A slice of Auriga - 6 pane mosaic

[geeklee]

I think most people have imaged small or large sections of this area of sky - including myself.  I wanted to create a slightly larger FOV using the Samyang 135 lens - this needed six panes with the small sensor of the ASI533MM - just about fitting what I wanted.  The Samyang was stopped down to a pedestrian ~F2.6 for ~20 hours of Ha and 10 hours of OIII.  Astronomik MaxFR 6nm Ha and OIII filters were used.

It's fantastic to see so much of this area together to appreciate the scale of some objects and also their proximity to each other.  The huge Spaghetti nebula (Sh2240) looming in the lower left and the scale of the vast Ha near the Flaming Star and tadpoles.  Then those very faint Ha objects that have through well here.

It feels like (much) longer, but I've been shooting this for just a couple of months.  I wanted to draw a line under this data set - perhaps returning later in the year for more OIII and perhaps SII (and Ha! ).  I left plenty of subs on the cutting room floor but also had to let through some I'd have preferred not too.  There is fairly even coverage across each pane in Ha and OIII though - with Ha typically taking a 2:1 ratio.  

The version here is 33% of the original which gave me more room to bring out the fainter objects while - hopefully - retaining some good detail.  Do click through to open in a new tab.

Captured with the ASIAIR Pro, pre-processed in APP and processed in PixInsight.

Thanks for looking.

Here's a smaller, annotated version.

Edited January 18, 2023 by geeklee
Added filters used.

[Stuf1978]

That is spectacular, great work

I tried shooting the spaghetti nebula with a OSC camera (from bortle 8 )and gave up after collecting 5 hours of data due to having very little signal to play with (and clear nights being at a premium). This image highlights the power of mono!!

[teoria_del_big_bang]

That really is an amazing image 🙂 
Thanks for sharing with us.

Steve

[Mr Spock]

Absolutely lovely 👍

[MalcolmM]

Wow! Stunning!

Malcolm 

[gorann]

Yes, this is an outstanding achievement Lee, and what a great idea to capture all these goodies together! I assume you have a quite dark sky.

[geeklee]

Thanks @Stuf1978 @teoria_del_big_bang @Mr Spock @MalcolmM @gorann

14 hours ago, Stuf1978 said:

This image highlights the power of mono!!

Definitely, mono makes a difference.  Another thing in play here for Sh2-240 is star separation and resampling/binning.  Personally, I couldn't present this image at 100% as it wouldn't have shown the same depth and still look as clean as I would like. There is plenty of OIII in Sh2-240 and I'm not showing this clearly due to a decision in processing and also because I hardly had any integration time!

Here's a snippet of the Ha stack from Pane 5 that contained Sh2-240 (that's about all it contained!).  This is 3.7 hours.

Here's the right hand image above with a  gentle stretch.  If you open that in a new tab for full resolution you'll see it's struggling a little.  You can get a little Sh2-240 data easily but pulling that out in a way that doesn't look forced is difficult in my eyes.

I also find careless noise reduction can ruin the subtleness of the structure in Sh2-240.  It's hard to describe the effect I mean. 🙂

Here's a collaboration I did with @Adreneline where we spent 24 hours on Ha and 11 hours on OIII just on Sh2-240.

 

Edited January 18, 2023 by geeklee

[geeklee]

3 hours ago, gorann said:

and what a great idea to capture all these goodies together!

Thanks again Göran.  Necessity of the small 533 sensor forced the larger number of panes in the planned mosaic.  As soon as you get to this FOV you start to see what a few panes below and left would do - then you could be in real trouble 🤣

3 hours ago, gorann said:

I assume you have a quite dark sky.

Sadly not.  Bortle 5-6 depending on direction with some localised light pollution (street lights etc) mixed in.

Edited January 18, 2023 by geeklee

[tooth_dr]

Amazing Lee, well worth the effort, a wonderful region of the sky.

[GalaxyGael]

That's a handsome view. the odd few panes each year would amount to quite the view as a 5 year project, spare time thing. This turned out so well, what could go wrong

Edited January 18, 2023 by GalaxyGael

[CraigT82]

Beautiful... a real masterpiece

[jjosefsen]

Fantastic, well done and thanks for sharing!

[Stuf1978]

On 18/01/2023 at 08:24, geeklee said:

  You can get a little Sh2-240 data easily but pulling that out in a way that doesn't look forced is difficult in my eyes.

That is exactly what I found, I had the basic structure at 5 hours with OSC but I had to really push the data and it looked awful. I reckon I'd need to gather 20 plus hours of OSC data from my location to get a presentable image which I just wasn't prepared to do. Tough target for sure

[Rodd]

On 16/01/2023 at 14:55, geeklee said:

this needed six panes with the small sensor of the ASI533MM -

Awesome.  Why use a "small sensor"?  Is it the only camera you have?  If that is the case, understandable.  But can you imagine this 6-pane mosaic with a larger sensor--or fewer panes for the same area.  Mosaics seem great, but I have trouble getting enough clear sky time for one panel.  

[Sunshine]

This is a beautiful mosaic! 

[AstroGS]

Beautiful wide field image - Awesome!

Well done also for your patience, dedication and the hours you have put in it.

[geeklee]

46 minutes ago, Rodd said:

But can you imagine this 6-pane mosaic with a larger sensor--or fewer panes for the same area.

I can - maybe one day

(Thanks also to @tooth_dr @GalaxyGael@CraigT82@jjosefsen @Sunshine @George Sinanis)

[Sunshine]

Off topic for a second If I may, I could never figure out how members include the bubbles in messages when referring to other users, just as you have above. 

[tooth_dr]

4 minutes ago, Sunshine said:

Off topic for a second If I may, I could never figure out how members include the bubbles in messages when referring to other users, just as you have above. 

@Sunshine easy 😂😂

[tooth_dr]

@Sunshine if you know how 😜

 

 

*put an @ symbol, then type the user name, and then click on the box that pops up. 

[Sunshine]

@tooth_dr YAY! thanks! It's only taken me five years, now you know why I don't image.

Edited January 19, 2023 by Sunshine