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Barnard 344 and vicinity


Rodd

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I recently saw an image of B344 on AB and fell in love with it.  I remembered that I had imaged the region in widefield and was lucky to find that my stacks--all of them both narrowband and broadband were not lost when my eternal hard drive crashed.  I attempted to crop and process B344 from the previously processed SHO image, but when cropped, it was apparent that I should really go back and process the full image again.  I just couldn't abide by the quality.  Then I found the unprocessed stacks and gave it a whirl from scratch.  Fortunately this crop is from the center region of the image, so the slight miscollimation is not as obvious as it could have been in a crop of this magnitude (quite a large crop--9.4mb to 679 kb).  Originally I intended to do an RGB (or HaRGB) to compare with the HaSHO--but then I recalled that I never liked the HaRGB image very much.  I've tweaked and tweaked-a bit of a lift here, a little drop there, but keep coming back to this version-so here goes.

FSQ 106 with .6x reducer and AST 1600 with Astrodon 3nm filters

Ha: 53 300 sec

OII: 70 300 sec

SII: 125 300 sec

Image04-decon4.jpg.d9700415240b3e37b67dab49817f263a.jpg

 

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Well that's one I don't think I've ever seen, beautifully done may I say.  I have never used any form of narrow band filters on my Canon but I do have a some decent 2 inch ones I used for visual, Olll, UHC Hbeta and a deep sky filter which I think is basically a street lamp filter, don't actually know if any of them are useable. May I ask is there any advantage to the somewhat pricey Astrodon 3nm filter.

Alan 

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1 hour ago, alan potts said:

Well that's one I don't think I've ever seen, beautifully done may I say.  I have never used any form of narrow band filters on my Canon but I do have a some decent 2 inch ones I used for visual, Olll, UHC Hbeta and a deep sky filter which I think is basically a street lamp filter, don't actually know if any of them are useable. May I ask is there any advantage to the somewhat pricey Astrodon 3nm filter.

Alan 

The 3nm filters are supposed to have a narrower band pass, which is supposed to filter unwanted frequencies out.  There is less light transmission due to the narrowband pass, but the resulting SNR is supposed to be higher.  I haven't really done a comparison--I am sure others have.  I do like them better than the  the Baader 7.5nm (Ha and SII) and 8.5?(OIII) for stars.  regarding the visual filters--I remember one time I could not see the veil visually, but when I used n OIII filter I could see parts of it faintly.  I was not super impressed.  Then again, my sky is far from dark and visual astronomy can be frustrating.

Rodd

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  • Rodd changed the title to Barnard 344 and vicinity

Here's a more natural version I think.  I can never seem to get it the first time.  The stars have color now--sort of like RGB stars

 

 

 

 

 

B6b.jpg.29923acea89f3b5c1b9377bf41412023.jpg

 

Edited by Rodd
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11 hours ago, Rodd said:

The 3nm filters are supposed to have a narrower band pass, which is supposed to filter unwanted frequencies out.  There is less light transmission due to the narrowband pass, but the resulting SNR is supposed to be higher.  I haven't really done a comparison--I am sure others have.  I do like them better than the  the Baader 7.5nm (Ha and SII) and 8.5?(OIII) for stars.  regarding the visual filters--I remember one time I could not see the veil visually, but when I used n OIII filter I could see parts of it faintly.  I was not super impressed.  Then again, my sky is far from dark and visual astronomy can be frustrating.

Rodd

Thank you for that Rodd, the veil is stunning with an Olll from my garden with my 18 inch, I do wonder what you top guys and gals would do with sky like mine where last night I could see M13 and later in the year M33 without optics.

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13 hours ago, HunterHarling said:

Very nice, I like the colors.

Rodd- what adapters and rings, ect did you use to connect the ZWO to your takahashi? Also, did you use parallax or tak rings for it? I might consider getting the fsq 106 at some point.

First the easy one--The rings.  For the FSQ 106 I used the TAK rings.  I tried parallax and the ones they sent had a big chip in them and they were a bit crooked.  I do use parallax with the TOA 130 though.  The FSQ is a short scope-when mounted with the rings set a bit apart (which is the best way), the dew shield cannot be fully retracted (it impacts the front ring).  One other thing about this scope--if you use a Losmandy style mount plate, the scope has to sit a bit forward in the saddle due to its length.  Depending on your focus motor (if you use one) it may impinge upon the back of the mount plate.  Mine does.  I use a Posi drive system that is fairly cumbersome.  They can reverse engineer t though so it protrudes the other way-which is what I need.  But you have to know that ahead of time as it costs an additional $300 (basically the cost of the system).  I think if you order it up front, it will be the same cost as the normal motor.

Now the adapters--it depends on the camera, the filter wheel, the filters, and whether you use a reducer or not.  For my setup with the .6x reducer, ASI 1600, EFW7 and Astrodons the "connector" length had to be 25.4mm (if I remember correctly)--or something like that.  But I tried several similar distances (all requiring different configurations) because I had a miscolomation that I originally thought was a distance issue.  It has since been fixed--but it has yet to be unboxed as I am  having an affair with the TOA😊.  If you do get one I can call TNR and get your distance and what you need quite easily.  I always let them determine it so I don't make a mistake.  One thing--TAK spacers are about 5x the cost of ZWO spacers.  

Rodd

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16 hours ago, Gina said:

I have both 3nm and 5nm Astrodon filters and the 3nm is definitely a lot better.

The 5nm Ha will pick up Ha-b though and the 3nm wont (or is it Ha-a)-doesn't sound quite right, but there is a band that the 3nm misses--I still like the 3nm!

Rodd 

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7 hours ago, alan potts said:

Thank you for that Rodd, the veil is stunning with an Olll from my garden with my 18 inch, I do wonder what you top guys and gals would do with sky like mine where last night I could see M13 and later in the year M33 without optics.

Sounds sublime.  I have been to the Adirondack mountains and at night there are so many stars you literally can't recognize constellations--IF ONLY!

Rodd

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21 minutes ago, Rodd said:

The 5nm Ha will pick up Ha-b though and the 3nm wont (or is it Ha-a)-doesn't sound quite right, but there is a band that the 3nm misses--I still like the 3nm!

Rodd 

Not quite right - Ha 5mm covers Ha (Hydrogen Alpha) and NII  (Nitrogen) which is in planetary nebulae I gather, whereas the 3nm Ha filter doesn't cover NII.  If I want to gather NII photons I would want them separate from Ha.  I can do this by taking images in 5nm Ha and subtracting the 3nm Ha leaving the NII.  I've only had a chance to try this once for a short imaging time and it seemed to work.  I'm hoping I can manage more NB imaging this coming season!

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1 minute ago, Gina said:

Not quite right - Ha 5mm covers Ha (Hydrogen Alpha) and NII  (Nitrogen) which is in planetary nebulae I gather, whereas the 3nm Ha filter doesn't cover NII.  If I want to gather NII photons I would want them separate from Ha.  I can do this by taking images in 5nm Ha and subtracting the 3nm Ha leaving the NII.  I've only had a chance to try this once for a short imaging time and it seemed to work.  I'm hoping I can manage more NB imaging this coming season!

That's right--I knew there was an I in there somewhere.  that is serious dedication--buying both Astrodon filters!  I suppose its only the Ha though that you need both.  The problem is what color will the Nii be mapped at?  It will have to be different than the Ha to be visible beyond what it would be if collected as part of the Ha.  

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I have Astrodon 5nm Ha and SII plus 3nm Ha, OIII and SII.  I think buying two SII filters was a mistake as I seem to capture very little SII.  Guess I should get round to selling one of them.

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2 minutes ago, Gina said:

I have Astrodon 5nm Ha and SII plus 3nm Ha, OIII and SII.  I think buying two SII filters was a mistake as I seem to capture very little SII.  Guess I should get round to selling one of them.

I am sure there will be a queue for that rarely see anything Astrodon on the S/H market.

 

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14 minutes ago, Gina said:

I have Astrodon 5nm Ha and SII plus 3nm Ha, OIII and SII.  I think buying two SII filters was a mistake as I seem to capture very little SII.  Guess I should get round to selling one of them.

I use 3nm for all--To decide, why not take a sub with one and the same sub with the other and see which has a higher SNR.  If they are the same (and I suspect they will be the same, or very nearly so, to the eye at least), then I'd keep the 3nm.  The SNR is supposed to be higher over all.

Rodd

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I can't say I've taken subs at the same time with two imaging systems, one Ha 5nm and one 3nm for a direct comparison but overall the 3nm filter definitely seemed to give better SNR.  I may be able to make a direct comparison when we get some decent weather and dark skies - I have two astro cameras and pairs of some vintage SLR lenses.  This could fit in if/when I image planetary nebulae though for a direct comparison you want nebulae without NII.  OTOH a comparison with planetary nebulae would be worthwhile for those interested in this sort of nebulae.  I think I may have a short run in my collection.

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To be complete--Here is the entire FOV reprocessed.  I was never satisfied with the original.  Ringing around stars has been fixed.  I still think it could use some fine scale noise reduction, but I tend to blow it up if I attempt it.  Maybe the slight miscolimation is rearing its ugly head at the fine scale.  The image has been rotated to match the original

ZZZdown2tgv.thumb.jpg.c44299da36b597bc2849ac4b81b89c00.jpg

 

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That's a brilliant image Rodd.

Regarding Astrodons, I have a full set of the 3nm in 1.25", but won't be buying any more as they have become prohibitively expensive. I will probably compromise with the Baader 3.5 / 4.5 nm "enforced" NB filters.

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2 hours ago, DaveS said:

That's a brilliant image Rodd.

Regarding Astrodons, I have a full set of the 3nm in 1.25", but won't be buying any more as they have become prohibitively expensive. I will probably compromise with the Baader 3.5 / 4.5 nm "enforced" NB filters.

Thanks Dave.  I hear ya.  If I ever have occasion to purchase filters again, something that I don't foresee as it would mean I have purchased another camera, they probably won't be Astrodons either (at least the LRGB--hard to pass on the NB filters though).  Its amazing that a full set of 7 36mm filters costs more than some decent 4" APOs.  I did see a big difference between my Baaders and the Astrodons, but I was just starting out and the difference could easily have been me as apposed to the filters.  Since there are some amazing images taken with filters other than Astrodon, it is obvious that they are not the only game in town.

Rodd

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