NGC 7023. The Iris

[Rodd]

I find the adage “throw it in a drawer for a while and come back to it” a verifiable truth.  This image of the Iris Nebula is case in point. A slight modification has changed the dhold tenor of this image. 
 

TOA 130, ASzI 1600 and about 25 hours of RGB data

[tooth_dr]

Some of the best central detail I’ve seen with the Iris Rodd!  Still a little noisy for 25 hours of data?

[Rodd]

2 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

Some of the best central detail I’ve seen with the Iris Rodd!  Still a little noisy for 25 hours of data?

 Thanks Doc. Yes. My sky is poor.  Also, I think gain is an issue.  I used to use unity gain (139) and always had to collect crazy amounts of data.  I have been using gain 300 recently and have noticed much cleaner data.  11” of aperture helps too.  Maybe F7.7 Is just too much for 5” in reasonable time.  Getting late to shoot this one this year.     Maybe I can squeeze it in.

[alan potts]

That's got to be about the best I have seen, 25 hours, that's nearly a whole day.

Alan

[simmo39]

Looks so good! One for my list in the future.

[Rodd]

4 hours ago, alan potts said:

That's got to be about the best I have seen, 25 hours, that's nearly a whole day.

Alan

Thanks Alan.  If only we could take out all the cloudy time in between imaging sessions!

[alan potts]

3 hours ago, Rodd said:

Thanks Alan.  If only we could take out all the cloudy time in between imaging sessions!

I've not been great this year out here but in general I do better than the UK, lost a large amount of June this year 23 days of rain and had a load of nights where it started nice and clouded over after a short while. I always seem to get great nights at before or just after a full Moon. I lookd at one of the Optolong filter and bought it but didn't like the result I got. I viewed some work by Goran the other day where he was using an IDAS filter, this seem rather better than I saw from mine but he is a very good imager.

Alan

[Rodd]

Just now, alan potts said:

I've not been great this year out here but in general I do better than the UK, lost a large amount of June this year 23 days of rain and had a load of nights where it started nice and clouded over after a short while. I always seem to get great nights at before or just after a full Moon. I lookd at one of the Optolong filter and bought it but didn't like the result I got. I viewed some work by Goran the other day where he was using an IDAS filter, this seem rather better than I saw from mine but he is a very good imager.

Alan

I don’t think any filter is really great.   Sunlight ( moonlight) is pretty full spectrum.  I see the same here, often clear the week of the full moon and rarely any other time. The forecasts are not to be trusted. Many nights it’s raining all day and HHS forecast is gif more of the same at night so I do not pay attention and at midnight I notice it crystal clear. Of the opposite happens and the Ford cast is for no clouds and it gets totally socked in. I just don’t get it