Sometimes, everything just seems to come together in imaging. This is one of those times for me. This image alone almost makes the acquisition of the SV80ST-25SV worthwhile. I'm very happy with it both on a technical level and esthetically.
I didn't just shoot L data for the Pleiades on Christmas. I also started work on the Rosette Nebula, NGC 2244. I collected some additional Ha data for it last night as well before getting clouded out.
Sometimes, everything just seems to come together in imaging. This is one of those times for me. This image alone almost makes the acquisition of the SV80ST-25SV worthwhile. I'm very happy with it both on a technical level and esthetically.
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I recently received my SV80ST-25SV back from Stellarvue. They replaced the lens since the original was showing some signs of pinched optics. They were excellent to deal with about this. As a test, I shot some luminosity data of the Pleiades, Messier 45. The new lens looks like it is doing quite well. I also created a version using the RGB data I collected with the original lens. Unfortunately, conditions were enough different so it doesn't combine as well as I would like.
"Comes in four delicious flavors, Tomato, Chicken, and Consume." (Radio Free Vestibule) The night of the 21st was clear, Moon free, had good seeing, but transparency was on the very lousy side. Still, I hate to waste a clear night. I know from experience that star clusters are rather forgiving. Auriga was well placed for imaging, and I had not captured Messier 36 through Messier 38 yet. I ended up getting Messier 36 and Messier 37 before the clouds rolled in. I used relatively short subs of 1 minute binned 1x1 in order to preserve color. Total integration time for Messier 36 was 41 minutes and for Messier 37 was 45 minutes. I had to say this about Messier 36, observing it visually in my 20" Dobsonian: "Bright, maybe 120 to 150 obvious stars in 24mm Widefield and takes up about 1/3rd of field (so about 12' in diameter). I'm struck by an asterism of bright stars that kind of make an upside down keyhole." In my opinion Messier 37 is the best of the trio visually. Again observed through the 20" Dobsonian:
"One of the finest open clusters in the heavens. Golden star offset from the middle. Many stars of approximately equal brightness, way too many to count. Takes up at least two thirds of field in 24mm Widefield (so about 24'). It is hard to tell how far out it actually goes. The core is quite dense and takes up about 1/4 of 24mm widefield (so about 9'). One of my favorite clusters." Last night I got home to clear skies. The forecast wasn't particularly good, calling for it to get partly cloudy, but I try to grab what I can, even if it isn't going to be good all night. However, the forecast got better as the night progressed, and I was able to actually go after a secondary target, Messier 95. Weather did affect some of my subs so I ended up tossing a few, but I still ended up with 10 ten minute Luminosity subs binned 1x1. I don't have time today to process my more involved primary target, but I did get a chance to take a first crack at this. First, here is the full field. And here is a crop of the central 2048x1536 pixels.
I wasn't completely happy with my attempt at combining the RGB data with the Ha data. I felt I lost too much of the faint Ha. The problem is getting that faint detail without destroying the saturation of the image. I had another go at it today and I think this is a more successful shot at it. This does illustrate that gathering data is only the first half of producing images. The image processing is critical and very much affects the results. On a separate note, my current very expensive flower pot holder, i.e. the tripod for the MyT mount showed up today. It is a Christmas present. I'm having a hard time waiting to open it.
Wednesday night was clear for me, despite others in the area having to deal with clouds. I took the chance to gather RGB data for my Spider Nebula. I also got 4 hours of OIII data but there isn't much signal there. Here is the result of combining the RGB data with the Ha data I collected on the 12th. I have also decided to go down the path of eventually being able to run my equipment remotely. As a first step for that, I am purchasing the new MyT mount by Software Bisque. Paramounts by SB are very desirable for remote operations for a number of reasons.
o They have physical hard stops for things like 2 hours past the Meridian. o The motor circuitry detects when a motor is stalled and stops trying to move it (good for the equipment and the motor). o It is a clutch-less design. This means the clutch cannot slip. o It has a homing sensor, leading to repeatable homing within 1 arc-second. This helps prevent the mount getting lost and really helps with things like power outages. As a premium mount, it also has numerous other advantages over mounts like the Atlas. For example, it has belt drives with essentially immeasurable backlash. It has periodic error correction that reduces periodic error to under 1 arc-second. And the list goes on. I'm real excited to be getting this mount. It used to be in its price range that the Astro-Physics Mach 1 did not have much competition. With the MyT, that is no longer the case. And for my requirements, I believe the MyT is clearly the better choice (specifically because of my desire to be able to run remotely). It is gratifying to see one's images improving over time as technique and equipment gets better. That is certainly the case with this image of the Spider Nebula, IC 417. Here is my previous version, which I took back on November 24th of 2013. It had 2 hours and 55 minutes of Ha data binned 2x2 with 5m subs. Here is the 7.5 hours of Ha I have gathered for this years version (binned 1x1 with 30m subs). The deeper image is a result of longer subs, more integration time, and better post processing techniques.
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March 2020
Madratter
Here are my occasional thoughts on Astrophotography, Astronomy, and whatever else catches my attention. Categories |