How dark for the dark shark?

[Adamar98]

I’m contemplating going after LDN 1235 the shark nebula. I’m sure I’ll have to collect a fair amount of data but will it be worth it? I’m on the outskirts of a city. My bortle scale is 6. I’ll be using my Askar FRA400 @ f3.9 paired with my Atik 460. I’ve tried a few subs at 300 seconds but they look a little washed out. 180 second subs look fine. I was planning to collect around 15-20 hours in luminance and 5 hours each RGB (weather/moon permitting). Before I set out on this task, is it going to be worth all the effort? Will I get the required signal at those sub lengths in a class 6 bortle sky? Any feedback or examples of images with similar conditions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[The Lazy Astronomer]

Can't help, but following as I've got similar skies and would also like to know if this target would be done any sort of justice within a reasonable (12 - 24hrs) amount of integration time. 

[tomato]

This is my result from a Bortle 5/6 location with a RASA8/QHY268c, 6 hrs integration. I would haver thought my  OSC camera has to be less sensitive than your mono setup so definitely worth a go in my view.

[Adamar98]

2 hours ago, tomato said:

This is my result from a Bortle 5/6 location with a RASA8/QHY268c, 6 hrs integration. I would haver thought my  OSC camera has to be less sensitive than your mono setup so definitely worth a go in my view.

That’s a beauty! Very encouraging. Thank you for this. Looks like I have a new target to chase. What exposure time did you go for? I tried 5 mins but they’re a bit washed out. 3 mins seem ok.

[tomato]

My default exposure setting for RGB imaging with this set up is 120 secs. I could spend a lot of time optimising the exposure time for my sky conditions, scope/camera setup, but that number seems to work for me 95% of the time.

[Skipper Billy]

5 hours - 2 hours L in 15 min subs binned 1x1 and 1 hour each of RGB in 10 min binned 2x2

Atik 16200 mono.

Bortle 2 skies.

 

 

[Adamar98]

9 minutes ago, tomato said:

My default exposure setting for RGB imaging with this set up is 120 secs. I could spend a lot of time optimising the exposure time for my sky conditions, scope/camera setup, but that number seems to work for me 95% of the time.

Thanks for your feedback. I now have hope that I’ll achieve something. If it turns out half as good as yours, I’ll be a happy man.

[Adamar98]

4 minutes ago, Skipper Billy said:

5 hours - 2 hours L in 15 min subs binned 1x1 and 1 hour each of RGB in 10 min binned 2x2

Atik 16200 mono.

Bortle 2 skies.

 

 

I wish I had bortle 2 skies! Great image.

[tomato]

Just to convince you further, here is 103 x 2 mins with the F7 Esprit 150/IMX571 OSC rig from last night, and there was a crescent moon in the sky.

[gorann]

Seems like you have a rather portable set-up so could you not make a trip to a darker site, just for the night or weekend? For an object like this, which is not NB but quite faint RGB, a dark sky really makes a difference. Here is about 10 hours with a RASA 8 and ASI2600MC at Bortle2-3.

CS, Göran

Edited February 7, 2022 by gorann