NGC 1499 California Nebula in Ha (HaRGB added)

[Filroden]

* Edit: HaRGB image added to a later post.

 

Taken on the evening of 27 December 2017.

Equipment: Skywatcher Esprit 80 with the ZWO 1600MM-C using an Astrodon 3nm Ha filter mounted on the AVX with OAG guiding

Exposures: 23 x 240s Ha at unity gain

Processed: Pixinsight

Well, two issues last night:

> PHD2 decided to swap guide cameras 24 frames into this sequence. It obviously preferred the view through the ASI1600MM. Unfortunately, that meant SGPro had nothing left to image with. So I'm sure the mount tracked really well for the rest of the sequence but I've no photographic proof! It seems using two ZWO cameras can cause issues and ZWO have released updated drivers that should resolve this, so duly downloaded this morning in the hope of a second attempt tonight.

> Frost! It seems the protective glass on the camera is frosting over. You can see it in the upper right corner. It looks like there is a bright star just outside of the field but it's probably moonlight on frost. I've ordered a heater for the camera which should be here in a couple of days but I'm probably going to just have to live with it until it arrives.

Still, I'm quite pleased for only 92 minutes of data. I'd love to get some RGB data but that will have to wait for the moon to pass.

[souls33k3r]

Looking good already. Shame about the frosting issue. Which version of the 1600 have you got? Is it the V2 ,V3 or the pro?

[Filroden]

3 minutes ago, souls33k3r said:

Looking good already. Shame about the frosting issue. Which version of the 1600 have you got? Is it the V2 ,V3 or the pro?

Thank you. It’s actually the v1 hence the frosting issue. Other than get the heater I’m not sure there is much I can do a out it. Thankfully it didn’t impact much of the image.

[souls33k3r]

Yes the heater should eliminate that issue and you're correct, it did not make much of an impact  

Good luck mate

[Filroden]

Now with added colour. I resolved the driver issue and PHD2 seemed to play nice. However, I now have an issue with calibration where my RA rate is 130% greater than Dec when PHD2 is telling me is should be more like 80%. I don't know whether it was the guiding or the seeing, but stars were definitely more bloated on the second night. It particularly hit my red subs and I had to discard the first 10 (I'm claiming external factors...but those 10 looked more like a focus issue).

Trying to remove the gradients caused by the moonlight was fun! And I had to resort to Photoshop to blend the Ha into the RGB. I don't think the RGB was good enough and PixInsight destroyed it.

Thank you for looking. Any feedback appreciated

NGC 1499 California Nebula in HaRGB

Taken on the evenings of 27 and 28 December 2017.

Equipment: Skywatcher Esprit 80 with the ZWO 1600MM-C using an Astrodon 3nm Ha filter and ZWO RGB filters mounted on the AVX with OAG guiding

Exposures: 36 x 240s Ha, 20 x 60s B&G and 10 x 60s R at unity gain

Processed: Pixinsight and Photoshop

Edit: Another version included three posts down to remove the blue gradient.

[tooth_dr]

Lovely. Stars look really good, super colour 

[Allinthehead]

Looking good. I gathered 5 hrs rgb on m45 with the moon out and it will be the last time i bother. Wasted night when i could have gathered ha instead. You seem to have fared rather well in comparison.

[Filroden]

41 minutes ago, Allinthehead said:

Looking good. I gathered 5 hrs rgb on m45 with the moon out and it will be the last time i bother. Wasted night when i could have gathered ha instead. You seem to have fared rather well in comparison.

Thanks  It was a bit of a struggle to get the gradients under control, especially in blue. It took a few applications of gradient removal in all three channels to bring it under control. Unfortunately, with so little RGB signal to begin with, I ended up with a lot more noise. This will have to be revisited once the moon has passed.

I've now noticed there is still quite a blue gradient in the lower right corner. So I've given it another bash and also applied a little (too much?) sharpening to the nebula.

[Rodd]

Amazing image for Moonlit conditions.  I don't see the frost effect in upper right--looks fine to me.  I am waiting on an ASI1600 pro version myself.  Looking forward to using it.  last night it was 10 degrees F here--so the frosting of the glass has me concerned.  240s for Ha subs--that is nice.  Looks good at full res too.  

Rodd

[Filroden]

8 minutes ago, Rodd said:

Amazing image for Moonlit conditions.  I don't see the frost effect in upper right--looks fine to me.  I am waiting on an ASI1600 pro version myself.  Looking forward to using it.  last night it was 10 degrees F here--so the frosting of the glass has me concerned.  240s for Ha subs--that is nice.  Looks good at full res too.  

Rodd

Thanks Rodd. The frost results is a quarter arc that looks like someone left a mug in the corner. It’s only on the Ha subs from the first night. No frost the second night.

You should be fine with the latest 1600 model. It transfers heat to the glass from the cooler. Something they added after the first edition.

[Rodd]

14 minutes ago, Filroden said:

Thanks Rodd. The frost results is a quarter arc that looks like someone left a mug in the corner. It’s only on the Ha subs from the first night. No frost the second night.

You should be fine with the latest 1600 model. It transfers heat to the glass from the cooler. Something they added after the first edition.

Thanks--great!!  I am looking forward to the small pixels and to be able to image the Moon and planets without having to change cameras!--that is huge.  I never want to take my camera off to put on my planetary cam because I am always in the middle of an image.  Now, with the 1600s fast exposures, lucky imaging is possible.  Not sure I can shoot video in maxim, so I am not sure how I will image the Moon, for instance.  Stacking in PI is not really doable without stars (some can but I have not tried).  I suppose I can switch to fire capture to image the Moon.

Rodd

[Filroden]

1 minute ago, Rodd said:

Thanks--great!!  I am looking forward to the small pixels and to be able to image the Moon and planets without having to change cameras!--that is huge.  I never want to take my camera off to put on my planetary cam because I am always in the middle of an image.  Now, with the 1600s fast exposures, lucky imaging is possible.  Not sure I can shoot video in maxim, so I am not sure how I will image the Moon, for instance.  Stacking in PI is not really doable without stars (some can but I have not tried).  I suppose I can switch to fire capture to image the Moon.

Rodd

I'd recommend giving SharpCap a check too.

It is a nice camera now they've made the desiccant tablets external to the camera body and added the heat transfer. The pixels match up nicely with short fracs and it's nice to take short images. I could see the California in a 10sec shot (which I was taking to get focus).

[toxic]

very nice indeed Ken 

[Filroden]

42 minutes ago, toxic said:

very nice indeed Ken 

Thanks Chris