Good haul last night

[RobertI]

I finally managed to get out and do some serious EAA last night, pretty much the first proper EAA session in12 months. It was freezing and breezy, but also dark and transparent. Despite some intial technical problems (like knocking the power lead out of the mount after 20 minutes of careful alignment) I finally managed to get going and bagged some well known objects. All captures with the RC6@F4.5 (actually more like F4.7) and Lodestar plus filterwheel using Lodestar Live. 

The crab nebula M1. This was really nice and I spent a long time zooming,  viewing and adjusting to reveal the detail. Below is a B&W, followed by an RGB of similar duration and adjustment. It really shows how much light you lose with RGB compared to B&W.

 

Had a go at the Horsehead, but this is really faint at 30 seconds. Tried 60 seconds but the wind was not helping and didn't attempt an RGB. Still a lovely thing to see though and a pleasure to see it appear on the screen for the first time.

Finally The Little Dumbell M76. There seemed to be a lot more to come in the faint wisps at either end but I couldn't really bring them out in the 30 sec exposures I was using. I had to stretch the colour version to increase the brightness and contrast with the result that it is not a 'smooth' and there seems to be more of a gradient. The challenge next time will be to try and see more of the 'wisps'.

 

Hope you enjoyed.

[Chris]

Really good set, Rob. Those filaments on the mono verson of the Crab look great!

[RobertI]

8 minutes ago, Lockie said:

Really good set, Rob. Those filaments on the mono verson of the Crab look great!

Thanks Chris, the Crab was great fun, lots to see. I'm going to give it some more attention next time out, possibly trying some longer colour exposures and possibly Ha, but you just can't seem to beat mono for detail and contrast.

[stash_old]

Like the Crab in Mono - I find it a difficult one in any mode - long or short exposures. Nice one. And yes it was cold in that wind. 

[RobertI]

9 hours ago, stash_old said:

Like the Crab in Mono - I find it a difficult one in any mode - long or short exposures. Nice one. And yes it was cold in that wind. 

Thanks Stash. 

[RobertI]

Had a go at some postprocessing of the Crab - results here.

[2STAR]

On 12/9/2017 at 18:38, RobertI said:

I finally managed to get out and do some serious EAA last night, pretty much the first proper EAA session in12 months. It was freezing and breezy, but also dark and transparent. Despite some intial technical problems (like knocking the power lead out of the mount after 20 minutes of careful alignment) I finally managed to get going and bagged some well known objects. All captures with the RC6@F4.5 (actually more like F4.7) and Lodestar plus filterwheel using Lodestar Live. 

The crab nebula M1. This was really nice and I spent a long time zooming,  viewing and adjusting to reveal the detail. Below is a B&W, followed by an RGB of similar duration and adjustment. It really shows how much light you lose with RGB compared to B&W.

 

Had a go at the Horsehead, but this is really faint at 30 seconds. Tried 60 seconds but the wind was not helping and didn't attempt an RGB. Still a lovely thing to see though and a pleasure to see it appear on the screen for the first time.

Finally The Little Dumbell M76. There seemed to be a lot more to come in the faint wisps at either end but I couldn't really bring them out in the 30 sec exposures I was using. I had to stretch the colour version to increase the brightness and contrast with the result that it is not a 'smooth' and there seems to be more of a gradient. The challenge next time will be to try and see more of the 'wisps'.

 

Hope you enjoyed.

Smashing images, look like you had a good night. 

regards Eric

[RobertI]

27 minutes ago, 2STAR said:

Smashing images, look like you had a good night. 

Thanks Eric