Tag: 106mm

Messier 106 Galaxy in Canes Venatici

These are never really “done” but I’m tried of fiddling with this one so here goes…

I did so many things wrong with this image. I fought mount tracking issues and windy nights most of the way, plus I started out pretty late in the season and kind of ran out of time. I’m surprised it came out as well as it did. Thank goodness for PixInsight. The gradient correction functions are amazing and really helped fix a lot of issues introduced by light pollution and my crappy flat frames.

I’m still learning a lot about the QHY268m and I’m finding that I have to completely change how I capture images. With my old CCD based ST-8300 the rule was “as cold as possible, and as long as possible.” With the CMOS QHY those rules don’t really apply. I’m completely maxing out the sensor, and getting very flat bloated stars doing 300 second exposures. From the advice I have been getting, doing a large set of much shorter exposures for LRGB is the way to go. Looking forward to the autumn and having a go at Orion, the Horsehead and the Pleiades using that approach.

Taken from a Bortle 5 suburban back yard
Takahashi FSQ-106EDX4 at f/8 with the Extender-Q 1.6x
QHY268M, Photographic DSO Mode-2CMS, gain 56, offset 25, 1×1 binning
QHYCFW3 7 position 36mm filter wheel
IDAS LPS-D3 36mm filter for luminance
Astronomik Deep-Sky 36mm RGB filters
Baader 36mm 7nm Hydrogen-Alpha filter
The red filter data was combined with Badder HA filter to try to emphasize the hydrogen alpha areas. It kind of worked, I guess?
Losmady G11 Gemini 2, guided with a piggybacked AstroTech 65EDQ and an ASI120MM Mini autoguider
Software included PHD2 for guiding, Sequence Generator Pro for acquisition, and PixInsight for image processing
140 x 300s luminance integrations (IDAS LPS-D3)
90 x 300s Hydrogen Alpha integrations
40 x 300s each red, green, and blue filters

About 30 hours total integration time.

2026-06-23No Comments

Astronomy Astrophotography

The Cygnus Loop in Hydrogen-Alpha and O3

My first proper imaging attempt with my new QHY268M. I am loving having a 7 position filter wheel and being able to have all my filters on a single carrousel. It has allowed me to experiment more with my Baader narrowband filters, and the results have been really cool.

This was also my first attempt at the Veil Nebula region, and I tried to get as much of the Cygnus Loop as I could fit in at f/3.6 with the FSQ. The image is a bi-color composition using images taken with a hydrogen-alpha filter and an O3 filter combined into an RGB image.

I used PixInsight’s Pixel Math function to combine the Ha and O3 channels as follows:

Red channel: (0.6 * ha) + (0.4 * o3)
Green channel: o3
Blue channel: o3

Taken from a Bortle 5 suburban backyard.
Takahashi FSQ-106EDX4 at f/3.6 with the Reducer CR 0.73x.
QHY268M, Photographic DSO Mode-2CMS, gain 56, offset 25, 1×1 binning.
QHYCFW5 7 position 36mm filter wheel.
Baader 36mm mounted 7nm Hydrogen-Alpha, and 8.5nm O3 filters
Losmady G11 Gemini 2, guided with a piggybacked AstroTech 65EDQ and an Orion StarShoot autoguider.
Software included PHD2 for guiding, Sequence Generator Pro for acquisition, and PixInsight for image processing.

120 x 300s integrations Baader 7nm Hydrogen-Alpha
120 x 300s integrations Baader 8.5nm O3

20 hours total exposure time

2025-07-06No Comments

Astronomy Astrophotography

M81 and M82 – Bode’s Galaxy and the Cigar Galaxy

Another go at f/8 with the FSQ and the Extender-Q 1.6x. This setup produces strong vignetting, and as flats have become more critical, I am finding that my flat game is pretty lame. As with my previous M51 shot, the flats I took did more damage than good and completely overcorrected the image. In the end I was able to mostly fix it, but the background is still pretty splotchy. There’s something I am doing wrong with my bias/dark/flats process that I haven’t understood yet.

I have a post that shows the internals and disassembly of this camera and filter wheel here:
https://www.astroturtle.com/2025/12/sbig-st-8300m/

Taken from a Bortle 5 suburban backyard.
Takahashi FSQ-106EDX4 at f/8 with the Extender-Q 1.6x.
SBIG ST-8300M at 1×1 binning, with the FW5-8300 5 position filter wheel.
IDAS LPS-D3 36mm unmounted filter for luminance and Astronomik Deep-Sky 36mm unmounted RGB filters.
Losmady G11 Gemini 2, guided with a piggybacked AstroTech 65EDQ and an Orion StarShoot autoguider.
Software included PHD2 for guiding, Sequence Generator Pro for acquisition, and PixInsight for image processing.
150 x 120s luminance integrations (IDAS LPS-D3)
150 x 120s each red, green, and blue filters

Total exposure time of 20 hours.

2025-05-02No Comments

Astronomy Astrophotography

M51 The Whirlpool Galaxy

I pushed my FSQ to f/8 with the Extender-Q 1.6x for this one. I was my first attempt with this setup because I was having a lot of tracking issues with my G11. I was getting an average RMS of 1.5″ and peaks of 4″. Not great at f/8! After a full clean and relube, lots of fiddling, and adjustment of the worms (boy, was that part frustrating), I now have it down to an RMS of (mostly) just under 0.5″ and peaks of 1.5″….

My first try at processing this came out with a lot of noise, bad color balance, and bad background gradients because I seem to have messed up my flats. This version was a re-process with no flats, which still produced some strong gradients, but they were much easier to filter out in PixInsight. I’m pretty happy with the color and detail now, and I am really impressed with the Extender-Q and the performance of the FSQ at f/8. Next (if I ever see good weather again) I’m going to try for M81/M82 with this setup.

I have a post that shows the internals and disassembly of this camera and filter wheel here:
https://www.astroturtle.com/2025/12/sbig-st-8300m/

Taken from a Bortle 5 suburban backyard.
Takahashi FSQ-106EDX4 at f/8 with the Extender-Q 1.6x.
SBIG ST-8300M at 1×1 binning, with the FW5-8300 5 position filter wheel.
IDAS LPS-D3 36mm unmounted filter for luminance and Astronomik Deep-Sky 36mm unmounted RGB filters.
Losmady G11 Gemini 2, guided with a piggybacked AstroTech 65EDQ and an Orion StarShoot autoguider.
Software included PHD2 for guiding, Sequence Generator Pro for acquisition, and PixInsight for image processing.
90 x 120s luminance integrations (IDAS LPS-D3)
90 x 120s each red, green, and blue filters

Total exposure time of 12 hours.

2025-04-01No Comments