February 26, 2022: First DSO image of the year, and first Monkey Head

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

After a 2 month wait, finally some clear skies. I got the APM 80 mm F/6 out on the Vixen Great Polaris mount, attached the ASI183MM-Pro and Tele-Vue 0.8x reducer, fought with polar alignment, got everything working, started taking some shot of the Monkey Head, found tracking was hopeless, redid polar alignment, managed to get OK 60s unguided subs, and managed to get 1 hour in H-alpha, O-III and S-II each with 2x2 binning. Stacked the lot in APP, and created HOO and SHO combinations. Some final tweaks and crops in GIMP.

HOO

SHO

Hopefully I can double the amount of data tonight

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Gave the images a slight tweak again. I found I could stretch them a bit more without exploding the noise

This is really the first time SHO worked at all for me. Will definitely try to get more S-II in particular (and if time allows, als on the Jellyfish).

[Same old newbie alert]

Nice images Micheal, can I ask what gain and offset you use  with narrowband with your 183 please, asking for a friend