SGL 2022 Challenge 9 - Ceph and Cass

[MartinB]

Lying close together these 2 constellations contain some of the most photogenic and popular deep sky targets in the sky along with some  "roads less travelled".  There are plenty of options including wide field constellation images and sketches.  However, sadly, wide field landscape images are not included in this challenge simply because is is impossible to judge these alongside longer focal length deep sky images.

Start date: 1st September 2022

End date: 30th November 2022

No entries will be accepted after this date

RULES

All data must be captured and processed by you (no collaborative entries). 
Data must be captured during the challenge start & end dates. 
Multiple entries are allowed but please start a new topic for each entry. 
Multiple submissions of the same image, processed differently, will not be accepted.

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To enter please post within this topic, do not start a new topic. Please post as much information as possible - when it was taken, how it was captured and processed, etc. The info won't necessarily be used for judging but will help fellow SGLers looking to learn and improve their knowledge and technique.

Please do not post responses to entries since this clutters up the thread, emojis are very welcome however.

[pipnina]

I think it would be nice to narrow down a little on what is too widefield for this challenge. Is the rule only excluding images that have earth ground in them, or would say a 50mm lens be too wide in general for example?

[The Lazy Astronomer]

14 hours ago, pipnina said:

I think it would be nice to narrow down a little on what is too widefield for this challenge. Is the rule only excluding images that have earth ground in them, or would say a 50mm lens be too wide in general for example?

I would take the term "widefield landscape images" to mean images which contain terrestrial foreground, but maybe that's not right!

[Adreneline]

19 hours ago, pipnina said:

I think it would be nice to narrow down a little on what is too widefield for this challenge.

I agree. When does an image become 'widefield'? Is it determined by angular extent, focal length of lens, either, both? Is a mosaic wide field irrespective of focal length and/or angular extent? Challenge aside when do you publish an image in Deep Sky and when should it be in Widefield, Special Events and Comets? I would have thought 50mm and less was wide field but I am probably wrong. We need @MartinB to define "wide field" please.

Edited September 3, 2022 by Adreneline

[MartinB]

There is no restriction other than the image shouldn't contain a foreground.  Any focal length can be used for this challenge. 

As far as I am aware there are no formal rules regarding posting on the widefield or the deep sky board.

[tomato]

Thanks for the clarification for the challenge Martin. I've posted mosaics and SY135 images in the deep sky section, and nobody has ever come back and said they should be in the widefield section. A widefield image soon becomes narrow when you zoom in...

[Varavall]

Hi all

Looks like I'm first out the trap, probably because of the lousy weather in the UK; lucky you 😁

IC59 - Ghost of Cassiopeia. Taken on night of 5th September from my home in the mountains of Tarragona. SW 200pds, HEQ5 with Rowan belts, ZWO ASI1600MM-Cool, Astrodon Tru balance RGB, Astrodon 5nm Ha, Optolong 7.5nm Sii & Oiii, Guider TS 80mm with QHY5III462C. Software NINA, PHD2, ASTAP, GIMP & Starnet.

Images: 11 x 600s Ha; 10 x 600s Sii; 9 x 600s Oiii; 10 x 120s each for RGB.

Aligned and stacked in ASTAP; processed in GIMP and star removal by Starnet.

Adrian

[Varavall]

Hi all

I searched the sky for an appropriate Ha target as there was a full moon, so I plumped for NGC7822. in Cepheus.

Location: My home, Terra Alta, Tarragona, Spain the night of 9th September 2022. Without the Moon usually Bortle 3/4.

Kit: SW HEQ5 Pro Rowan belted; SW 200pds with SW coma corrector; ZWO 1600MM-cool; filters Astrodon 5nm Ha and Tru balance RGB; guided with QHY5III462C on TS 80mm finder/guider; software CdeC, PHD2 and NINA.

Subs: 17 x 900s Ha; 2 x 120s each RGB for capturing stars.

Calibrated, aligned and stacked in ASTAP; processed in Starnet and GIMP. Using the Ha as luminence channel also.

Colour chosen to give best detail, at least to my old eyes.

 

 

[powerlord]

A wideview with my redcat and asi2600. I think I might keep adding to this and make a massive mosaic.

6 1/2 hours of 10 min subs from last night with L-extreme filter.

[Clarkey]

Ok, I'll put one in the mix.... Very similar to the @powerlord picture above in terms of location, but less widefield and in SHO. Slightly unusually there was more SII signal in a lot of the area compared with OIII which gives the SHO rendition a rather colourful appearance. A lobster, bubble and lagoon (small northern one), all in the same picture. Where else could you get this😆

Taken over two- and a-bit nights (12th, 13th and 16th of September) during a fullish moon using a StellaMira 90mm triplet at F4.8. and ASI160mm pro. Total integration was around 14 hours, with an extra half an hour of RGB for the stars.

 

Edited September 18, 2022 by Clarkey
Added camera and more detail

[Simon Pepper]

Here is my first of probably many entries here as long as the skies hold! Rather embarrassingly I spent a whole night on LDN951 at the heart of SH2-119 was just about to add it here and realised the thread was Ceph and Cass and not Ceph and Cyg! Please see technical details below in the correct part of the sky!

The Lion,  The Wizard & In HOO 2x2 Mosaic

Shot on 17/09 & 18/09 total integration is 7hr 25min images were taken with Redcat, ZWO 1600mm pro, ZWO Ha and Oiii filters, HEQ5 pro.

Pane1 12x300 Ha / 12x300 Oiii
Pane2 12x300 Ha / 6x300 Oiii
Pane3 10x300 Ha / 13x300 Oiii
Pane4 12x300 Ha / 12x300 Oiii

Resolution: 8058x5974 / Pixel Scale: 3.165 

Thanks 

 

Edited September 20, 2022 by Simon Pepper

[powerlord]

11 hours ago, Simon Pepper said:

Here is my first of probably many entries here as long as the skies hold! Rather embarrassingly I spent a whole night on LDN951 at the heart of SH2-119 was just about to add it here and realised the thread was Ceph and Cass and not Ceph and Cyg! Please see technical details below in the correct part of the sky!

The Lion,  The Wizard & In HOO 2x2 Mosaic

Shot on 17/09 & 18/09 total integration is 7hr 25min images were taken with Redcat, ZWO 1600mm pro, ZWO Ha and Oiii filters, HEQ5 pro.

Pane1 12x300 Ha / 12x300 Oiii
Pane2 12x300 Ha / 6x300 Oiii
Pane3 10x300 Ha / 13x300 Oiii
Pane4 12x300 Ha / 12x300 Oiii

Resolution: 8058x5974 / Pixel Scale: 3.165 

Thanks 

 

the lion, the wizard in hoo oh my!

-sorry but it was crying out for a Wizard of Oz reference 🙂

[powerlord]

The Iris Widefield. I may try to add Ha to this.

Shot with my trusty old Canon 6d and SY 135mm.

no filters, 30 second subs - 1000 of the things, but lots of clouds through the night, so lots of plodding through 1000 subs selecting the best 500.

Stackin 500  50mb subs took a wee while (and 150gb of temporary ssd space).

I love the 135mm - pin sharp edge to edge. This was stopped down to F4. As I say, I'd like to add some Ha if I can - maybe when up at Kelling Heath if the weather is kind.

And look in the bottom left for the Fireworks Galaxy making a surprise appearance! (which is why I left the bottom in though it's got a fair amount of stacking artifacts).

Just shows you though, you don't need to spend a fortune to get good piccies (though I have in the past 18 months!!! just not on the kit this was taken with!)

[emyliano2000]

Can I still enter if I started the target on the 25th August? It's quite hard to get many hours to finish a target during the 3 months period. 

Was lucky to get some clear skies at the end of August but a lot of the subs have been shot in September. 

Emil

[eshy76]

Hello, I have an image that i added 13 hours of data captured in September 2022 to data acquired in previous years. The new data amounted to 50% of the overall integration time. Would that be permissible?

[Simon Pepper]

My second entry here and a familiar FOV. I am hooked on mosaics at the moment so again this is two panes stitched together. Shot using my usual equipment , Redcat, ZWO 1600mm pro, ZWO Ha, Oiii & Sii filters, HEQ5 pro. Also shot using 600s exposures which is the first time I have tried that (been lazy and never had the corresponding dark library)! Images taken on the 20/09 & 21/09.

Pane1  9x600 Ha / 6x600 Oiii / 6x600 Sii

Pane2 6x600 Ha / 6x600 Oiii / 6x600 Sii

Total 6hrs 30 minutes

Resolution 6204x4469 Pixel Scale 3.158

I have been fortunate down here in the south for a few clear partial nights, but the weather appears to be turning a lot of cloud and rain for the next week at least. I hope others have a bit more luck.

Thanks 

[tomato]

Here is LDN 1235, the Dark Shark in Cepheus. Captured at the Autumn AstroCamp, at Cwmdu,  Wales on the 25th September. 26 x 3 mins with RASA8/RC571c/Baader UV/IR filter. Calibrated and stacked in APP, processed in APP, PI, Background Neutralisation, colour calibration, StarXterminator, Histogram and Curves Transformation, the extracted stars image was taken into StarTools and the corner stars modified with the Warp tool. Back into PI to recombine with PixelMath then NoiseXterminator applied. Finished in AP (colour balancing mainly).

Edited September 29, 2022 by tomato
Reprocess of original data

[Budgie1]

I'm not sure if this is a work in progress of whether I've completed it for now, but it's the best I have for this challenge to date.

This is IC59, Ghost of Cassiopeia, taken over two nights - 32x300s on 10th Sept & 11x180s on 26th Sept, giving a total of 3h13m of exposure. Not much for this object but it's all I've managed so far and they were both far from ideal nights. The first had passing high cloud and Moon, the second passing low cloud before clouding over completely. 

Image taken with ASI294MC Pro at -10°C, gain 200, offset 30 & fitted with an L-eNhance filter. The scope was an Evostar 100ED DS Pro with 0.85 FF/FR on HEQ5.

Image stacked & processed in PI & using the GHS script for the stretch to try & control Navi as best as I could. It did quite a good job but the high cloud has given it a nice halo.

Edit: I added another 63 minutes of 180s subs to the original and below is now 4h16m and a reprocess.

Edited September 29, 2022 by Budgie1
Image updated.

[powerlord]

From last night - asi2600 and redcat.

I planned to add some Ha, but there doesn't seem to be much around there after a few hours of subs, so left it as is.

A shade under 8 hours of 5 minute subs on another night meteoblue said would be 50% cloud and which ended up clearing by 10pm, so glad I made the effort and setup the kit !

I realised in the morning that I'd forgot to set the temp on asiair to -10 that I usually use, so it defaulted to 0 - so then had to spend some time taking new bias and dark at 0 degrees to use (and add to my master library)

Stacked in APP, which also did a stellar job of flattening the background. Then into affinity photo for editing. I popped the stars out with starXterminator, did some basic curves, levels and saturation adjustments before doing some noiseXterminator, being careful to not lose anything in the core. In the end, I had to mask the core to bring out the blue without the whole thing becoming a bit too vivid.

I started with the full saturated stars being added back in, but there are so many it was really hiding that dust - so I used one of James Ritson's excellent macros to 'eat' some of the stars by the minimum amount. Another JR macro to do a quick SCNR and we're done. 😃

[Budgie1]

Taken on 28th Sept, this is 2 hours worth of 4 minute subs on NGC7129.

The same camera, scope and mount as 2 posts up but no L-eNhance filter, just an Astronomik L-2.

The skies were nice & clear and I could have given it more integration, but work said I had to be up in the morning.

[Simon Pepper]

So another entry here (also have two more in the works)! I am being extremely fortunate with the weather down here in East Sussex I hope others are being treated as kindly! Here is my take on NGC7023 this is the first time I have imaged this target and first time I have been happy with an LRGB image. I have been shooting mono for about 12 months and have never successfully added luminance data to RGB it was always detrimental to my RGB (user error) so I just stopped shooting lum. I changed that the other night as I knew to get the dark dusty regions that was going to be needed. 

Shot over two nights 27/09 & 28/09

Lum 89x180, Red 49x180, Green 30x180, Blue 19x18. Total 9hr 3min. I used my Explore Scientific 127mm APO with no reducer, ZWO 1600mm, Baader LRGB, OAG and HEQ5 pro. 

Clear skies all!

Edited September 29, 2022 by Simon Pepper

[powerlord]

Here's the Cave Nebula in close up from a few nights ago. Finished with some colour stars from last night.

200PDS and asi2600, and one night of 9.5 hours of 600 second subs for the nebula, and 15 mins of 30 second subs for the colour stars.

All using the new L-Ultimate fitler.

[powerlord]

From last week, Lions head. Also finished last night with colour stars. Just ye olde L-extreme for this one. 600 second subs. 200pds, l-extreme and asi2600.  About 7 hours of data. 15 mins of 30 sec subs for colour stars.

[powerlord]

The Shark Nebula.

 

Lots of clouds, so most subs were useless. So only 145 mins of 5 min subs. asi2600, no filters. edited in APP and Affinity Photo. Maybe I'll come back next new moon if the weather is kind.

 

I've done a video of the editing in case it helps beginners (says me, hardly an expert after 2 years!!)-

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoDaxznYUvc

 

[Varavall]

My colourful rendition of IC1871 imaged the night of 2nd October.

SW 200pds; ZWO ASI 1600MM-cool; filters Astrodon 5nm Ha, Optolong 7.5nm Oiii and Sii (20 x 300s Ha; 20 x 300s Sii; 9 x 300s Oiii). Calibrated, aligned and stacked in ASTAP; processed in APP; final touches in GIMP.