Leo Trio with Baader UHC-S

Leo Trio on Dec 31, 2019. 450×30 sec with UHC-S filter and 123×30 with L-eNhance filter blend. QHY183c at -20C, Gain 42, Offset 42, Televue TV-85 at F/5.6.

Finally, the weather cleared after several weeks of clouds.  This is typical for December down here in Cajun Country.   With the clear conditions, I got a chance to try out a new UHC-S filter I purchased from Baader Planetarium.   It replaces the cheap generic UHC filter I got from Amazon.  Still shooting from the big city these days in Bortle 8 Red zone is a good test of these filters to see how much LP gets in and how well galaxies and nebulae show up.

I found out the L-eNhance filter doesn’t do much for galaxies unless they have lots of H-alpha regions.  An hour worth of subs I took at the beginning of the month of the Leo Trio barely had anything worth keeping, so I only blended about 25% of it in to this image.   The 450×30 sec Live Stack with dithering turned on I acquired in SharpCap 3.2 and the UHC-S filter was good enough to stand on its own.

Minimal post processing was done for this one, which is always nice after staying up all night imaging.   lol  🙂

Before I shot the Leo Trio, I did a “blue test” on the Pleiades.   I have 16 minutes worth of data and it shows how well this filter does with broad band and non-h-alpha objects.   Check it out:

M45. 32×30 sec, Gain 42, Offset 42, -20C, UHC-S filter, QHY183c, TV-85 at F/5.6.

Saturday-Sunday Night, Dec 7th-8th, 2019

The Moon. 5 frames stacked in SharpCap 3.2 LiveStacking. QHY183c, L-eNhance, TV-85 at F/5.6.
The Ghost Nebula and Gamma Cass. QHY183c, 125 x 30 sec, Gain 42, Offset 42, -20C, L-eNhance filter, TV-85 at F/5.6.
NGC7822 and Ced 214. QHY183c, 122 x 30 sec, Gain 42, Offset 42, -20C, L-eNhance filter, TV-85 at F/5.6.
The Cone Nebula. QHY183c, 193 x 30 sec, Gain 42, Offset 42, -20C, L-eNhance filter, TV-85 at F/5.6.
M46 and NGC 2438. QHY183c, 18 x 30 sec, Gain 42, Offset 42, -20C, L-eNhance filter, TV-85 at F/5.6.
Leo Trio. QHY183c, 120 x 30 sec, Gain 42, Offset 42, -20C, L-eNhance filter, TV-85 at F/5.6.

Six images bagged in one night, although a few need at least another nights worth of additional time. Big city light pollution was circumvented with an Optolong L-eNhance filter.

30 second sub-images for the DSO’s. The moon was 5 frames stacked in SharpCap 3.2. The Cone Nebula has 130 subs from last night and 63 from a previous session. I also shot M51, but it was only a few frames before twilight and was not really enough for a display image.

Horse Head, Owl and Cone Nebulae

Horse Head Nebula – 123×30 sec @ Gain 42, Offset 42, -20C, QHY183c plus L-eNhance filter, TV-85 at F/5.6.
Owl Nebula and M108 – – 127×30 sec @ Gain 42, Offset 42, -20C, QHY183c plus L-eNhance filter, TV-85 at F/5.6.
Owl Nebula Detail – 127×30 sec @ Gain 42, Offset 42, -20C, QHY183c plus L-eNhance filter, TV-85 at F/5.6.
A Work in Progress., the Cone Nebula – 63×30 sec @ Gain 42, Offset 42, -20C, QHY183c plus L-eNhance filter, TV-85 at F/5.6.

An early morning imaging session.  I setup after 1:00 am and imaged until sunrise on Tuesday, Dec 3, 2019.  I managed to get decent amounts of data on the Horse Head and Owl nebulae, but I only got a little bit of the Cone before it went behind trees.

I will definitely want to shoot the Cone again with 2 more sets of data – one with the Optolong L-eNhance filter and one with a UHC filter.   It is a beautiful area with broadband filters, but too much LP from my current site to do it justice with one of those.   I think the two filters together shooting separate sets might do it justice from this place, though.

The Cave & Monkey Head Nebulae Plus The Moon

The Cave Nebula – – 242 x 30 sec @ Gain 42, Offset 42, -20C, 26×240 sec @ Gain 20, Offset 31,-15C, QHY183c, L-eNhance filter, Televue TV-85 at F/5.6
Moon Composite – Dec 2, 2019
Monkey Head Nebula – 100 x 30 sec @ Gain 42, Offset 42, -20C, QHY183c, L-eNhance filter, Televue TV-85 at F/5.6

Sunday evening was beautiful here in Cajun Country and I did not let the night go to waste.   I shot a number of things, but I went back to the Cave Nebula early on to add more data to my existing image of it.

I shot the moon next, even though the seeing was not that great.   I shot 10 stills starting out slightly underexposed and progressing to over-exposed to show the dark part that was lit by Earthshine.    My experiment to blend them all together was not what I had in mind in terms of look and feel.  Plus, I had shot them in 8-bit mode instead of 16-bit mode in SharpCap 3.2.  It was a learning experience, I guess.   I’ll figure it out one day, hopefully.

I did the Monkey Head Nebula last and it hardly needed any post-processing.   50 minutes worth of data was enough to show most of it.   Guiding and composition were good and the image was easy to post process.   I packed it in after this, since it was nearly 2:00 am and I needed at least a few hours of sleep before work Monday morning.   lol

Like before, these images were all taken from a metro area with Bortle 8 red zone light pollution levels.   An Optolong L-eNhance filter was used to shoot through the muck.