Horrible night : But desperate for an image : M78

[Catanonia]

Looked at the Mess Office and it said clear skies for the night up until midnight. However Sat24 said cloud. How far wrong can the Mess Office get it ? I might send them the Sat24 link.

Anyway, I decided to give the mods to the MN190 a trail run. New wiring control for the heaters and installed a fan to the end of the MN190 to suck air out and reduce the cooling time as well as turbulance / vortex around the mirror so giving more stable images. (or so goes the theory)

Aligned up with the MN190 on the EQ6 Pro with ADM side by Side ED80 armed with QHY5 for guiding.

Cooled down the QHY9 mono + filters and put M78 in the sights.

Well the seeing was apalling. Normally I would have packed up, just about make out Orions 3 belt stars, that is how bad it was.

I managed to get 15 mins in 5 min subs for each channels through the murk and clouds. Serious most of the images were through thin cloud until they came over properly and ended play.

So a horrible image, but I am so desperate to produce an image I gave it a whirl with processing etc.

On the plus side, the DIY fan and heating switch box worked fine and the fan didn't cause any vibrations so will be keen to see if it produces better and clearer images by removing the heat haze from around the primary mirror. See this thread for the mod http://stargazerslounge.com/diy-astronomer/126732-diy-challenge-you.html

So at least a bench mark to get better from

M78 with 15mins each LRGB channel through clouds.

[ollypenrice]

That is anything but horrible. Firstly the object is an absolute killer for consuming time. It needs ages. Secondly you have that great golden star colour that comes when stars shine through dust.

I really hope you'll go back to this object because it looks as if you have everything in place to get a beauty when you get the skies.

Olly

[msinclairinork]

Very good effort despite conditions Cat!

Well done!

Michael

[Catanonia]

Thanks guys.

Olly, yes, since you mentioned, the orange glow stars, through the dust..... really can't wait for a proper night on this.