A decent Saturday Night!

[DeanWatson]

Hi all - actually - no really!!! - had a decent Saturday night! Went out about 9ish and managed to image 3 objects , started with NGC281 Pacman and moved on to NGC 6992 veil and then finished with M33. Heres '33 but the other two, while decent images are playing silly sods converting from tiff to jpeg on the tool I have on my work laptop (not what I use at home).

Anyway, heres M33, I hope you like it. Donald Ducks nephew paid me a visit - Not Huey or Louis, unfortunately it was Dewey! As I say, I started at 9 and went through to about 3am, started the 'scope on M33 and left it to it while I went to sleep for a couple of hours. I went back outside again about 5 ish when the sky had fogged over but was pleased to note I'd only lost about 5-6 subs of 20. Suprisingly, slept in until half nine and felt fine all day Sunday! A busy 12 hours - Eight hours total imaging time with each exposure of 8 minutes and ISO800 (spread over the 3 images incl dark frames)

I broke the gear down and left it shooting dark frames in the shed until I went back to it at a more civilised hour.

For the record I use a 6" F5 skywatcher refractor with the 4" equivalent piggybacked using my new Orion starshoot guider on a HEQ5 skyscan and a Canon EOS 300D and CLS clip filter (with auto exposure timer)

Anyway, I hope you like the image - I'll upload the other two when I can use my own softwares.

[DeanWatson]

Hi all - actually - no really!!! - had a decent Saturday night! Went out about 9ish and managed to image 3 objects , started with NGC281 Pacman and moved on to NGC 6992 veil and then finished with M33. Heres '33 but the other two, while decent images are playing silly sods converting from tiff to jpeg on the tool I have on my work laptop (not what I use at home).

Anyway, heres M33, I hope you like it. Donald Ducks nephew paid me a visit - Not Huey or Louis, unfortunately it was Dewey! As I say, I started at 9 and went through to about 3am, started the 'scope on M33 and left it to it while I went to sleep for a couple of hours. I went back outside again about 5 ish when the sky had fogged over but was pleased to note I'd only lost about 5-6 subs of 20. Suprisingly, slept in until half nine and felt fine all day Sunday! A busy 12 hours - Eight hours total imaging time with each exposure of 8 minutes and ISO800 (spread over the 3 images incl dark frames)

I broke the gear down and left it shooting dark frames in the shed until I went back to it at a more civilised hour.

For the record I use a 6" F5 skywatcher refractor with the 4" equivalent piggybacked using my new Orion starshoot guider on a HEQ5 skyscan and a Canon EOS 300D and CLS clip filter (with auto exposure timer)

Anyway, I hope you like the image - I'll upload the other two when I can use my own softwares.

(click to enlarge)

[Tim]

Wow! 8 minutes exposure! That takes some doing! And the stars are nice and crisp.

You did well to get that much out of M33 on saturday night, for me it was just lost in a sea of LP and mist, I'll post a photo when I get time. Interested to see the Pacman too, sounds like we picked the same targets

Cheers

TJ

[DeanWatson]

Hi TJ, I was just looking at one of your other posts - seems we have similar taste! I'll put 281 and 6992 on tonight when I get a chance, the software I was using here wasn't playing ball. I'd love to see more of yours too and what you managed on the last usable night before 2015.

I was very pleased I coaxed out some of the nebulosity in '33 too - Just glad I packed up before it started raining - Can't help but think all this automation is cheating a bit...! 56 frames of 8 minutes (8 hours ish - I'd have gone looney(er) if I had to do all that manually! Thank heavens for autoguiding and camera auto shutter release!

[RobH]

Way to go Dean....lots of subs

I made it through Saturday night too but was a mess all day Sunday

Looking forward to seeing the rest.

Cheers

Rob

[Psychobilly]

Hi Dean,

Nice to see someone had a half decent nights imaging...and got a cracking result

Guiding/tracking is spot on

Saturday night was a washout - last imaging session was night of 22-23 and that was the first for quite a while... hoping for a "blustery" gap of a few hours tonight but the showers are torrential at the moment

[DeanWatson]

Hi guys, thanks for the kind comments (nice welliphant trunk btw Rob) - Hi again Billy, drives you mental this weather doesn't it. I had no idea what adverse affect on my mood it had. Works been tough lately etc but after adecent night (who needs to sleep...) I was in a super mood Sunday.

You're right btw Rob about Sunday - I was ok in the morning but around 5 in the afternoon... Also, I'd started on the processing of M33 around then but made a hash of it probably because my eyes were tired and it ended up a blocky mess. I had another go Monday night ( I couldn't believe my data was THAT poor...) and it was as above. I had another go last night and improved it still further I believe. Just goes to show, even if you're impatient to start on your data, only do it when you're suitably with it.

[Psychobilly]

Hi Dean,

I cant resist a first rough of the data when i come in since I have found that unless I do it I can't sleep wondering if I have got anything to work with anyway...

Also last night I came in early because of work but couldn't get to sleep knowing I was probably missing the only clear spell for the foreseeable future...

I was only "playing" with the modded 350D with the 18-55...see how it copped with the "night" sky.

The other think I am finding is that sessions are so far apart that it takes me a while to find things in the sky again...

Billy...

[DeanWatson]

Isn't that the truth! On the first few nights of the season I had to do periodic checks of charts just to remember where everything was - Constellations? I vaquely remember what they are... Is the modded 350d MUCH different? I'd toyed with having mine done but I can usually coax out enough red.

My first rough was VERY rough. Time for cleansing the laptop tonight methinks. Generated loads of rubbish i'll never look at again/use if my life depended upon it!

Tidyed up M33 a bit more last night so I think I'll repost it. Was this showing as very greenish on your monitors? I'm never sure what callibration others have set at and have always used the default of my own Acer laptop or on this work one which appears the same more or less.

[Psychobilly]

Hi Dean,

The mod ( i removed the filter myself) meant that NA and Buttefly nebs leapt out of a 18mm widefield stack of the cygnus rift after only 20x30s at ISO800... from light polluted and un-filtered skies...I can't wait to try it through the "66"

Billy...

[steppenwolf]

Well your dedication to the cause has paid off and the tracking is good too for those 8 minute subs!