots and lots of data.

[Filroden]

IC410 with tadpoles

I set out to add much more colour data to this project and it was about the only success I had on the night. In total this now has 218 L, 76 R, 77 G and 40 B (it was the B subs I had to discard from my first session). All 30s at -20C, 139 gain and 21 offset with the Skywatcher Esprit 80 and ZWO ASI1600MM. I did try and create a super luminance as I had a lot more RGB data but it resulted in a noiser image and I only used RGB for colour. I'm much happier with this and I plan to add an additional 60 B, 20 R, 20 G and 80 L on my next clear night.

I did have to crop this one a lot so I no longer have a useable overlap with IC405. Something else to add to the to do list.

[Nigel G]

Just reached the flame with the mosaic

[Victor Boesen]

39 minutes ago, Nigel G said:

Just reached the flame with the mosaic

Really excited to see how it will turn out! Just got my first photos with my new nikon nifty fifty edited. So happy with the results! 

[happy-kat]

Clear but fog here. Supposed to be 3 degrees was all set to go out too, it's actually freezing here not 3 degrees.

[Herzy]

As a follow-up of my horse-head questions, I'll show what I managed tonight. There were a TON of wispy clouds, as you can probably see from the light leakage from Altinak. Stars, no matter how bright, never spill out like that for me, so the clouds must have spread the light out. Not only that, but I would guess that the image was blurred significantly from them. Anyways, here is 24 minutes on the HH nebula. My frames from last night (with no clouds) were much crisper, but I didn't take many of them. I'm excited to try this out with a few hours of integration soon, this time with no clouds!

BTW, my AVX mount counterweight is nowhere to be found (how in the world did I manage to lose a counterweight.....??????), so I'm back in business with my SLT mount. Surprisingly, it works well with my AT72ED and handles the weight well, which I never thought it could.

Edited December 29, 2016 by Herzy

[Nigel G]

A great night last night, everything performed perfect, the sky was gin clear. Got all the data I needed and a bonus DSO.

I am truly gobsmacked by how this mosaic is turning out, I never thought I could capture so much detail.

Can't wait to show it.

Nige.

[Nigel G]

Here it is then. For a first try at a large mosaic I'm extremely happy with this.

12 tiles 45x45s ISO 1600, modified 1200d & CLS filter, 135mm lens Star Discovery mount. Stacked in DSS, processed it ST and mosaic in PS2

I have yet to find the names for everything.

Cheers

Nige.

Edited December 29, 2016 by Nigel G

[Filroden]

I can name it. Bloody brilliant!

[Victor Boesen]

That is amazing!!! nice work!