Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night
Amos 5:8
Amos 5:8
I was fortunate to get quite a bit of good weather recently. That has allowed giving Voyager a really good workout, imaging as many as three targets in a night, switching automatically between them.
Certainly one of the show case constellations is Orion. It has been a favorite of mine since I could identify it when I was still in single digits. Almost all the time spent in Orion by Astrophotographers is spent on a few showcase objects, the Great Orion Nebula, The Horsehead and the Flame, Messier 78, and sometimes Barnard's loop. However, there is far more available to shoot than just these few objects, and some of them are quite spectacular in their own right.
Recently, I have been shooting one of those objects, NGC 1788, the Fox Face Nebula. This is an interesting region with beautiful contrasts between bright Blue and Golden stars, a reflection nebula (NGC 1788 proper), dust, and even a Ha region (the right side of the fox - left from our perspective). This is a wonder LRGB target.
Certainly one of the show case constellations is Orion. It has been a favorite of mine since I could identify it when I was still in single digits. Almost all the time spent in Orion by Astrophotographers is spent on a few showcase objects, the Great Orion Nebula, The Horsehead and the Flame, Messier 78, and sometimes Barnard's loop. However, there is far more available to shoot than just these few objects, and some of them are quite spectacular in their own right.
Recently, I have been shooting one of those objects, NGC 1788, the Fox Face Nebula. This is an interesting region with beautiful contrasts between bright Blue and Golden stars, a reflection nebula (NGC 1788 proper), dust, and even a Ha region (the right side of the fox - left from our perspective). This is a wonder LRGB target.
I have also been shooting NGC 2359, so called Thor's Helmet, named because of the resemblance to a Viking Helmet. Personally, I think it looks a lot like a spider, but no one asked my opinion when they named it, and there was already a spider nebula anyway. This is located nearby to Orion in Canis Major, one of Orion's Hunting dogs. This is a good LRGB or narrowband target. I did it in SHO (the Hubble palette). This object is unusual in that the OIII is as strong or stronger than the Ha. A very hot star is essentially blowing a bubble in the gas of the area.
Now that I have much more time under my belt with Voyager, I am still very pleased with it. I'm almost certainly going to switch my imaging over to using it. I'm very impressed with how reliable it is, and how well it recovers from problems.
To illustrate this, there was a night recently where they were calling for some clear skies but there were lots and lots of clouds. As it turned out it stayed mostly cloudy throughout the night. But Voyager dutifully ran and tried to collect some data. In the morning, it had found just four 5 minute periods when it could take an image. 3 of those were spoiled by clouds during parts of the exposure. But I did have one 5 minute exposure to show for what was by all counts a hopeless night. The point is, it kept recovering and kept trying. This will be a great help on nights that are partly cloudy from time to time.
To illustrate this, there was a night recently where they were calling for some clear skies but there were lots and lots of clouds. As it turned out it stayed mostly cloudy throughout the night. But Voyager dutifully ran and tried to collect some data. In the morning, it had found just four 5 minute periods when it could take an image. 3 of those were spoiled by clouds during parts of the exposure. But I did have one 5 minute exposure to show for what was by all counts a hopeless night. The point is, it kept recovering and kept trying. This will be a great help on nights that are partly cloudy from time to time.