Another backyard imaging in the big city.

[Vroobel]

Hi all, 

I'm happy to share my recent success that is a photography of the Eastern Veil performed last night on my ATM equatorial fork mount described wider there:

So, it's 45x300s, ISO1250 and 3x20 of calibration frames. Subs are taken with modded EOS 6D attached to 10" Newtonian OTA (reduced to 9") with Baader MPCC III and Optolong L-eXtreme. An Evoguide 50ED, FF, 850nm IR Pass filter and ASI224MC worked as guider. Seeing was around 3.5/5 last night. Please bear in mind the 1270mm focal length and around 1 arcsec/pixel scale, it is very demanding setup. Both stacking and basic post processing made with the Affinity Photo. 

There is still small problem with back focus that I have to correct next time. 

https://astrob.in/9u0s15/0/

Edited December 14, 2022 by Vroobel

[JeremyS]

Great image and great setup 

Is that in downtown Liverpool?

[Vroobel]

Thanks

Not entirely downtown, it's around 2.5 miles from the very city center (from Lime Street station). Far enough to have Bortle 6-7 sky.

Edited October 18, 2022 by Vroobel

[Roy Foreman]

Nice setup. I much prefer fork mounts to GEM's. No meridian flips well done on the image too.

[Vroobel]

Thanks  

Two other revisions of the same scene: stacked respectively in Siril (OSC_preprocessing script) and in DSS, stretching in Affinity Photo. I don't know, why the Sirlil made it like in SHO, but it looks also interesting. Previously I used the HLVG plugin, so it removed too much green from details. Now, the last is better. 

[Vroobel]

Hi,

Today I bought the StarXterminator plugin for my Affinity Photo. It's awesome! 😲

 

[Vroobel]

.

 

 

Edited October 23, 2022 by Vroobel

[Vroobel]

I found a fun playing with layers.  

Edited October 24, 2022 by Vroobel
Picture replaced with another one (blown areas corrected)

[Vroobel]

Hi,

It was a hard battle and I'm not sure why. I approached the data four times. Thankfully I had a backup on external hard drive, because after third attepmpt I removed entire folder. I'm sure that next time will be better.

Data collected on 01/09/2022.
79 x 150s, ISO1250, 3x20 callibration frames, crop of the full frame.
Newton 9"/1270mm, IDAS LPS-D2, Baader MPCC III, EOS 6D mod.

Edited October 27, 2022 by Vroobel

[Vroobel]

Hi,

Last night I had a plan to take some photos of the Pacmna Nebula. Unfortunatelly, I met some problem around Zenith, so I changed the plan and aimed my OTA on the Pleiades. I had an idea to not use any filter. I have read that a dew shield may protect the OTA from a side light, so I wanted to test it with a brand new Astro Essentials one.

Newton 9" F/5.5, no filter, Baader MPCC Mk III, EOS 6D mod.
150 x 60s + 3 x 20 calibration frames, ISO1250.

It was very hard to remove the Bortle 6-7 sky cast. I'm pretty proud of the effect, even if it's not perfect.

And here is, how the single RAW looks like.

[Vroobel]

Hi,

Another revision of the M31 taken previously. Only a brightness and contrast are corrected. The core of M31 seems a little bit too bright, but the general look in my opinion is better, than previously.

 

Edited November 1, 2022 by Vroobel
Picture replacement

[Vroobel]

Hi,

This picture is a simple test, how my IDAS LPS-P2 works. I had to buy used one, that's why I had no choice and decided to do it just for test, even with 74% of the full Moon.

I performed 250 x 60s light frames, but a half of them were unusable because of the Moon's light, so it's a little bit poor.

Newton 9" F/5.5, IDAS LPS-P2, MPCC III, EOS 6D mod.
108 x 60s ISO1250 + 3 x 50 calibration frames.

Edited November 4, 2022 by Vroobel

[Vroobel]

Hi,

Several weeks ago I realised that the aluminium fork in my EQ fork mount is not stiff enough. I decided to order the welding it and finally it works much better. Last night I confirmed it.

The Pacman Nebula (NGC 281)
Newton 9" F/5.5, Optolong L-eXtreme, MPCC III, EOS 6D mod.
20 x 300s only because of clouds, ISO1250 + 3 x 20 calibration frames.

 

Edited December 3, 2022 by Vroobel
Picture replacement, improved stars profiles.

[Vroobel]

Hi,

Not first time I would say that the ASTAP performs the stacking better than the Affiniy Photo. After a post processing in the Affinity Photo we can see improved details and greater dynamics in the nebula.

Who else can see a goblin's head in hat with explicit right eye and ear, mouth and eagle nose with a wart? Also, his torso, right arm, and part of his left arm.

There is also some kind of necklace, it looks like a small man with his leg up.

I'd venture to say that the goblin gives us the middle finger...

 

Pareidolia is the tendency for perception to impose a meaningful interpretation on a nebulous stimulus, usually visual, so that one sees an object, pattern, or meaning where there is none. (Wikipedia)

 

 

Edited December 4, 2022 by Vroobel

[Vroobel]

Hi,

This time I follwed the PHD2 developers guidance: if the mount has a significant backlash in the Dec axis, then the PA should show error, but no bigger than 10'. It was 9.5'. 

2022.12.07: The Fish Head Nebula, but I would rather say a Veiltail...  
Newton 9" F/5.5, Optolong L-eXtreme, MPCC III, EOS 6D mod.
35 of 42 x 300s, ISO1600, 3x25 calibrating frames.
 

 

The stars are finally sharp and quite round. And this is the best PHD2 graph I ever obtained. To be honest, it wasn't like that all the time on that night, but it doesn't change my satisfaction. 🙂

 

 

 

Edited December 8, 2022 by Vroobel

[Vroobel]

Hi,

One week later I aimed my mount at the same DSO, but significant change happened in the meantime. Instead of the 17kg 10" 1270mm Newtonian OTA a medium size refractor hung on top of the fork. It is an Altair Wave 102/715 EDT triplet APO that weighs 1/3 of the Newtonian OTA weight, so I expected much better stars on the final picture, even if the guiding didn't change too much. Its focal length is about twice shorter, so I can reach DSOs usually unreachable for the 1270mm reflector.

I decided to perform a series of 10 min exposures to increase a number of fotons. The composition is similar to the previous one just for comparison.

 

Altair 102/715 EDT, Optolong L-eXtreme, Planostar x1.0 FF, EOS 6D mod.
21 x 600s, ISO1600 + 3x25 calibration frames.

 

[JeremyS]

Excellent @Vroobel 👍🏻

[Vroobel]

☺️

Thank you. 

[Vroobel]

Hi,

The Soul is added to the set, to the Heart.

Altair 102/715 EDT, Optolong L-eXtreme, Planostar x1.0 FF, EOS 6D mod.
96 (80%) z 121 x 240s  (6h 24m) + 3x25 calibration frames.

 

 

Here is its a little bit darker version, not so burnt.

 

 

Another change, the background is dimmer now to better match the Heart Nebula taken two days earlier, which is very close.

 

Edited December 17, 2022 by Vroobel

[Vroobel]

Hi,

This is my first attempt of turning the picture taken with the OSC (modded Canon 6D) into the HOO.

Slowly, but surely the oxygen comes to the top...

 

Edited December 25, 2022 by Vroobel

[Vroobel]

Hi,

The Heart was missing from the HOO set.

 

 

Edited December 27, 2022 by Vroobel
Replacing the picture with improved the Fish Head.

[Vroobel]

Hi,

It had to be a test of the EAF settings towards work with the EKOS and its linear algorithm, but accidentally I obtained the Andromeda...
The only clear night in Liverpool since 15th December, unfortunately accompanied by 83% of the Moon.

40 of 46 x 180s, ISO1600, 3 x 30 calibration frames
Altair 102/715 EDT, IDAS LPS-P2, Planostar x1.0 FF, modded EOS 6D.
And of course, my Opus Magnum mount.

 

 

[Vroobel]

Hi,

This time something completely new: picture of the California nebula taken using my recently modified TAIR-3-PhS 300mm F/4.5, the vintage Russian lens for Zenit SLR.

 

I know that the background of the picture is not perfect, but even with modified Canon 6D, ISO 1600 and 300s exposure, subs appear quite dark. Now I think that the lens would be very good under dark sky with no filter. I'm tired now after a 4 days battle with the post processing, but I will consider reprocessing.

Look please at the corners: stars are pinpoint, so it has an obscenely flat field.  😯

 

57 of 61 x 300s, ISO1600, 30 flat frames and 20 of darks and biases.
TAIR-3-PhS 300mm F/4.5, ZWO EAF, Optolong L-eXtreme, modded EOS 6D.
And of course, my Opus Magnum mount.

 

 

And Rev. B:

 

 

 

Edited January 25, 2023 by Vroobel

[Vroobel]

Hi,

This time I'd like to present the Rosette Nebula captured at night 13/02/23 in two versions: first one is in sand or the yellow brick colour, which I prefer, second one is in the HOO-style.

Altair 102/715 EDT, Optolong L-eXtreme, Planostar x1.0 FF, modified EOS 6D.
14 x 600s  (2h 20m) + 25 x dark, 25 x bias, 30 x flat.

 

[Vroobel]

Hi,

As usually, another DSOs in two approaches: simply stretched and splited between R and G+B then streched separately and blended, both with a typical work. It was a first light for my new 3" 0.8x reducer that in theory turns my F/7 triplet APO into F/5.6 astrograph. The 3" do the job with a full frame Canon 6D.

The Flaming Star and Tadpole Nebulae captured on 24/02/2023.
Altair 102/715 EDT, Optolong L-eXtreme, Planostar M92 x0.8 Reducer, modified EOS 6D.
29 x 600s  (4h 50m) + 25 x dark, bias and flat calibration frames, Bortle 8ish.

All post processing done in Affinity Photo (yet).

 

Edited February 28, 2023 by Vroobel