The Rotten Fish Nebula (LDN 1251): OSC camera, Bortle 8 skies

[Lee_P]

This target is very tricky from city skies! I integrated 24 hours of data, but to be honest it needed more. 14 hours are using the new Optolong L-Quad Enhance (review coming soon!) and 10 hours were with no filter. More info on my website, and imaging details are below.

 

 

* 22 September to 15 October 2023
* Bristol, UK (Bortle 8 )
* Telescope: Askar 130PHQ Flatfield Astrograph
* Camera: ZWO ASI 2600MC-PRO
* Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ6-R PRO
* Guide: William Optics 50mm Guidescope with 1.25″ RotoLock; ZWO ASI 120MM Mini
* Control: ASIAIR Plus
* Software: PixInsight, Lightroom
* Filters:
– No filter 300 x 120 seconds (10 hours)
– Optolong L-Quad 420 x 120 seconds (14 hours)

Total exposure time: 24 hours

By Lee Pullen

 

[tooth_dr]

Nice and fluffy looking Lee, good job!!

You can see a bit of colour noise, but imaging in the city must make it hard to get rid of this. 

[Lee_P]

1 minute ago, tooth_dr said:

You can see a bit of colour noise, but imaging in the city must make it hard to get rid of this. 

For sure, it was a real balancing act of controlling the noise without completely destroying the detail. I'd like to have put more hours into it, but I need to move onto another target so I can fairly review the L-Quad filter. Still, I'm happy considering how faint it is!

[DirkSteele]

Pretty remarkable capture consideirng the brightness of your skies.

 

Nice work.

[Lee_P]

Just now, DirkSteele said:

Pretty remarkable capture consideirng the brightness of your skies.

 

Nice work.

Thanks, it won't win any awards but just the fact that it can be imaged from a city is a bit mind blowing! 

[ollypenrice]

Dust from the city is very good going indeed!

Olly

[Richard_]

It's mind blowing that you can capture this level of dust from the centre of Bristol. I think your processing is spot on, great work! 

[carastro]

Quite incredible.  I too live in Bortle 8 skies near London and have’t attempted broadband for years as l get horrible swirling gradients.  
 

You have inspired me to try again. 

[The Lazy Astronomer]

Just scrolling through the page on your website, then I see this at the bottom - get many takers for that? 🤣

 

[Lee_P]

On 08/11/2023 at 11:48, Richard_ said:

It's mind blowing that you can capture this level of dust from the centre of Bristol. I think your processing is spot on, great work! 

Thanks, it needs more subframes really, but I agree that it's surprising how much dust can be seen.

 

On 08/11/2023 at 12:05, carastro said:

Quite incredible.  I too live in Bortle 8 skies near London and have’t attempted broadband for years as l get horrible swirling gradients.  
 

You have inspired me to try again. 

You should definitely try, your processing skills are obviously up to the challenge. You could try GraXpert to help with your gradients.

 

 

On 08/11/2023 at 13:00, The Lazy Astronomer said:

Just scrolling through the page on your website, then I see this at the bottom - get many takers for that? 🤣

 

Ha, alas no-one has stumped up the suggested amount... yet!