Making a start on M33

[DaveS]

While the moon was throwing light all over the place I thought I'd get some H-alpha NB data in preparation for hopefully getting some RGB in the darker skies at SGL12.

This is 13 x 10 min subs through the 3nm Astrodon with the Megrez 90 and 0.8x AFR IV at an actual focal length 0f 533mm (As reported by PinPoint) on the DDM 60. Lots of high cloud and random contrails passing through, and I had to pause half way (And run another MLPT) because of a big cloud bank passing over.

Capture in Maxim DL with 2 pixel XY dither, Sigma stacked in AA5 followed by gradient removal, two gentle histogram stretches and a little low-pass filter.

I can just see the HII regions outlining the spiral arms, hopefully I'll be able to get another couple of hours with fewer clouds and the moon further away.

Well, it's a start anyway.

[DaveS]

I captured an hours worth of Red data in 5  min subs last night and did a rough combination. Sigma stack in AA5 followed by gentle histogram stretches and LPF

2 hours of H-alpha through 3nm filter in 600 sec subs + 1 hour of Red through Baader filter in 300 sec subs.

Not a final image by any means, but just seeing how things will fit together. For instance I can see lots of burned out highlights which I will have to go back and sort out.

I was going to go for 600 sec Red subs, but I think I would be getting burn-out with that length.

As always, C and C welcomed.

[Layton]

Wow.   Nice!