Quick M3 luminance only

[alexbb]

Hi,

Came back home late this evening and noticed that the sky was clear - kind of, some high clouds from time to time. Waited for a while and it seemed that it could stay clear. I had some issues last time I tried my 130PDS, tilt/misscolimated/idk so I thought to try the 90/900 binned 2x2 unguided, short subs as it needed no adjustments. Put the scope, put the camera, focused and set up a plan of 6s. I was aiming for 30 minutes. Drank some beers and some so I thought that 6 is easier to divide with, rather than 5. Nevertheless, I didn't finish the plan of 300 subs, some clouds rolled in. I got scared of them and I decided to park the scope and take flats and darks and I was too lazy to resume captures again for M13, even though it seemed clear again. But I'll have more time next months. And I also didn't have the RGB filters in the FW, I had only LSHO.

Enough writing, here's the result (~160 subs of 6s, L filter, 300gain, -15C, bin 2x2 @900mm, F/10):

[alexbb]

I acquired some RGB too, just over 10 mins for R and G, the stars for the B were bloated and DSS didn't even want to register them. Neither IRIS wanted to register the B to L so I had to align it manually. All in 10s subs. Under full moon.

And I shot some ~50x10s luminance too. Under full moon too. Better than clouded.

All images taken with the ASI1600MMC @300 gain, the Skywatcher Evostar 90/900, bin2x2, -15C. No guiding. Seeing was bad. Weird, since I usually get good seeing only when there's a full moon. Just not this time.

And, unfortunately, I took the camera down the scope since the first session and I didn't align it well back so the field is cropped

The result:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByhJ_xuQxcnjeHAtSEtOOXR1d1E

Clear skies,

Alex

[wimvb]

Nice image, with lovely colour and definition of stars into the core.

Thanks for sharing

[alexbb]

Thanks! I've got nothing else bright enough to image towards NE. And the seeing was awful, with hot air turbulence coming from central heating systems from the other neighbours, sometimes guiding stays at 4-5" RMS. I tried the owl in NB, but I can't even see the central star due to bad seeing. I will get a reducer for the C6, at least the focal length remains almost the same, but the aperture is much larger and I hope the stars will be smaller on the luminance and blue channels at least. Of course, still binned 2x2.

Waiting for the spring to get out.