Posted inAstronomy Astrophotography

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

https://flic.kr/p/2r28D9d

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.

  • 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.

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M51 The Whirlpool Galaxy

https://flic.kr/p/2qVgJvU


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.

  • 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.

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Posted inAstronomy Astrophotography

M42 The Orion Nebula

https://flic.kr/p/2qNqRRw

I’m pretty amazed how nice this one came out. I started the image really late in the season so by 9pm I would already be doing a meridian flip. Plus weather and mount issues (tracking on the west side), made this one a challenge.

  • Taken from a Bortle 5 suburban back yard.
  • Takahashi FSQ-106EDX4 at f/3.6 with the CR Reducer 0.73x.
  • SBIG ST-8300M at 1×1 binning, with the FW5-8300 5 position filter wheel. (The halos around brighter stars are due to the camera)
  • 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.
  • 70 x 300s luminance integrations (IDAS LPS-D3)
  • 70 x 300s each red, green and blue filters

Total exposure time of just over 23 hours

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Posted inAstronomy Astrophotography

M33 Triangulum Galaxy

https://flic.kr/p/2qqnCQH


A small break in the weather finally allowed me to complete my M33. The difference from my first attempt with only 15 RGB frames [https://flic.kr/p/2qqnCQH] is really amazing.

  • Taken from a Bortle 5 suburban back yard.
  • Takahashi FSQ-106EDX4 at f/5.
  • 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.
  • 70 x 600s luminance integrations (IDAS LPS-D3)
  • 45 x 600s each red, green and blue filters

Total exposure time of 34 hours.

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Posted inAstronomy Astrophotography

M31 The Andromeda Galaxy

https://flic.kr/p/2qmBPdK


It’s Andromeda season! My latest attempt at m31, with a nearly 15-year-old SBIG ST-8300M camera. I’m amazed at how this camera is still ticking along, but I think it may be time for an upgrade soon. lol!

  • Taken from a Bortle 5 suburban back yard.
  • Takahashi FSQ-106EDX4 at f/3.6 with the 0.73x CR Reducer.
  • 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.
  • 66 x 600s luminance integrations (IDAS LPS-D3)
  • 30 x 600s red channel integrations
  • 30 x 600s green channel integrations
  • 30 x 600s blue channel integrations

26 hours total exposure time

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