Relative difficulty of targets ngc 6946, 2403 & ic 342

[woldsman]

Looks like there’s a prospect of 2 or 3 clear nights around the new Moon from my location. Thinking of taking on a tough galaxy challenge - either ngc 6946, ngc 2403 or in 342. My aperture is 71mm & FL 420mm. My query is whether these targets are all equally difficult. Will be imaging mono with LRGB & Ha. Expect to collect 6 to 10 hours of data depending on conditions. Not sure whether this is sufficient for any of the three. Tips & advice much appreciated.

[tomato]

Please can  you state what camera you are using, then we will know how it will look in your FOV and know your imaging resolution. IC 342 is quite a large galaxy but it is partially obscured by dust from our vantage point, however 10 hrs on any of these targets from a dark, moonless sky should give a pleasing result. Which one is best placed on elevation, the higher the better?

[Tomatobro]

My Interstellarium guide would suggest that NGC 6946 or 2403 would be favourite.

[woldsman]

1 hour ago, tomato said:

Please can  you state what camera you are using, then we will know how it will look in your FOV and know your imaging resolution. IC 342 is quite a large galaxy but it is partially obscured by dust from our vantage point, however 10 hrs on any of these targets from a dark, moonless sky should give a pleasing result. Which one is best placed on elevation, the higher the better?

Sure and thanks for responding - the camera is a zwo asi 183. At 9.30pm and 3.30am respectively, from my latitude the elevations will be as follows: NGC 2403 30 & 42 degrees, IC 342 43 & 74 degrees, NGC 6946 83 & 43 degrees.  If there are all of equal difficulty, then NGC 6946 looks the best option since on the dates in question it reaches peak elevation. All three have no transit time issues. 

[woldsman]

33 minutes ago, Tomatobro said:

My Interstellarium guide would suggest that NGC 6946 or 2403 would be favourite.

Thanks for responding.  That's the Interstellarium Deep Sky Guide by Ronald Stoyan? 

[tomato]

Your imaging at 1.1 arc sec per pixel binned 1x1, you might want to bin 2x2 depending on how good your guiding is. IC342 is the slightly larger target but the other two have more surface brightness, NGC 6946 is the highest in the sky so maybe go for that one. 
 

Best of luck and Clear Skies 👍

[woldsman]

1 hour ago, tomato said:

Your imaging at 1.1 arc sec per pixel binned 1x1, you might want to bin 2x2 depending on how good your guiding is. IC342 is the slightly larger target but the other two have more surface brightness, NGC 6946 is the highest in the sky so maybe go for that one. 
 

Best of luck and Clear Skies 👍

Thanks! My guiding has been pretty good lately (hope this doesn't put a curse on the session) so I'll try 2x2. NGC 6946 it is. 

[Tomatobro]

2 hours ago, woldsman said:

Thanks for responding.  That's the Interstellarium Deep Sky Guide by Ronald Stoyan? 

Yes it is. Both those objects are quoted as visual in a 4 inch refractor.

The guide and atlas were bargain priced on Amazon for a while.