Normally I avoid doing anything on Friday the 13th. lol. But, since astronomical time is Greenwich Mean Time, the 13th ended at 6:00PM CST, so I was good. Ha!
The Orion Nebula and Friends. 37×2 (core,) 22 x 300 sec, Gain 11, Offset 17, QHY183c at -20C, Astronomic L-3 UV/IR filter, TPO (Askar) 180mm, F/4.5.
I imaged 3 objects this night. One was the object above, the Orion Nebula (and friends,) one was the Flaming Star Nebula and I shot about 2.5 hours of Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF.)
Equipment used was an Askar 180mm F.L., F/4.5 scope (40mm objective,) an Astronomic L-3 UV/IR filter and a QHY183c camera, and an Atlas EQ-G with EQMOD.
Here’s the Flaming Star. I missed the focus on this. I threw away several processing attempts before salvaging what I could for this display image. Oh, well… next time.
The Flaming Star Nebula (and friends.) 33 x 300 sec, Gain 11, Offset 17, QHY183c at -20C, Astronomic L-3 UV/IR filter, TPO (Askar) 180mm, F/4.5.
Next, after waiting till 2:30-3:00 AM, I took images of Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF). It is small and still kind of dim, but has a long, faint tail. I have two data sets with about an hour each of exposure.
Star Freeze version of Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF). 11×300 sec, guided on the comet, Gain 11, Offset 17, QHY183c at -20C, Astronomic L-3 UV/IR filter, TPO (Askar) 180mm, F/4.5.Star Streaks version of Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF). 11×300 sec, guided on the comet, Gain 11, Offset 17, QHY183c at -20C, Astronomic L-3 UV/IR filter, TPO (Askar) 180mm, F/4.5.tar Freeze version of Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF). 12×300 sec, guided on the comet, Gain 11, Offset 17, QHY183c at -20C, Astronomic L-3 UV/IR filter, TPO (Askar) 180mm, F/4.5.Star Streaks version of Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF). 12×300 sec, guided on the comet, Gain 11, Offset 17, QHY183c at -20C, Astronomic L-3 UV/IR filter, TPO (Askar) 180mm, F/4.5.
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.
The Moon on Nov 13, 2021. QHY183c, AT60ED at F/4.8.The Pleiades. 35×180 sec, Gain 11, Offset 50, QHY183c at -20C, UHC-S filter, Astro-Tech AT60ED at F/4.8.The Andromeda Galaxy. 50×180 sec, Gain 11, Offset 50, QHY183c at -20C, UHC-S filter, Astro-Tech AT60ED at F/4.8.Comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko, Star Streaks Version. 40×180 sec (comet, 20×180 sec background), Gain 11, Offset 50, QHY183c at -20C, UHC-S filter, Astro-Tech AT60ED at F/4.8.Comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko, Star Freeze Version. 40×180 sec (comet, 20×180 sec background), Gain 11, Offset 50, QHY183c at -20C, UHC-S filter, Astro-Tech AT60ED at F/4.8.C/2021-A1 (Leonard). 24×180 sec, Gain 11, Offset 50, QHY183c at -20C, UHC-S filter, Astro-Tech AT60ED at F/4.8.C/2021-A1 (Leonard). 24×180 sec, Gain 11, Offset 50, QHY183c at -20C, UHC-S filter, Astro-Tech AT60ED at F/4.8. Star Freeze version.
Great weather and very transparent skies for this session. I started out with the goal of getting two comets, but since they didn’t get into position until later, I started off with the Moon, then M45 and M31. I also shot Pickering’s Triangle, part of the Veil Nebula complex, but didn’t get enough subs to do it any justice.
The comets were small, but interesting with long tails instead of being just puff balls. 67P has a really long tail in images taken by others. I was glad to get as much as I got shooting from the middle of town with all the LP.
The Heart Nebula. 26×180 sec, QHY183c at -15C, Gain 11, Offset 50, Astro-Tech AT60ED at F/4.8, Optolong L-eNhance filter. Taken from a metro-area under heavy LP on Sep 26, 2021.
The Bubble Nebula and Friends. 42×180 sec, QHY183c at -15C, Gain 11, Offset 50, Astro-Tech AT60ED at F/4.8, Optolong L-eNhance filter. Taken from a metro-area under heavy LP on Sep 26, 2021.
M22 Globular Cluster. 12 x 180 sec, QHY183c at -15C, Gain 11, Offset 50, Optolong L-eNhance filter, Astro-Tech AT60ED at F/4.8, SharpCap 3.2 Live Stacking for acquisition, metro-area light pollution
The Moon on Jun 17, 2021.M13 Globular Cluster. 20×180 sec, Gain 11, Offset 10, QHY183c at -10C, L-eNhance filter, AT60ED at F/4.8. Full field.M13 Globular Cluster. 20×180 sec, Gain 11, Offset 10, QHY183c at -10C, L-eNhance filter, AT60ED at F/4.8. Close-crop.
A quick outing before the weather got bad as a tropical storm hits from the Gulf. I wanted to test the new T-adapter fittings I got for the AT60ED to attach the camera instead of using the 1.25″ eyepiece adapter, like I had to do for the first light images.
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.
Christmas Tree Cluster and Cone Nebula – 183×30 sec, gain 42, offset 42, and 49×120 sec in 2 runs, 30×120 and 19×120. Bortle Red zone metro conditions, but clear and above average transparency skies. Seeing was average. QHY183c camera cooled to -15C. gain 20, offset 100, an L-eNhance filter and Televue TV-85 at F/5.6. Sharpcap 3.2 for acquisition. Taken Dec 1, 2020 during a full moon night.
Images of Comets, Nebulae, Galaxies and Star Clusters
