Category Archives: Nebulae

Moon, Nebulae

The Cave & Monkey Head Nebulae Plus The Moon

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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.

Nebulae

A Quick Tadpoles Shot

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IC410, aka, Tadpoles Nebula, QHY183c (-20C,) 100×30 sec @ 30 gain, 31 offset, Optolong L-eNhance Filter, Televue TV-85 at F/5.6.

This is data from the same dates as images in the three previous posts before this one.  There were so many things I wanted to shoot in these sessions that were Ha, but needed 3 or 4 times more exposure to do them justice.   I scouted for what would be brighter Ha targets and did some test stacks trying to get the feel of how much certain things would need.

This one was one of the bigger and brighter targets I tested, but I could tell the less than an hour’s worth of data would need lots of work to make it into a presentable image.  Another one of those works in progress, I guess.   I gave it nearly an hour but it really needed at least double that as a start and 4x that for something exceptional.

Nebulae, Star Clusters

The Bubble Nebula

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The Bubble Nebula. 120×30 and another 1800 sec mixed exposures. QHY183c, L-eNhance Filter, TV-85 at F/5.6.

A mixture of 120×30 sec exposures taken with a L-eNhance filter and a mixture of 15, 30 and 1 minute exposures taken with a UHC filter.   About an hour and 30 minutes total.  The 120×30 set was at 30 gain and -20C.

I am starting to like  the 30 gain setting, since it gives the best results with shorter exposures.  Over 40 is too much noise and under 30 it is just too slow.

When the set began there was no matching dark to subtract, so I was using one at gain 20.   I stopped after about 10 shots and took some darks and then restarted shooting.   I’m glad I did since the amp glow was starting to show up bad on the right side of the frame.  The new darks overcame it and the glow averaged out after a while of LiveStacking with ShapCap 3.2.

Nebulae, Star Clusters

Veil and Cave Nebulae: L-eNhance Filter Test

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West Veil Nebula. 46×30 sec, QHY183c @ -15C, Gain 42, Offset 100, L-eNhance filter, Televue TV-85 at F/5.6.
The Cave Nebula. 26×240 sec, QHY183c @ -15C,, Gain 20, Offset 31, L-eNhance Filter, Televue TV-85 at F/5.6.

What luck!  First light for new filter is the day I received it!   Thanks to the clouds for staying away.   What I wanted to test was my new Optolong L-eNhance dual-band nebula filter, which is similar to the UHC filter I already own but with a narrower bandwidth and a more even color rendition across the frame than the cheap UHC one I’ve been using.  I got to try it out before the  run of good weather we’ve been having ended.

I was a able to test it on the Veil, which I recently imaged, and the Cave Nebula, which I had never shot before.  I am very pleased with the results.   Even color and illumination and better rejection of LP.

The Veil nebula was shot like I’ve been doing – 30 sec sub images at high gain. The Cave was long exposures of 4 minutes and I managed to get 26 subs.  The Veil is a finished image and the Cave Nebula is still a work in progress.   It seems the long exposure, 4 minute darks I used were not too good of a match and there are numerous hot pixel trails left to manually repair or clone out still left to do.

I also tried it on two reflection nebulae, one being the Running Man in the image below, and it was not as good as my UHC filter.    I also tried one star cluster, M35, and it is the last image below.  No galaxies yet, so I’m not sure how well it will work for those.   Maybe next time I will have to try for one and find out.

M42 – 114×30 sec, QHY183c @ -15C, Gain 42, Offset 42, L-eNhance filter, Televue TV-85 at F/5.6.
M35 – 20×30 sec, QHY183c @ -15C, Gain 42, Offset 42, L-eNhance filter, Televue TV-85 at F/5.6.

 

Moon, Nebulae

6 Minute Veil and the Moon

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East Veil Nebula. 6×60 sec, QHY183c, Gain 25, Offset 31, -15C, UHC filter, TV-85 at F/5.6.
The Moon on Nov 5th, 2019. TV-85 at F/5.6, QHY183c, UHC filter, 200% enlargement.

I am amazed at how much signal is in just 6 minutes of sub-images for this new camera, QHYCCD’s QHY183c.  When you take the shot, there is really not much there  without significant stretching of the image.    But, since the noise is so low with this cam, it can be boosted beyond anything a DSLR image could keep up with.

Now, I did do quite a bit of noise reduction on the Veil image included here, but it had enough signal to preserve enough detail to make the image adequate for a display image.  I reduced it 50% to smooth it out more, but the original size is OK, too, just quite large to be downloading on a mobile phone.

Clouds were why the session was so short.  I was clouded out when it was in a prime position early on, then it went completely overcast at the end.  In between, I manged to get the 6 x 1 minute subs .   I gave up and tore down and stowed the rig after I couldn’t shoot anymore.   Almost as soon as I had put away the last piece of gear, I went back out and it was totally clear, just like when I had started setting up.   Sucker holes and I fall for them all the time.   lol

I was actually just testing some tweaks to my laptop I did hoping that they would improve performance.  I added memory and updated a few drivers. Stability was vastly improved, but the speed of the machine lacked.   I could not do a, “live,” shot of the moon at the lower exposure needed.   It would not stream with the exposure less than 350ms.  Too many frames per second for it to keep up with, I guess.    Means I need another field laptop.   🙁

Nebulae

Orion Nebula and The Crab

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M1, The Crab Nebula. 100×30 sec, QHY183c on TV-85 at F/5.6, UHC filter. Gain 25, Offset 31, -23C.
M42, The Orion Nebula. 100×30 sec 15×120 sec and 4×4 sec for the core. QHY183c and TV-85 at F/5.6. Gain 20, Offset 31, -15C.
Lighter Version of M42, The Orion Nebula. 100×30 sec 15×120 sec and 4×4 sec for the core. QHY183c and TV-85 at F/5.6. Gain 20, Offset 31, -15C.

I started this session at midnight on Sat/Sun, Nov 2nd/3rd, 2019.  It was cloudy, but the forecast said it would eventually clear.   I went to bed early and woke up at midnight and checked and sure enough, it was clear.   I managed to get these two objects plus some other stuff that I haven’t had time to mess with.

The seeing was horrible when I shot the Crab and it shows.   I decided to take that data and combine it with previous efforts to see how it would look.    The image below is the result of 3 different sessions, 3 different cameras and 2 telescopes.   Check it out:

The Crab Nebula – Combined Data from a DSLR, Sony IMX224 eyepiece cam and a QHY183c astro-camera.
Nebulae, Star Clusters

Test of Canon 200mm F/2.8 Telephoto with QHY183c Camera

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M45, The Pleiades. 56×30 sec, QHY183c, Gain 20, Offset 31, -15C, Canon 200mm F/2.8.
The North American Nebula. 167×30 sec, QHY183c, Gain 2, Offset 31, -15C, Canon 200mm F/2.8.
The Horse Head Nebula Region. 8×120 sec, QHY183c, UHC Filter, Gain 20, Offset 31, -23C, Canon 200mm F/2.8.

I bought the adapters needed to mate my new QHY183c camera to my Canon lenses.   I tried it out with the 200mm F/2.8 telephoto.   No way to control the F-stop diaphragm, since it needs a Canon camera to do that, so I had to shoot with it wide open.  BTW, this was from the light polluted metro area I’ve been shooting from lately.

Since this is one of the cheaper lines of Canon lenses, it suffers from optical imperfections like astigmatism.   That makes the red focus to a line up and down and blue and green focus to a line left to right.   It really messes up the star shapes and there is no way to fix it except to stop the lens down to F/3.5 or higher.   Oh, well…

Nebulae

Horse Head Nebula Region Composite

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Horse Head Nebula Region. BW 93×30 sec as lum layer on 180×8 sec color composite. QHY183c, Gain 30, -15C, TV-85 at F/5.6.

I’ve been trying to get enough data in one session for a rendition of the Horse Head with my new camera.  Each time, my session was cut short due to trees in the way, the break of dawn or clouds.  This morning was no exception and clouds ruined my session even before the sun could.

No matter.  I took all the short, incomplete sessions I had and combined the data into one composite image.   I even used the BW stuff I had before I got the camera working correctly with the right drivers.   I estimate I have about 70 minutes of time in the above image, with up to 4 separate stacks combined into it.

Galaxies, Nebulae

The Witch’s Broom – Western Veil Nebula and Friends

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Witch’s Broom Nebula – 90×30 sec, QHY183c, -25C cooling, Gain 30, Offset 5, UHC filter, Televue TV-85 at F/5.6.

After a few all-nighters during the recent good weather we’ve been having down here in Cajun Country, I must say I’m worn out.   LoL.   But, I had lots of fun shooting very dim objects through Bortle Red Zone skies that I would have never thought would let me capture what I did.   Modern progress with astro-filters and more sensitive cameras save the day!  Plus, none of the stuff I bought broke the bank.

Since I shot the Eastern Veil with the new setup, I had to try the western part, aka the Witch’s Broom.   It was easy with the QHY183c and a cheap UHC filter.  I got 45 minutes worth of 30 second sub-images and they stacked automatically in SmartCap 3.2.  Star colors could be better, but this is about normal for a UHC filter shot.  The red channel was not quite in focus, however.   I fixed it after acquiring the data for the above image.

I shot 3 other objects on  this night, Gamma Cas, M33 (again) and the Horse Head Nebula,  with 2 of them completed.  I got clouded out during the last session with the Horse Head.   Below are the results:

Gamma Cas – 75×30 sec, QHY183c, Gain 30, -25C, UHC filter, TV-85 at F/5.6.
M33 – 10×120 sec, QHY183c, Gain 30, -25C, UHC filter, TV85 at F/5.6.

 

Galaxies, Nebulae, Star Clusters

Great Night for EAA and Imaging with New QHY183c Camera

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M27 – 90×30 sec, QHY183c at -25C, Gain 30, UHC filter, TV-85 at F/5.6.
M27 – Close Crop Detail at 100% Res. 90×30 sec, QHY183c at -25C, Gain 30, UHC, TV-85 @ F/5.6.
Eastern Veil Nebula – 103×30 sec, QHY183c at -25C, Gain 30, Offset 25, UHC filter, TV-85 at F/5.6.
M31 – 90×30 sec, QHY183c at -25C, Gain 30, UHC filter, TV-85 at F/5.6.
M33 – 30×30 sec, QHY183c at -25C, Gain 30, UHC filter, TV-85 at F/5.6.
M45 – 100×30 sec, QHY183c at -25C, Gain 30, UHC filter, TV-85 at F/5.6.
M42 – 40×30 sec, QHY183c at -25C, Gain 30, UHC filter, TV-85 at F/5.6.

What a night!  My new QHY183c astro camera worked really well once I had it hooked to a computer that could handle the 20MP downloads and live stacking requirements of SharpCap 3.2.  I used my older  Panasonic ToughBook for controlling the scope and the guiding while another laptop, a Toshiba i7-based unit, was used for image acquisition and live-stacking.  I was able to bag six objects with this setup before I had to turn in and get some sleep.

(BTW, EAA is Electronically Assisted Astronomy.  It is a way to “observe” from a light-polluted metro area with real-time captures and strong LP filters on a computer using highly sensitive astro cameras.)

SharpCap 3.2 works really well on the faster machine but not on the ToughBook.  The USB 3 port and it’s 2.5Ghz processor are just not powerful enough, I guess.  I will have to tuneup the Toshiba to do all the stuff the ToughBook was doing and live-stack with SharpCap, all at the same time.  Hopefully, I’ll take care of that soon.