Sombrero, Fireworks and Iris

[cuivenion]

Didn't get the best out of last night as the mount seemed to have trouble tracking near the southern horizon. May have been a weight issue. Still, managed to get a few targets. All imaged with Sharpcap live stacking, Skywatcher HEQ5, 130PDS, and a ZWO ASI224:

The Sombrero Galaxy. Always wanted to view this one, but it's low in the sky from my latitude. Sure enough it was in the murk tonight. Nice to finally see it though. 24 x 8 seconds:

 

 

Next up the Fireworks Galaxy, much fainter so longer exposures were needed. 15 x 30 Seconds:

The Iris Nebula. Probably not the best EAA target with this setup, but here's my attempt. 13x 30 seconds:

Actually a better session than I thought I was going to end up with, unfortunately shortened by freezing fog rolling in. I'm definitely modding my 130PDS focuser soon, the crescent shaped stars are starting to grate on me a bit.

 

[tooth_dr]

I have a paid version of sharpcap, and noticed this feature.  Might have to give it go, as the results are excellent.

[cuivenion]

40 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

I have a paid version of sharpcap, and noticed this feature.  Might have to give it go, as the results are excellent.

Thanks. I use Sharpcap for a lot of imaging, great software. I will say that I have to convert the PNGS that Sharpcap's 'Saved as Viewed' saves to JPG as they don't appear online as they did in Sharpcap. They're fine when opened in Paint and such just not when I upload here. Here's the original Sombrero PNG:

And the converted JPG:

Big difference. There was no post processing, just conversion to JPG. I've never been able to get to the bottom of it. Must be something to do with PNG's and displaying on the internet.

[tooth_dr]

Both look good, on my work monitor I cant see any difference!

[cuivenion]

2 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

Both look good, on my work monitor I cant see any difference!

Weird, on my laptop the first (PNG) image has a noticably darker background. Maybe your work monitor is 16 bit so it's picking up the 12 bit information in the PNG but my laptop screen isn't.

The PNG doesn't always have a bad effect on the focus of the image but sometimes the faint outer arms of a galaxy can be effected, I just want people to see the image how I viewed it, or as near as. Shame there's not another format besides JPG that'll display the images properly.

[Robrj]

I have two monitors on my desk at work.  In one, I can see the dust lanes easily, in the other, not so much.

 

FWIW, Sharpcap 3.1's latest release can save images in .jpg format (and .tif).

[cuivenion]

13 minutes ago, Robrj said:

I have two monitors on my desk at work.  In one, I can see the dust lanes easily, in the other, not so much.

 

FWIW, Sharpcap 3.1's latest release can save images in .jpg format (and .tif).

In the Sombrero example images?

[Robrj]

5 minutes ago, cuivenion said:

In the Sombrero example images?

Yes.

[cuivenion]

Guess I'm better sticking to 8 bit JPG to cover all eventualities then. Was the second image the clearer one?

[Robrj]

They are all pretty clear in the better monitor.  In the better monitor, I can see clear, well defined spirals in your Fireworks shot and plenty of  nebulosity in the Iris.  In your second post, the M104 on the bottom is a bit brighter but the detail looks similar.

In the older monitor, the arms of the Fireworks galaxy and the nebulosity in the Iris are much fainter and more difficult to see.  In the second post, the second one looks much better in the older monitor.

[cuivenion]

Thanks. Yeah it looks like some screens won't display 12-16 bit png's properly. I can't see much difference between the two Sombrero images on my IPad. On the laptop the Jpg is much brighter.

[stevewanstall]

It's nice to see what can be captured using a ZWO ASI 224. I had a peek at First Light Optics and their description puts it in the planetary cam area (although they give a token nod to it being used for DSO. Have you ever used it for longer exposures ?  I am thinking of 120s + 

[cuivenion]

1 hour ago, stevewanstall said:

It's nice to see what can be captured using a ZWO ASI 224. I had a peek at First Light Optics and their description puts it in the planetary cam area (although they give a token nod to it being used for DSO. Have you ever used it for longer exposures ?  I am thinking of 120s + 

I havn't used it for exposures that long but it is capable of them. The main strength of the 224 though is it's low read noise. That allows you to image with shorter exposures, but of course you have to take a lot of them. This is an example of AP with short exposures and post processing:

This image was still guided despite the short exposures, to stop the raining noise effect caused by movement between frames and to keep the galaxy centered and on target. There are other examples in the imaging section as well.