I’m in widefield mode for a while and wanted to grab this one before Cygnus gets away for the season. 70 minutes each Ha and OIII
Larger at http://astrob.in/113921/0/
I’m in widefield mode for a while and wanted to grab this one before Cygnus gets away for the season. 70 minutes each Ha and OIII
Larger at http://astrob.in/113921/0/
Next-to-last image with the Meade for this season.
12″ Meade LX850, QSI683WSG-8
The LX850 is breathing a sigh of relief after being unburdened of the 12″ SCT. It’s been replaced for now with the FSQ-106N. Dunno what that weighs (it is VERY heavy for a 4″ F/5 telescope) but it’s obviously much less than the Meade.
I’m winding down on the long focal length stuff. The aftermarket add-on focuser I use on the Meade needs to go in for service so I’ll be switching to the FSQ-106N for a while. I still have a couple of images captured with the Meade to post but those will be the last until I get both telescopes set up side by side.
Finally had some decent seeing last night. No deconvolution or sharpening required. Starlock did a great job at .88 arcseconds/pixel. 8 exposures of ten minutes each Ha and OIII, artificial green channel. I will tone the red down when time permits but here’s what I have so far.
More at http://astrob.in/112019/0/
Finally – another RGB image. Narrowband filters won’t help with this one. It’s very dim. I just wanted to see what could be done with it from my urban location. It isn’t great, but it’s much better than I expected! Seven five minute exposures each R, G, B (no time for L on a work night). Usual gear; 12″ LX850, QSI683WSG-8.
Larger version: http://astrob.in/109041/B/
I’m kind of locked into this bicolor narrowband mode – but at least I stumbled onto an appropriately sized target this time. It’s a nice, big planetary nebula. As usual, the sky didn’t cooperate during the weekend so this was another worknight (read “in a hurry to get to bed”) shot. Grabbed an hour each Ha and OIII. Still using the 12″ Meade LX850 and the QSI683WSG-8.
Can be seen at http://astrob.in/108701/B/ and presumably that one will get updated as time is found to tune up the processing.
Not a great night fopr imaging; transparency was as bad as the Clear Sky Chart said it would be so even with 8 minute exposures it was noisy. Cleaned it up as best I could in a hurry so I can go to bed (work day tomorrow). I might be able to do a more gentle job later. 48 minutes each Ha and OIII, 12″ Meade LX850, QSI683WSG-8 – as usual. I’ll be switching to the FSQ-106N soon. This target makes much more sense at that scale!
Larger version at http://astrob.in/107769/0/