NGC 4244 Edge-On Galaxy in Canes Venatici

NGC 4244 on Jan 17, 2021. 61 x 180 sec, QHY183c at -20C, Gain 11 (Unity,) Offset 100, Baader UHC-S filter, Televue TV-85 at F/5.6.

3hrs of exposure for this nice edge-on galaxy.  It got cloudy towards the end of the run and there was a serious guiding error on the full 61×180 sec stack.  But, I managed to salvage the stack by copying the background and galaxy and pasting that in as a lightened blend on top of a 47×180 sec saved stack for the stars that did not have a guiding error.   Lucky I saved it before it got ruined.

Here is a closer crop with a saturation boost:

NGC 4244 on Jan 17, 2021. 61 x 180 sec, QHY183c at -20C, Gain 11 (Unity,) Offset 100, Baader UHC-S filter, Televue TV-85 at F/5.6. Close crop.

Black Eye Galaxy M64

M64 Galaxy – 25×180 sec @ Gain 11, Offset 100, QHY183c at -20C, Baader UHC-S filter, Televue TV-85 at F/5.6.

Another Black Eye galaxy shot to add to my collection.  Not quite the guiding I was getting earlier in the evening, but it is not too bad, either.  Minimal processing done to this one.

M35 Open Cluster on Jan 14, 2021

M35 Open Cluster – 26×180 sec @ gain 11, offset 100, QHY183c at -20C, Baader UHC-S filter, Televue TV-85 at F/5.6.

I was having a good night of steady seeing and really good guiding (<1.13 arc sec error) for this object and the Pleiades on this night.  I went until it was time to flip and the guiding was starting to degrade.   78 minutes worth of subs was good enough to show this object well.

M45, The Pleiades on Jan 14, 2021

M45 – 32×180 sec @ Gain 11, Offset 100, QHY183c at -20C, Baader UHC-S filter, Televue TV-85 at F/5.6.

Not too bad for a session from the metro LP zone!  Only 96 minutes, but it was enough with these settings to show quite a bit of nebulousity.  I used the unity gain setting (11) and that made a big difference in hot pixels and noise.   My other shots at a gain of 20 were plagued by hot pixels that SharpCap 3.2 doesn’t seem to be able to deal with very well.  I like this much better and there is just as much data buried in there as in the higher gain shots.

Thor’s Helmet – Now at 4.6 Hrs of Integration

Thor’s Helmet. 3 sessions with the last being 25 x 3 minutes of integration.

Over 4.6 hours of integration with a variety of exposures including 3 min, 2 min and 30 sec sub-images. All were taken with a QHY183c camera at -20C or -15C cooling, an Optolong L-eNhance filter and a Televue TV-85 at F/5.6.

thors-helmet-25×180-g20-o100-lnh-qhy183c_-20C-85f5_6-crop plus thors-helmet-30×120-g20-284×30-g37-o200-lnh-qhy183c_-15C-85f5_6-v2a