Squid nebula clearly visible with 4 hours bortle 6 and AI enhancment

[900SL]

5 hours ago, carastro said:

Well as everyone else is posting their failures, here are mine:

(snip)

I have now given up on the Squid 

You did better than I... I never even tried.

Astrobin indicated that this target would take tens of hours of exposure here, and given the limited opportunity for clear skies in land o'clouds, well, I just didn't.  Brighter targets, good elevations is my code.

 

(which I would break if I could get a shot at the Dolphin Head Nebula 308.. but too far south )

 

 

Edited July 30 by 900SL

[Adreneline]

4 hours ago, geeklee said:

This was all I could find in my archive! 

Hi Lee. Looking back at my data is never good 🤣

This is a single sub from the 60 I took in one session - uncalibrated ......

.... not much to see there!

Between us we generated 139x300s of OIII using our RedCat+ASI1600 and/or SY135+ASI183 - so that is over eleven hours of OIII.

I've just combined the lot and removed the stars (more or less) and done a simple histogram stretch (and crop), to reveal this:

It's not very pretty!

You are imaging in a Bortle 6 area - I am (by postcode) in a Bortle 4 area, but when looking in more detail I am closer to Bortle 3.

At the end of the day there is no substitute for (a) dark skies and (b) lots of integration time, when imaging the likes of Sh2-129.

Our combined Project Cepheus amounted to 69 hours of SHO integration time https://www.astrobin.com/35hy3q/B/ ......

... some would say no where near enough.

 

 

 

[Whistlin Bob]

Really really not an easy target. Image below is 3.5 hours 4nm Oiii (actually about 6 hours with lots of discards), 2 hours 3.5nm ha and 30 mins for the stars, using f3.5 newt and ASI1600.  And yes, I do look at the astrobin beauties from those beggars living in warmer climes and turn green!!!!

[TiffsAndAstro]

12 hours ago, carastro said:

Well as everyone else is posting their failures, here are mine:

This is mine from Bortle 4 after 6 1/2 hours:

I

then stretched it and stretched it until I produced this ugly result:

This was back in 2017 BTW

 

 

I then tried it with my Samyang 135 mm lens in Bortle 4.

9 hours 10 minutes of which I took the following in Oiii:

Oiii 2 x 20mins, 2 x 30mins, and 7 x 15mins 3 x 900secs binned x 2 (total 4 hours 10 mins)
Plus a further 3 hours on another night.

Total Oiii 7hours 10mins and still this is all I got and that was after heavy strecthing of Oiii:

 

I have now given up on the Squid 

to my noob eyes, you have great data for the red/Ha stuff, and same for the blue Oii stuff. in the second picture though the red looks like its overlaying/infront of the blue squid.  is there anyway to have red and blue on differnt layers and have blue on top? might need some transparency/mix? it might be all your squid needs

[carastro]

6 hours ago, TiffsAndAstro said:

in the second picture though the red looks like its overlaying/infront of the blue squid.

It's not how it appears, it is just that the blue Oiii is showing up very faintly and patchy.  

[alacant]

On 28/07/2024 at 16:54, TiffsAndAstro said:

no squid

Oh dear.

I'm gonna have a go since I've just setup a Quattro for the weekend. Starting now, we should manage 5 hours. Not perfect this close to Alicante, the advantage being that we're walking distance to a bar 🙂 

Cheers and CS.

EDIT: I can see a trace of red, but not looking promising

Edited August 10 by alacant

[TiffsAndAstro]

11 hours ago, alacant said:

Oh dear.

I'm gonna have a go since I've just setup a Quattro for the weekend. Starting now, we should manage 5 hours. Not perfect this close to Alicante, the advantage being that we're walking distance to a bar 🙂 

Cheers and CS.

EDIT: I can see a trace of red, but not looking promising

Looks promising who knows until post?

Also, is that no entry sign the astro equivalent of the "no stairway" sign in Wayne's world?

I've yet to experience the joy of controling my rig from a bar or pub. Yet.

[alacant]

45 minutes ago, TiffsAndAstro said:

controling my rig from a bar

It's the only way. It really is😀

Anyway, managed 20 minutes this morning. Anything over 1/2 hour in front of a computer, well, no. Just no.
I dunno about this target. It's there, but is it worth another night?

 

[TiffsAndAstro]

Just now, alacant said:

It's the only way. It really is😀

Anyway, managed 20 minutes this morning. Anything over 1/2 hour in front of a computer, well, no. Just no.
I dunno about this target. It's there, but is it worth another night?

 

20 minutes processing or total integration? either way i'd say it is worth more time.

sadly you've made me have a third go at getting something out of mine. i've thrown away more subs and will try harder but im still pretty sure i'll get nothing but red.

[alacant]

52 minutes ago, TiffsAndAstro said:

20 minutes processing

Yes, 20 minutes processing. My patience runs out beyond that. I know some who would spend hours,  but I can't see the fun in that. If you haven't the data, it just looks like you've processed something without having enough data(!).

Anyway, yes. If you keep adding frames, so shall I. I just have to persuade the owner of the Quattro that sh2 129 would be a good idea for tonight. Otherwise I'll have to wait until next week or use something less suitable.

Good luck and CS.

[TiffsAndAstro]

35 minutes ago, alacant said:

Yes, 20 minutes processing. My patience runs out beyond that. I know some who would spend hours,  but I can't see the fun in that. If you haven't the data, it just looks like you've processed something without having enough data(!).

Anyway, yes. If you keep adding frames, so shall I. I just have to persuade the owner of the Quattro that sh2 129 would be a good idea for tonight. Otherwise I'll have to wait until next week or use something less suitable.

Good luck and CS.

I think I'll only add more time once I get a dnb filter. I'm just having one last wafer thin go at my data, culling more frames in case it helps. Pretty certain it won't

[alacant]

6 hours ago, TiffsAndAstro said:

dnb filter

We used a UHC. It highlights the O3 quite well and doesn't cost €much.

Edited August 10 by alacant

[TiffsAndAstro]

48 minutes ago, alacant said:

We used a UHC. It separates the O3 quite well and doesn't cost €much.

I'd pretty much discounted uhc filter but your image clearly shows I shouldn't have.

I'll have do a bit more research

I'm currently pretending I have a dnb filter redoing my squid, using extract Ha Oiii scripts see what it looks like.

[TiffsAndAstro]

Found some 1.25" uhc on fleabay for a massive £12 Inc delivery.

Tempted to try it out at that price.

[Elp]

They vary wildly in performance I believe 

[TiffsAndAstro]

10 minutes ago, Elp said:

They vary wildly in performance I believe 

any idea what the name of the adapter i screw it into before then screwing all that into my spare filter holder? can't find them anywhere

[Elp]

I haven't used a UHC filter but I know they work well visually (lumicon one being one of the best), if they're anything like a CLS or Lpro filter I've used however I wouldn't bother, they block too much of the signal you do want. I've read endless forum posts on LP filters and the general consensus is if you're doing broadband just use a Lum/UV IR cut, deal with signal/noise by investing more time into the project. I've owned at least 6 and the only ones which did anything significant and we're useful were the Optolong lenhance, lextreme and I was surprised by the Idas D2 (they come in numbers 1-3 also there's a P series) which offered lenhance type emission separation but flattened the star colour to off green. For OSC broadband I just use a luminence filter now or for emission the lextreme, you live and you learn.

Edited August 10 by Elp

[Elp]

What holder do you have currently? I know there's a ZWO one (or likely by anyone) which is a 2 inch male threaded flat disk that has a 1.25 inch female hole in the middle.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/zwo-accessories/zwo-2-125-filter-adapter-ring.html

 

Edited August 10 by Elp

[TiffsAndAstro]

13 minutes ago, Elp said:

What holder do you have currently? I know there's a ZWO one (or likely by anyone) which is a 2 inch male threaded flat disk that has a 1.25 inch female hole in the middle.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/zwo-accessories/zwo-2-125-filter-adapter-ring.html

 

I have the svbony filter holder and two filter draws it came with. Looks very much like the zwo one. I should email svbony see what they say I guess.

I was looking towards a 2" which should screw directly into the filter drawer.

[Elp]

Just measure the diameter with a ruler... 48mm it usually interchangeable with 2 inch, I've used my 2 inch filters on may camera lenses with metric step down rings.

Edited August 10 by Elp

[TiffsAndAstro]

9 minutes ago, Elp said:

Just measure the diameter with a ruler...

It's more the name of the adapter that my current 1.25" UV/it cut filter screws into before I then screw that into the filter drawer.

also im not paying £21 for the adapter for a £12 filter, though it does look reasonably similar. ill hit up svbony see what they say, as i could do with a third filter drawer too, just in case i get two dnb filters at a later stage,

Edited August 10 by TiffsAndAstro

[TiffsAndAstro]

Not a great photo sorry

[alacant]

1 hour ago, Elp said:

they block too much of the signal

Mmm. But that's precisely what we're trying to do;. The squid and bat emit H and O (not like a galaxy where we'd probably prefer filterless) so better to eliminate the rest of the mush to give ourselves more of a chance when we process. L-pro type filters no. UHC, yes. I doubt I'd have gone anywhere near without.

Cheers

 

Edited August 10 by alacant
No time.

[Elp]

17 minutes ago, alacant said:

L-pro type filters no. UHC, yes. I doubt I'd have gone anywhere near without.

Why not use a dual narrowband then, it'd work more effectively.

[alacant]

Economics perhaps? A 2" UHC costs €20 and it effectively separates H and O. Certainly well enough to separate the squid from the bat. Would a €200 filter be ten times better? I don't know.