Horsehead - First Attempt

[gnomus]

Numerous problems with this attempt.  

I had enough time for 30 x 5 minute subs.  However, it would appear that my battery pack produced insufficient power to heat up my Kendrick "Firefly" heater band.  The el-cheapo heater band for my 8 inch scope works fine and gets quite warm.  Even using a mains power adapter, the Kendrick gets no better than tepid.  I suppose that is what I get for trying to buy "quality".  Anyhow, as a result the ED80 kept fogging up and required multiple hairdryer treatments.  As such I only got 14 usable subs (and even some of them may have been 'slightly' fogged).

I also had a few frames spoiled by aircraft trails.  I used PixInsight Winsorized-Sigma, which I thought was supposed to eliminate these.  (I wonder if I have the settings wrong.)  I decided to leave one trail in in the corner (see attachment), but two ran right through the nebulae thus wrecking the image.  These had to go to, therefore, leaving me only a dozen subs. 

Here is a crop showing the issue - I've done quite a bit of manipulation to show the trail clearly - the image is not as noisy as the crop:

I shot 20 flats.  I used a master bias.  No darks - relying on dithering.  Equipment as per signature.

As usual, I am quite pleased and surprised, as a beginner, to have got anything at all, but I am well aware this is far off what others are achieving.

If I decide to go and get more subs, how do I ensure that I get a framing that is close to what I have for my existing dozen or so?  

Any other tips/advice would be most welcome.  Could I do with some longer (say 10 minute) subs?  There is clearly a lot of dust around these objects.

[MattJenko]

I went for 10 min subs on this when I did it a week or so ago, the last time it was clear for the evening. Alnitak is a beast and I just let it do whatever it wanted, but it also appears ngc 2023 is saturated in your image, although I am sure it isn't in your data. Flame looks great though.

[BillPickle]

What a great image.

[gnomus]

I went for 10 min subs on this when I did it a week or so ago, the last time it was clear for the evening. Alnitak is a beast and I just let it do whatever it wanted, but it also appears ngc 2023 is saturated in your image, although I am sure it isn't in your data. Flame looks great though.

Thanks Matt.  I saw your horsehead a couple of days before my attempt.  It was probably your picture that prompted me to have a go - I see that you also have an ED80.  You're right about NGC 2023 not being burned out in my original image.  I am still getting to grips with PixInsight, and I have a tendency to over-process looking for dramatic effect.  I also find it difficult to resist the urge to start working on the image as soon as the scope is packed away, and I don't think that is helping either!  I'll go back to the start processing-wise, but I think I may have been fighting a losing battle with the dew that night.

Thanks for commenting.  I'll go for 10 minute subs next time.  

[swag72]

In order to return to the same place the following night you can use Al's reticle - Which is free to download. 

Open up a sub from the night before and find a nice reference star. Open up Al's reticule and you can place a cross hair  on that star. Then open up your framing image (That will obviously have to be the same size and in the same place on the screen as your original) and then just move your image until the reticule crosshair is over the same star.

This is kind of assuming that the camera orientation hasn't moved - I don't know if you tear down after each night?

Hope that helps and make sense. You can download the reticle from here http://www.nightskyimages.co.uk/als_reticle.htm

[gnomus]

In order to return to the same place the following night you can use Al's reticle - Which is free to download. 

Open up a sub from the night before and find a nice reference star. Open up Al's reticule and you can place a cross hair  on that star. Then open up your framing image (That will obviously have to be the same size and in the same place on the screen as your original) and then just move your image until the reticule crosshair is over the same star.

This is kind of assuming that the camera orientation hasn't moved - I don't know if you tear down after each night?

Hope that helps and make sense. You can download the reticle from here http://www.nightskyimages.co.uk/als_reticle.htm

Thank you. I'll take a look at that. I am, however, "tearing down every night". I'm a tripod-in-the-backyard kind of guy - at least for now. I'm quite keen on the idea of a roll-off roof observatory. However, my level of knowledge is such that I just know that the minute it is finished I will decide that I should have put it somewhere else in the garden!

Steve

[MattJenko]

I also find it difficult to resist the urge to start working on the image as soon as the scope is packed away

Now this is something I can relate to

My image was a first effort at a combination of 2 nights worth of data, and as a setup/tear down kind of guy, something like Sara's suggestion would have been great, as I was over 20 degrees out in the rotation of my 2 images! I have a Mac though, so need to find an equivalent, as I also have no plate solving solution for me at the moment.

[swag72]

If you leave the camera on the scope then at least you know that the orientation won't have changed... So this method will still work.

[Gina]

Very nice start   Yes, longer subs should help

[gnomus]

I followed some advice I saw somewhere else and use "Image Integration" on the registered files (after PixInsight's  batch pre-processing script).  This allowed me find a way in which I could add in the images with the aircraft trails (giving me an extra 10 mins of data).

I think this is a bit better...