Anybody get any worthwhile DSO images recently ?

[teoria_del_big_bang]

As per usual in my neck of the woods the only clear nights coinciding with full moon again.
As not had the rig out for a month or so I put it out in hope last night, or at least to check it still worked.
But no real NB images were high enough to image and attempts at galaxies just seemed to give me very washed out pretty useless results, so had a bit of a play about then packed in around midnight.

It was pretty difficult se see by eye as I could almost read a book last night in the moon glow but didn't actually look that clear despite CO reporting zero clouds.

Anybody have more luck with their gear or any tips what and how to image in such conditions ?

Steve

[scotty38]

I'm lucky that I have pretty good views but I did have a play with M81/M82 and the l-eXtreme the other night and was surprised what I saw. If it hadn't been for guiding issues it would have been good to add to more broadband data. Worth a thought???

[Catanonia]

Plenty of clear nights and I don't let the moon worry me.

Galaxy season is upon us and if you have a decent FL say 1000mm or more and point in opposite direction of the moon, you should have no issues.

[teoria_del_big_bang]

17 minutes ago, scotty38 said:

I'm lucky that I have pretty good views but I did have a play with M81/M82 and the l-eXtreme the other night and was surprised what I saw. If it hadn't been for guiding issues it would have been good to add to more broadband data. Worth a thought???

Definitely, I did try these targets, with my LP filter (IDAS P2 - I think) but I do not think that filter does anything regarding the moon so no decent data at all.
As mine is a mono I guess the l-eXtreme is equivalent to using Ha or OIII filters.
I did try Ha later on, as I had seen people often add Ha to galaxy images but that was not much better so put that down to maybe it was not as clear as I had hoped, maybe try that again tonight then add it to some RGB is I get  chance when the moon subsides.

Steve

[Catanonia]

6 minutes ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

Definitely, I did try these targets, with my LP filter (IDAS P2 - I think) but I do not think that filter does anything regarding the moon so no decent data at all.
As mine is a mono I guess the l-eXtreme is equivalent to using Ha or OIII filters.
I did try Ha later on, as I had seen people often add Ha to galaxy images but that was not much better so put that down to maybe it was not as clear as I had hoped, maybe try that again tonight then add it to some RGB is I get  chance when the moon subsides.

Steve

This is still Work in Progress, but gives you an idea

This was taken under a 83% moon with NO filters (bortle 6) at 2000mm.  M81 was in same section of the sky as the moon for most of it.

ZWO 2600 MC Pro OSC

A little gradients to sort out in processing, but nothing mad.

Edited March 19, 2022 by Catanonia

[teoria_del_big_bang]

11 minutes ago, Catanonia said:

Plenty of clear nights and I don't let the moon worry me.

Galaxy season is upon us and if you have a decent FL say 1000mm or more and point in opposite direction of the moon, you should have no issues.

I tried that and got a very nice image of my house 🙂 
 

I did realise I needed a longer FL than the Esprit 100 for Galaxy season and recently did acquire a RC6 but still in the process of getting it all set up so hopefully should have that in my armoury in next couple of weeks and maybe need to look at travelling or moving scope to bottom of garden to get some different sky to point at.

Steve

Edited March 19, 2022 by teoria_del_big_bang

[Catanonia]

1 minute ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

I tried that and got a very nice image of my house 🙂 
 

I did realise I needed a longer FL than the Esprit 100 for Galaxy season and recently did acquire a RC6 but still in the process of getting it ll set up so hopefully should have that in my armoury in next couple of weeks and maybe need to look at travelling or moving scope to bottom of garden to get some different sky to point at.

Steve

Yes, if you are limited skies, don't be afraid to move your kit accordingly. 

I used to have a roll off observatory, but it really limited my viewing, so now my EQ8 is portable setup. Spends most of the time on the patio, but can "easily" move it to bottom of the garden for the targets that require it.

[ollypenrice]

The combination of Sahara sand, if you still have it, and moonlight is not a good one.

I must say that I don't do anything during the full moon week, even in Ha.

Olly

[Craney]

16 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

I must say that I don't do anything during the full moon week....

you heard it here first.......

[Craney]

1 hour ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

As per usual in my neck of the woods the only clear nights coinciding with full moon again.

Yep, I'm just along the road.  Clear night  and a weekend..... Mrs C is in London.... oh....its the brightest full Moon ever....!!!!!

Anyway, I spent time star-test collimating a 6"RC and trying to get  zero's across the board on my SharpCap polar align.

Managed to eek out 24mins per channel on the Crab  (SHO) before it went behind the house.

Think I'll add to that tonight.

Always the Moon to image.....    the Morning after  😴

[DaveS]

My current WIP, NGC 2903 and M106 now need the best data I can get to progress at all, which means no full moon, which has, of course, been steadily marching through NGC 2903 and is heading towards M106. I also have NGC 3718 as WIP and I want to have another go at M101. All of which are in the moon's path.

[Stuart1971]

2 hours ago, scotty38 said:

I'm lucky that I have pretty good views but I did have a play with M81/M82 and the l-eXtreme the other night and was surprised what I saw. If it hadn't been for guiding issues it would have been good to add to more broadband data. Worth a thought???

Wow, great minds…😀 me too last night, but not processsed them yet, had the L-Extrme filter on after shooting the Heart, so gave it a shot, 80 x 2 min subs…looking forward to see if they produce anything…

[The Lazy Astronomer]

1 hour ago, ollypenrice said:

The combination of Sahara sand, if you still have it, and moonlight is not a good one.

I must say that I don't do anything during the full moon week, even in Ha.

Olly

Not sure if we're still suffering from the dust or not - didn't notice any orange skies yesterday, but it did appear to me that there was a sort of haziness in the glow of the moon - my glasses are always filthy though, so not ruling out some very localised dust!

[teoria_del_big_bang]

3 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

must say that I don't do anything during the full moon week, even in Ha.

Not even a nice red ? 🍷

Steve

[teoria_del_big_bang]

1 hour ago, The Lazy Astronomer said:

Not sure if we're still suffering from the dust or not - didn't notice any orange skies yesterday, but it did appear to me that there was a sort of haziness in the glow of the moon - my glasses are always filthy though, so not ruling out some very localised dust!

Looked same to me but then again my glasses are also filthy mostly with the dog licking them.

Steve

[scotty38]

This was from last night just to see what I could get, full moon trunk.....

[Anne S]

I thought I'd try the Abell 31. Couldn't see anything other than stars on the pc. Stacked 2 hours worth and got the image below. I'm trying for another 3 hours tonight.

I can't believe ha is so weak!

No processing other than calibration and stacking.

Edited March 19, 2022 by Anne S

[Stuart1971]

This was mine from last night 5 hours or 2 min subs of the Heart Nebula, under the full moon with the L-Extreme, and a crop of the centre….

and a brighter version, not sure which I prefer….🤔🤔

 

 

Edited March 19, 2022 by Stuart1971

[Ags]

Got these at the beginning of the month.

[teoria_del_big_bang]

1 hour ago, Stuart1971 said:

This was mine from last night 5 hours or 2 min subs of the Heart Nebula, under the full moon with the L-Extreme, and a crop of the centre….

and a brighter version, not sure which I prefer….🤔🤔

 

 

Nice, I tried to get on the heart but couldn't get to it, too many obstacles from my patio anyway.

Steve

[teoria_del_big_bang]

2 hours ago, Anne S said:

I thought I'd try the Abell 31. Couldn't see anything other than stars on the pc. Stacked 2 hours worth and got the image below. I'm trying for another 3 hours tonight.

I can't believe ha is so weak!

No processing other than calibration and stacking.

Pretty much just like my attempts last night

Steve

[scotty38]

6 hours ago, scotty38 said:

This was from last night just to see what I could get, full moon trunk.....

I think I might need a new monitor 🙂 Just saw this again on a different screen and looks to have a blue/green background, is that what it looks like???

Is this one better?

[teoria_del_big_bang]

Yes and Yes.

The first one did have a blue green tint to the background the second one doesn't.

In early days I found monitor calibration a real pain and my images looked different on all my monitors and laptops till I got one of THESE.

Steve


 

[scotty38]

14 minutes ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

Yes and Yes.

The first one did have a blue green tint to the background the second one doesn't.

In early days I found monitor calibration a real pain and my images looked different on all my monitors and laptops till I got one of THESE.

Steve


 

That sounds like it may be a very good idea. Never having used one how do they work basically and can they work for dual monitor setups plus laptop with/without external display?

[teoria_del_big_bang]

8 hours ago, scotty38 said:

That sounds like it may be a very good idea. Never having used one how do they work basically and can they work for dual monitor setups plus laptop with/without external display?

Yes, and very easy to use you just hang the thing over top of your monitor somewhere in the middle and press go basically.
To be honest it never seems to do a good job on my laptop monitor, colours do seem different on that but I always have a 2nd monitor plugged into Laptop (unless using it outside just for polar alignment) as with my eyes I struggle to see the small screen anyway, but the 2nd monitor and the two on my desktop seem to calibrate the same and with what I think are pretty much true colours.
Before I got one of these I think I was totally unaware f the issue till I entered a SGL competition and somebody remarked about the background colour, then I looked at one of my pics on a monitor at work and saw how different it looked.

Steve