Do i continue

[Stu Wilson]

I reprocessed my data on the veil and this really is the best I can get with my skills from it.

My question is do I spend several more hours on it collecting more data or move on to something else?

Using My QHY8l with new Quadband AA filter pretty much all the time now through my SW 200P guided on NEQ6pro mount.

What other targets should I be trying for with this setup????

 

Cheers for advice

 

Clear skies

 

Stu

[jiberjaber]

There are some online tools which can help identify what targets might work for your location and equipment then it comes down to what you fancy from a shorter list

Give here a try: https://telescopius.com/deep-sky/search 

 

[ollypenrice]

In your image there are hints of faint secondary features like the 'second broom handle' and outer arms of the broom's brush. Anything faint and teetering on the brink of visibility will benefit from more exposure but you need to know that signal to noise only grows as the square root of the number of exposures, so 'more exposure' is only effective when you have 'a lot more.' Wouldn't you know it!!

😁lly

[Stu Wilson]

1 hour ago, ollypenrice said:

In your image there are hints of faint secondary features like the 'second broom handle' and outer arms of the broom's brush. Anything faint and teetering on the brink of visibility will benefit from more exposure but you need to know that signal to noise only grows as the square root of the number of exposures, so 'more exposure' is only effective when you have 'a lot more.' Wouldn't you know it!!

😁lly

Cheers Olly ill maybe grab some more then. Seem to of got alot of guiding issues sorted since doing Rowen belt mods and coma corrector plus quad band filter seem to be doing their things.

[jambouk]

It's a nice image - I'd be very proud of that. My repetoire of deep sky images is very small however, so take anything I say with a pinch of salt.

I think it depends what you are after. There ought to be a grading system of image quality...

1. No idea what the target is meant to be
2. I can at least tell what the target is
3. A basic attempt at the target
4. A good amateur attempt at the target
5. A very good amateur attempt at the target
6. A near perfect amateur attempt at the target
7. A perfect image of the target

Clearly I've just made that scale up, and others will question it and criticise, but I would give this image a score of 3.75. I think with improved processing it could be moved up to a 4.5 or 5. More data may also help push it towards a 5. But I wonder if processing here is a big limiting factor rather than just the amount of data. Are you able to share the TIF file and see how others can tweak your data? If others can easily push this towards a 5, then I would consider moving onto another target AND get honing your processing skills.

But as I say, I am no expert [on anything].

James

[jambouk]

Also, I can't see how much data is in this image? Lights, flats, darks etc?

James

 

[catburglar]

I think you need to come back to the ‘diminishing returns’  point made by Olly- if there’s only 60mins of data in that image, then adding another 60mins will likely make a noticeable difference. However, if you’ve already sunk 6 hours of data, then another hour or two won’t add much....How patient do you feel? Have you u got a wish list of autumn targets that you’d be missing out on if you go after this. 
But to counterpoint the above- most of the targets will still be there next year if you don’t get around to them this season.