Anyone still imaging in the UK?

[rnobleeddy]

I'd pretty much given up a month or so ago, but after selling a spare OTA to a more enthusiastic summer imager, I thought I'd recapture my "have a go" spirit and decided to collect some subs over the recent clear nights.

This was fraught with issues aside from the lack of darkness. My scope, having previously held collimation for months, was no long collimated. After some testing swapping spacers to a new OTA, I'd lost track of the correct coma corrector spacing. One night partway through the collection, the frame shifted by half a degree, but magically kept guiding. 

This is what I ended up with: approx 6 hours of narrow band data,  quickly processed. As expected, the Ha data dominates, and there's plenty to pick fault with. But I'm glad I tried - I would have thought this was magical when I started a year ago and it gives me something to benchmark against later in the year.

So just wondering if anyone else is still having a go - and if you want to share?

 

 

Edited June 17, 2021 by rnobleeddy

[Chefgage]

Yes I will be imaging all through summer. I see no reason to stop as certain targets are not visible in winter. 

[AbsolutelyN]

We've had more clear skies since April than in the entire of last winter so I'm certainly making the most any clear skies I can get. I was unsure how possible it would be without proper dark skies and very short nights but so far so good and soon nights start getting longer again. This is 5.5 hours over two not very dark nights last weekend - approx 23:30 to 2:30. 

Edited June 18, 2021 by AbsolutelyN

[PeterCPC]

I have something else to do - it's called sleeping.

[Jamgood]

I've been working on a 6 panel mosaic of the Veil Nebula during these lighter nights and what really started as a practice more than anything is turning out quite well so I'm keeping at it as and when I can. Only get around 2hrs of usable darkness each night so it has been a slow burner.

I'm currently up to 2hrs per panel of data but the last combine and stretch I did was 50mins each. This is that result of that.

[powerlord]

very nice. Yup, as still learning I'm taking every opportunity I can. Focusing (sic) on North America at the moment. I took broadband with h-alpha with a DSLR (see this forum), and the other day took some oiii (which is very washed out on bottom half.. I'm wondering if light leakage). Next time sii. All with the DSLR as that's what I've got.

Narrowband seems to work ok last weekend even up to 3.30am. The h-alpha for example was really noise free in the R channel.

Er..as a newbie.. what is yours off ? I want to say jellyfish.. as that's what it looks like but nebula names are not the most sensible sometimes.

[david_taurus83]

Yep. Captured this DSLR image last weekend with a new Redcat 51. Started at 12 and finished at 2am from a bortle 6 location. Just confirmed my thoughts that you absolutely do not need astro darkness to image. Used a broadband IDAS D2 LP filter as well. No duo band like the L-Enhance etc

 

[Adam1234]

I've not done any deep sky imaging since beginning of April (when I imaged M81 & M82). Took some lunar shots sometime in April also maybe, I can't remember. 

Taking this time of short nights and astrodarkness to get back into playing guitar.

Bring on longer nights!

[The Lazy Astronomer]

Still new to all this business, so I'm out at every opportunity. A couple of images to show for it at the minute, both in Ha only: 1 hour and 10 minutes of M16, and 3 hours of the elephants trunk

Currently working on M27, trying to see how much of the faint halo it's possible for me to get. Only problem is, there's so much interesting stuff coming up now that it's difficult not to get distracted away!

[Rustang]

I was going to stop for a few weeks but couldn't help myself after discovering a new target so Ive been gathering some noisy data on that for a couple of nights! 😁

[carastro]

It's a bit of a slog this time of year, but having had to "lay off" during galaxy season, I could not resist the targets in Cygnus when they arrived.  I can only do narrowband from SE London anyway.  Can normally only manage a couple of hours a night by the time it gets dark(ish) and then light again, so generally takes about 3 nights to do an image.   But at least i am not forcing myself to image right through the night.

Acquisitions n the last few weeks.

 

 

 

Edited June 18, 2021 by carastro

[Budgie1]

Up here we have Sunrise at 04:28 and Sunset at 22:16 and 17 hours and 48 minutes of daylight for today. It's also Twilight all night at the moment, so never mind astronomical darkness, it doesn't even get completely  dark! 🥴

Still, on the bright side, it's been cloudy for the last 3 weeks so I couldn't have done any imaging anyway and it means I don't have to slather on the Smidge just to setup the scope!  

I'll be back imaging by August (hopefully) and in the meantime I get to see what everyone else is managing to do on SGL, finding handy tips for processing and swapping a bank balance for more astro kit, so it's not all bad.  

[Astro Noodles]

Absolutely still imaging when weather allows. Got these images of the nova in Hercules:

12/13 June

14/15 June

[Quetzalcoatl72]

Lots of hubble images posted here somehow, I live in bortle 8 and I gave up till after summer solstice there's just no point. One whole hour of darkness isn't enough and the weather forcasts keep lying. No Idea how the above are getting those images this time of year. I did take this 1st of June tho. It was my first time guiding, using a CCD attached to laptop and plate solving. I can't wait till i can use my new found ability's on darker times. First time 300 sec exposure too, always been used to 2-3 mins.

Edited June 18, 2021 by Quetzalcoatl72

[iapa]

My first night with very few clouds last night, so got my first session since last year - two nights in April where a disaster.

So, first light from Bode’s Nebulae on the RedCat using an ASI183MC-Pro cooled.

No PA, no guiding, no calibration. Edited in iPad with Lightroom and Photoshop.

I have posted this in another forum, but, <shrug>

 

[DaveS]

I revisited M13 with the ODK rig over 4 nights at the beginning of June, 4th, 9th, 12th and 13th. This is just 15 subs each RGB in G2v calibration. Unfortunately the Luminance was unusable as it was both overexposed, and only 4 subs were useable due to cloud.

For what it's worth, here it is

Will try to get some short Luminance subs.

[DaveS]

Although it's a bit of an old chestnut, M13 is bright and crosses the meridian at a good altitude so a nice target in these twilight nights. Can even be imaged under LP.

[DaveS]

Argh! Misread my notations, dur...

This is only 13 subs stacked. Captured 15, but DSS only stacked the best 90% .

[iapa]

Oh, and there was definite orange/red sun glow on the horizon all night and bright skies - civilian darkness only, so you can see perfectly well.

[carastro]

Quote

Up here we have Sunrise at 04:28 and Sunset at 22:16 and 17 hours and 48 minutes of daylight for today. It's also Twilight all night at the moment, so never mind astronomical darkness, it doesn't even get completely  dark! 

Ah Yes, Fort William, I visited Scotland in June some years ago.  When we were in Thurso, I remember looking out at the Orkneys from the beach and it was still light ish around midnight.  Good job they had black out curtains at the hotel or we couldn't have slept.  Also visited Fort William (we were on a coach tour of Scotland,.  Such a beautiful place.

Carole    

[iapa]

32 minutes ago, carastro said:

Ah Yes, Fort William, I visited Scotland in June some years ago.  When we were in Thurso, I remember looking out at the Orkneys from the beach and it was still light ish around midnight.  Good job they had black out curtains at the hotel or we couldn't have slept.  Also visited Fort William (we were on a coach tour of Scotland,.  Such a beautiful place.

Carole    

Damn right it beautiful - best country on the planet.

The wild Haggis are an issue in breeding season tho’. Vicious little sods. Still bear the scars on my arms from a hunt.

Tonight sunset it 22:03, sun rise 04:28.

 

[tomato]

I'm still imaging, and against all sensible advice still imaging galaxies, albeit bright ones. This is a WIP on M63, using the 2 hours of Nautical darkness still available from my location. By the time the moon gets out of the way to continue this one, the nights will be getting longer!

[Astro Noodles]

17 minutes ago, iapa said:

Damn right it beautiful - best country on the planet.

The wild Haggis are an issue in breeding season tho’. Vicious little sods. Still bear the scars on my arms from a hunt.

Tonight sunset it 22:03, sun rise 04:28.

 

Have you been at the Wiskey Iapa?

[Budgie1]

1 hour ago, carastro said:

Ah Yes, Fort William, I visited Scotland in June some years ago.  When we were in Thurso, I remember looking out at the Orkneys from the beach and it was still light ish around midnight.  Good job they had black out curtains at the hotel or we couldn't have slept.  Also visited Fort William (we were on a coach tour of Scotland,.  Such a beautiful place.

Carole    

Yes Carol, I have to suffer working in an office overlooked by Ben Nevis, next to the Caledonian Canal with the Hogwarts Express passing four times a day. It's a hard life but someone has to live here.  

I moved down here from the Isle of Lewis, so it's a bit darker here than it was up there at this time of year.

Here's my SkyCam image from this evening (see time stamp) to show how light it is still, and I know I'm not as far North as some on SGL!

Edited June 18, 2021 by Budgie1

[Whistlin Bob]

Managed to get 90 minutes on the Cygnus Wall last Saturday- half an hour of RGB then 60 minutes  of Ha. Might wait a bit for the other channels to get the best contrast. The nights are short but it's definitely still viable if you go for brighter targets. Nice time to observe as well- sat out in the warm splitting doubles and doing low mag views of milky way star fields. A couple of weeks ago I could see the bridge of light on M51- I live in a Bortle 5, and I'm not convinced the twilight is that much worse than the bright street lights I put up with the rest of the year.