Images

Moon, Star Clusters

The Moon and M13

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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.

Nebulae

First Light – AT60ED

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The Eagle Nebula – M16. 41×180 sec, QHY183C at Gain 20, Offset 0, -15C cooling, UHC filter, Astro-Tech AT60 ED at F/4.8.
The Trifid Nebula. 9×180 sec, QHY183C at Gain 20, Offset 0, -15C cooling, UHC filter, Astro-Tech AT60 ED at F/4.8.

First Light Images for a new Astro-Tech AT60ED telescope. Nice 360mm F/6 doublet with FPL-53 synthetic fluorite and Lanthanum lenses. I bought the 0.8x Reducer/Flattener that goes with it, too. It gives you a 288mm F.L. at F/4.8 with that combo. Resolution is still good at 1.72 arc sec/pixel with my camera.

These objects are the Eagle Nebula, Trifid and North America Nebulae.  All were taken with a QHY183C camera at gain 20, -15C cooling and a cheap no-name UHC filter from a metro area, Bortle 7-8 zone.

The North America Nebula. 9 x180 sec, QHY183C at Gain 20, Offset 0, -15C cooling, UHC filter, Astro-Tech AT60 ED at F/4.8.
Galaxies

NGC 4244 Edge-On Galaxy in Canes Venatici

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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.
Galaxies

Black Eye Galaxy M64

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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.

Star Clusters

M35 Open Cluster on Jan 14, 2021

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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.

Nebulae

M45, The Pleiades on Jan 14, 2021

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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.

Nebulae

Thor’s Helmet – Now at 4.6 Hrs of Integration

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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