Dug out of the snow: IC5067/70, NGC1499, B33/IC434 (Ha)

[Euan]

It's been a month since I used my gear, mainly because of rubbish weather. The clear skies convinced me to spend a few hours digging the obs out from underneath over a foot of snow and ice. This picture is actually before the second big dump on Monday

It was so bad, that when the obs went to close itself this morning, it failed and woke me up, as it had frozen open as it was -10 outside

Even though there was no moon, RGB was not going well and just far too bright, probably because of LP reflections from all the snow

It was good to get back out again, these will turn into full narrowband projects if the weather keeps up

Camera: Atik 383L+ Mono with 1.25" Baader 7nm Ha

Scope: Borg 77ED @ F5.5 / 0.85x DGL Focal Reducer

Mount: EQ6 with EQMOD

Guiding: Orion ST80 with QHY5

Capture Software: CCD Commander, Maxim DL

Processing Software: Deep Sky Stacker, PixInsight

Exposures: 7 x 20 mins (IC5067/70), 3 x 20 mins (NGC1499), 5 x 20 mins (B33/IC434)

Calibration: None (yet)

[Revs]

Lovely detailed and crisp images

[russ]

Stunning images, well worth digging it out of the snow.

[SteveL]

It was so bad, that when the obs went to close itself this morning, it failed and woke me up, as it had frozen open as it was -10 outside

Looking at your web page entry about automation (highly impressive!), I bet you are glad you added the roof position check....

"There is also a sensor that monitors the position of the roof. If the roof doesn’t close after it should, this also fires an alarm event."

Automated Imaging Photon Junkie

[Euan]

Thanks for the comments

Looking at your web page entry about automation (highly impressive!), I bet you are glad you added the roof position check....

The sensors are the most important part of the whole system, I get a shiver thinking about what would happen if the roof got stuck when it was raining

The garage door opener it uses has a built in safety feature that will reverse it when it feels too much resistance (as if something is trapped under a garage door). In this case that was ice around the edges of the roof! The Homeseer script fired from CCD Commander looks at the reed switch on the roof after 12 seconds, which is just longer than it usually takes to close, and raises the alarm if the switch hasn't activated.

Actually, this was the first time this has happened, it's always managed to park and fully close before, so it was a good test of the alarm!

[Euan]

The Herbig-Haro 555 Protojets in the Pelican are just about visible if you squint at it for long enough. It's given me a mission to try and pull them out with longer subs

[peter shah]

lovely images and weldone for digging you way into the ice box even if you dont get any imaging done at least you will have somewhere to keep your beers cold!

a personal observation i think your black point is a little high in the shots but oozing detail

[callisto]

Exellent images

The first one just pops out at you.

[gary1968]

Nice images Euan, very clear with loads of detail, cant wait to see how the finished images turn out, esp. the HH, I love that area of the sky.

Gary

[philj]

Superb images, very smooth and deep. Love the roof idea.

Philj

[Beyond_Vision]

A great set of images Euan and a great set up you have too. I agree with Pete on the black point though.

Regards

Kevin

[MartinB]

Terrific Ha work Euan, all of the superb. Having your set up sorted makes life so much easier esp when you can go to bed and carry on imaging