Tarantula Nebula NGC2070 - 24 September 2016

[MarsG76]

Hi All,

After a 8 month break due to moving I finally had a chance to do some simple Deep Space imaging. 

This image is of the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Megallenic Cloud (NCG2070). This is imaged using my modded Canon 40D at F10 2032mm using a Nexstar 8SE on a CGEM mount.

The image consists of 12 x 5 min subs, 5 x 10 min subs and 10 x 1 min subs, all in RGB through a IR Cut filter.

Currently I'm working on using the PEC feature on the CGEM, and after I've spent a few hours before trying to work out how it works... when it got to past midnight, I was ready to call it a night but decided to frame up on the Tarantula and give it a go... I thought it's not to shabby for a quickie, so I'm sharing it.

As far as PEC goes, next time I get to do some astro, I should have NexRemote, PECTools and PHD to give me a average PEC training from 10 cycles... hopefully it'll improve the guiding accuracy and hence detail in my 2000mm imaging close up images.

Thank for looking,

 

Mariusz

 

[graemlourens]

Great catch Mariusz!

A target i have not seen here before, and its nice to have something new for once

Kind regards, Graem 

[antony_courtney1987]

Awesome! one i hadn't even heard of ( very new to all this ) is this ever visible from the UK? 

[MarsG76]

1 hour ago, graemlourens said:

Great catch Mariusz!

A target i have not seen here before, and its nice to have something new for once

Kind regards, Graem 

 

31 minutes ago, antony_courtney1987 said:

Awesome! one i hadn't even heard of ( very new to all this ) is this ever visible from the UK? 

Thank you for the feedback... the Tarantula is only visible from southern skies on the edge of the LMC... not far from the southern cross so, unfortunately, it's not visible from the UK.

[xtreemchaos]

wow another cracking image MG, wondered why i havnt seen you images for a while mate. well done amazing detail. thanks and nice to have you back. charl. 

[MarsG76]

6 minutes ago, xtreemchaos said:

wow another cracking image MG, wondered why i havnt seen you images for a while mate. well done amazing detail. thanks and nice to have you back. charl. 

Thanks Mate, yeah moving and settling in, coupled with weather made astroimaging very hard... all I managed to do it pull the gear out and image Saturn and Mars, and 2 observing sessions.

To image, I had to PA and get all of the bits and pieces out of boxes etc etc... Also I want to improve my images, so the next challenge I want to entertain averaged PEC while guiding, and adjust autoguiding parameters to get RMS to below 0.5... Generally my RMS last year at 2000mm F10 was about 1.6 - 1.8.

The night I was imaging the Tarantula I had RMS between 0.89 & 1.20, so an improvement... but below 0.5 should deliver some crisp detail.

[xtreemchaos]

never tryed PEC when guiding, ive heard it improves accuracy loads, ive often seen it on the hand set and thought i must look into that. are you still in the Sydney area ? charl.

19 minutes ago, MarsG76 said:

PEC while guiding

 

[MarsG76]

7 minutes ago, xtreemchaos said:

never tryed PEC when guiding, ive heard it improves accuracy loads, ive often seen it on the hand set and thought i must look into that. are you still in the Sydney area ? charl.

 

Time will tell if PEC is what it's cracked up to be... still wasn't as simple to setup.. it seemed like the PC didn't up load or down load any data to the mount for PEC.

PECTools didn't seem to be "learning/training" with any markers, even though the software reported being connected to the hardware... I think it's because I was trying to autoguide the corrections via the autoguide port, but ASCOM/Handcontrol needs to be used... even manually when the autoguider is connected the CGEM started making some weird noise.... back to the old drawing board....

 

Yeah still in the Sydney area, closer to the mountains and seems like I have darker skies now.

 

[xtreemchaos]

what ive read about Pec mostly on here, people are 50/50 mainly guys with a longer FL for it whos tryed it, i like to try different ways but saying that ive had goto for years and never used it, i know how to use it just havnt found the need + i do 80% of my imaging though a open window on the 2nd floor of my house so it makes the goto redundant.  charl

11 minutes ago, MarsG76 said:

Time will tell if PEC is what it's cracked up to be

 

[MarsG76]

Hi all, I had another go at processing the Tarantula data... I'll try to add some narrowband to it and see what develops...

[Atreta]

Always nice to see a southern object :).

I still have to give this one a try. 

Great image,  congrats.