North American Nebula, and closeup of the Wall

[powerlord]

Shot last night - forecast said clouds from 12 - but it was clear all night. Seeing was exceptional - best I think I've ever had - I was getting under 2 FWHM with the 750mm FL newt, and also with my Canon F4 300mm.

It's the first real light for my asi2600 after the first one was a bit of a disaster.

I shot the same target at the same time, with 2 different setups:

asi533, TS-Photon 150 F5 and L-extreme 285 minutes of 5 minute exposures gain 100

asi2600, Canon F4 L 300mm and L-extreme 130 minutes of 5 minute exposures gain 100

I screwed up flats on the TS150, and I ran out of time for bias and darks (not got a library yet).

So.. believe it or not all of this is with no flats, darks or bias for either of them. Just lights.

I went for a gold/light blue hubble as I think it really suited it.

As always with this target trying to do something with the millions of stars in pelican nebula is an excercise in compromise - I got something I was happy with in affinity photo using James's amazing macros (star eater)

I'm pretty happy with these tbh. NO topaz denoising or sharpening at all here - other than a bit of old school denoise, it's as it came out the camera.

I am stoked with the asi2600 - look at those stars - they are like pin heads with my canon lens! And the newt performed amazingly with the asi533 (and it had a bite size chunk out the secondary mirror, and a big scratch on the primary!!)

I thought it would be really interesting to shoot this target twice on same night and see just what extra detail the newt can bring out,

[powerlord]

So er... I thought at the time that the subs I was getting for the widefield with the asi2600 and 300mm looked weird - kinda of more starry and less nebula-y than I expected.

Taking the kit apart today.. I found I had forgot to put the 2" L-extreme in.

Duh. So all shot with only the IR filter window of the asi2600 !!

So...on the plus side, I didn't know I had, so I just processed widband data as if it was narrowband data from an L-extreme (throwing B away, keeping G as B/oiii, creating a fake G with 60%xR+40%B, putting together as RRGB... and tbh honest it sort of worked ??

anyway - please feel free to send me my 'muppet of the week' mug. 🤪

stu