M31 – 10×180 sec, Gain 11, Offset 30, QHY183c at -20C, UV/IR filter, TPO 40mm, F/4.5.
Only 30 minutes of exposure for this test image of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) with a TPO 180mm F/4.5 Ultrawide Astrophotography Lens. Askar is the OEM and the lens is a small APO triplet with 40mm objective that has 2 elements of FPL-53 glass and includes a triplet reducer/flattener, making it a sextuplet full-frame astrograph. The spot diagram for this lens shows that it doesn’t quite produce perfectly round star images, however, even at the center. But, some of that is correctable during post-processing and the lens produces a pretty flat image regardless.
I also did 70×3 min subs for the Veil Complex that I took before the M31 set. That turned out like this:
Veil Complex. 70 x 180 sec, Gain 11, Offset 100, QHY183c at -20C, UV/IR filter, Askar 40mm, F/4.5.
Here is a lighter version:
Veil Complex, lighter version. 70 x 180 sec, Gain 11, Offset 100, QHY183c at -20C, UV/IR filter, Askar 40mm, F/4.5.
The middle of a work week and I go and pull an all-nighter imaging session. Weather was too good to pass up the chance. I must be insane or obsessed – or both. lol
It was worth it. I got some good data and was able generate these 3 images so far. They’re still in the preliminary stages, though. Each were essentially saved as seen from SharpCap v4’s LiveStack module. I just did some basic adjustments in PS to make them pretty but are not the final product. I’ve been so busy with work and also recuperating from a bout of some kind of a stomach bug that I haven’t had time to devote to make final renditions.
I got 3 hrs for M31 and about an hour each for the Orion and Horse Head Nebulae. I used 5 minute sub-images for most of this session. I little too long for my mount’s sometimes iffy guiding, perhaps, but mostly correctable in final post-processing, which I will eventually get to.
Update: Finished the Orion Nebula / Running Man post-processing job and also work on the very first image taken during this session, the Eagle Nebula. I actually got the Eagle going first and then put it on the back burner, since I did not have very much time on it.
Eagle Nebula (Pillars of Creation.) 11×240 sec, Gain 11, Offset 100, QHY183c at -20C, UV/IR filter, Astro-Teech AT60ED at F/4.8.Orion and Running Man Nebulae – 12×300 sec, Gain 11, Offset 17, QHY183c at -20C, UV/IR Filter, Astro-Tech AT60ED at F/4.8.
Update 10/31/22: Finished the Horse Head and Andromeda Galaxy post-processing:
Horse Head Nebula on Oct 20, 2022. 10 x 5 min, Gain 10, Offset 0, QHY183c at -20C, UV/IR filter, Astro-Tech AT60ED at F/4.8.Andromeda Galaxy on Oct 20, 2022. 36 x 5 min, Gain 11, Offset 17, QHY183c at -20C, UV/IR filter, Astro-Tech AT60ED at F/4.8.
Lagoon Nebula – 7×240 sec, Gain 11, Offset 100, QHY183c at -20C, UV/IR filter, Astro-Tech AT60ED at F/4.8.The North America Nebula – 26×240 sec, Gain 11, Offset 100, QHY183c at -20C, UV/IR filter, Astro-Tech AT60ED at F/4.8.
I managed to get 2 good images for a short imaging session on Oct 14, 2022 (Oct 15, UT.) I was at my new location on a pretty clear night (at first) and getting good sub-images without any LP filters. Clouds came and eventually shut me down at about 10:30 PM that evening, however. Plus, the moon had risen by that time and would have ended the session anyway. I was lucky to get what I got, I guess.
Both images were captured in SharpCap 4.x and needed very little processing. I wanted to do a mosaic of the North America nebula, but it was not to be that evening. But, I did have some duo-band filtered data taken from the city that was pretty good, so I combined it to do a mosaic anyway:
Combined data of the NA nebula using the data from this session and data taken in June of 2021.
Veil Nebula, Oct 1, 2022. 7 x 240 sec, Gain 11, Offset 100, 65×30 sec, Gain 30, Offset 60, QHY183c at -15C/-20C, UV/IR filter, Astro Tech AT61ED at F/4.8.
I have a new imaging location I tested out for this session. I only shot one object, the Veil nebula, with various exposures to see what the results would be. No filters except a UV/IR (clear) and exposures up to 4 minutes per sub-image.
This is 7×4 minute subs plus 65×30 sec subs for a total of about an hour of integration. I could have almost doubled the 4 min exposures to 8, since the LP was minimal. But, I only had darks up to 4 minutes long and was not going to burn time shooting more, so those were the longest.
Conditions were very good, very transparent, average seeing and not too cold. I was not prepared to stay all night, unfortunately and I should have brought along my insulated coveralls. It got a little chilly just sitting at the computer and not moving.
Update: I had some data of the same object taken from the city using an L-eNhance filter and the same scope, so I mixed a little bit of that in as luminance for just the nebula to see how that would look:
Enhanced with 1 hr of additional L-eNhance Filter Data from a previous session (just the Nebula.)
Images of Comets, Nebulae, Galaxies and Star Clusters
