M27 - Season opening test shot

20:45 16/8/2010 UTC

First night out after summer break I usually just test everything is still working and I still remember all the buttons and switches... My usual test target is M27, the Dumbbell Nebula. I've installed a focus motor controller from Shoestring Astronomy to allow me to focus the image from the inside of the house. I have to say it is way much comfortable to achieve sharp focus when you can do it inside using a decent workstation rather than struggling outside with the touchpad in an awkward position. Everything seems to be working as good as it can. I even captured a hint of the outer regions of the nebula. I think I have to shoot this with 20min subs and see how deep I can go, altough it is a little bit small target to my scope. This is a 100% crop of the image around the nebula.

Camera: Atik Instruments 4000LE | Telescope: Skywatcher ED80 Pro 80mm f7.5 refractor, William Optics 0.8x focal reducer | Mount: Vixen GP-D2, Boxdoerfer PowerFlex MTS-3SLP drive controller | Filters: Baader H-alpha 7nm 2" | Guiding: , The Imaging Source DMK 21AU04.AS CCD camera, Orion ShortTube 80mm f5 refractor, Stark-Labs PHD Guiding | Exposure: Ha 2x600s (20m) unbinned, CCD @ -20° | Software: CCDWare CCDStack, Adobe Photoshop CS4, Stark-Labs Nebulosity 2 | Location: 60°31'N 26°52'E (Koivula/Kotka,FI)

M13 - The Great Hercules Cluster

23:07 19/4/2010 UTC

After premature end with M106 I had a short opportunity to continue imaging before dawn. I could have realigned to M106, but went easy route instead. Hercules was well up already and I had all the gear up and running for a last hour of imaging this season - in an absolute darkness. Moon was already set and SQM hit the nights record at 21.32. I paid a careful attention to focus and shot RGB in full resolution. M13 is surprisingly big, even in my widefield gear. This image is a 50% center crop from the whole field. So, this is it - my final (deepsky) image from this season.

Camera: Atik Instruments 4000LE | Telescope: Skywatcher ED80 Pro 80mm f7.5 refractor, William Optics 0.8x focal reducer | Mount: Vixen GP-D2, Boxdoerfer PowerFlex MTS-3SLP drive controller | Filters: Baader 2" LRGB Filter Set | Guiding: , The Imaging Source DMK 21AU04.AS CCD camera, Orion ShortTube 80mm f5 refractor, Stark-Labs PHD Guiding | Exposure: LRGB 3x240s (18m) each unbinned, CCD @ -25° Total exposure 54m | Software: CCDWare CCDStack, Adobe Photoshop CS4, Stark-Labs Nebulosity 2 | Location: 60°44'00"N 26°12'46"E (Tähtikallion Observatory/Artjärvi, FI) | Background sky brightness (SQM): 21.32mag/arcsec²

M106 Revisited

20:10 19/4/2010 UTC

I was in Artjärvi to try this again in a dark site. Unfortunately my exposures were cut short when my telescope hit the tripod. Conditions were very good, SQM readings went from 20.8 to even 21.3 while moon set. This is a nice comparsion with my previous one. I had almost identical luminance exposures, altough subs were much longer. Darker backgroung gives more SNR, which in turn leads to a deeper image. Gradients were missing also, which easied processing substantially. Nice ending to a pretty lousy season. But wait, there is something still waiting in my processing queue...

Camera: Atik Instruments 4000LE | Telescope: Skywatcher ED80 Pro 80mm f7.5 refractor, William Optics 0.8x focal reducer | Mount: Vixen GP-D2, Boxdoerfer PowerFlex MTS-3SLP drive controller | Filters: Baader 2" LRGB Filter Set | Guiding: , The Imaging Source DMK 21AU04.AS CCD camera, Orion ShortTube 80mm f5 refractor, Stark-Labs PHD Guiding | Exposure: L 5x600s (50m) unbinned, CCD @ -25° RGB 6x240s (24m) each binned 2x2, CCD @ -25° Total exposure 2h2m | Software: CCDWare CCDStack, Adobe Photoshop CS4, Stark-Labs Nebulosity 2 | Location: 60°44'00"N 26°12'46"E (Tähtikallion Observatory/Artjärvi, FI)

M101 - The Pinwheel Galaxy

20:05 18/4/2010 UTC

This beautiful galaxy was up high in the sky and weather was exceptionally good. This time I put more exposure on subs and got a lot better definition of color. I had to toss one LRGB set out from the stack due to strange dust attack on my chip. Fortunately they had gone away before next sequence and I got still quite large stack to work with. M101 is framing nicely to my field of view with surrounding space and some of the neighboring galaxies.

Camera: Atik Instruments 4000LE | Telescope: Skywatcher ED80 Pro 80mm f7.5 refractor, William Optics 0.8x focal reducer | Mount: Vixen GP-D2, Boxdoerfer PowerFlex MTS-3SLP drive controller | Filters: Baader 2" LRGB Filter Set | Guiding: , The Imaging Source DMK 21AU04.AS CCD camera, Orion ShortTube 80mm f5 refractor, Stark-Labs PHD Guiding | Exposure: L 9x360s (54m) unbinned, CCD @ -25° RGB 9x120s (18m) each binned 2x2, CCD @ -25° Total exposure 1h48m | Software: CCDWare CCDStack, Adobe Photoshop CS4, Stark-Labs Nebulosity 2 | Location: 60°31'N 26°52'E (Koivula/Kotka,FI)

M106 LRGB

19:10 12/4/2010 UTC

This is my very first try at LRGB imaging. I finally got Nebulosity to understand SX wheel via ASCOM drivers. Now I can script my LRGB imaging session, which makes LRGB imaging a much easier. I chose M106 as my target, since I haven't imaged it since and it has nice field of small bright galaxies around it resulting a very nice framing. Processing this image was pain due to low SNR. LRGB should be done in dark site instead of my light polluted backyard which better suites narrowband imaging. I've booked a dark site weekend, lets hope for clear skies and make it a grand finale before summer!

Camera: Atik Instruments 4000LE | Telescope: Skywatcher ED80 Pro 80mm f7.5 refractor, William Optics 0.8x focal reducer | Mount: Vixen GP-D2, Boxdoerfer PowerFlex MTS-3SLP drive controller | Filters: Baader 2" LRGB Filter Set | Guiding: , The Imaging Source DMK 21AU04.AS CCD camera, Orion ShortTube 80mm f5 refractor, Stark-Labs PHD Guiding | Exposure: L 18x180s (54m) unbinned, CCD @ -25° RGB 16x45s (12m) each binned 2x2, CCD @ -25° Total exposure 1h30m | Software: CCDWare CCDStack, Adobe Photoshop CS4, Stark-Labs Nebulosity 2 | Location: 60°31'N 26°52'E (Koivula/Kotka,FI)