Simeis 147 - Pilot attempt with Redcat

[mightymonoped]

First attempt at this one. As I was using newly installed Beta firmware in the ASIair (which worked impeccably, I have to say). I didn't want to chance doing a mosaic and potentially waste a clear near New Moon night's imaging due to a rookie error or some such.

 

Have to say, I am pleased that I was able to capture anything with this target as I had no idea what, if anything, I had captured.

 

Next step will be to add to this using the mosaic features in the v.2 ASIair software, and hopefully get the whole thing now I know I can get something.

 

This is 4.5 hours worth of a total 5 hour session. The final 30 mins was ruined by the balcony roof as I ran out of sky.

 

Integrated and combined as Ha and OIII channels in Astro Pixel Processor, then removed starlayer and processed in Photoshop before remerging stars.

 

Tony

 

Edited September 25, 2022 by mightymonoped

[TerryMcK]

You certainly have great positioning from the balcony with the wonderful targets you can acquire. This one has always eluded me as there are houses, trees and a streetlight in the way from my location.

You have obtained a heap of detail considering the small amount of integration time on this very faint object. Excellent work Tony and will get even better with more time.

[mightymonoped]

Thanks Terry! I was s little bit intimidated by this one to be honest but it turned out to be an ideal target from my balcony, as you say. Now that I know I can get some decent time on it, I definitely have a stab at a two-frame mosaic with the Redcat. 
 

[Dmack1]

All things considered that is brilliant. I want to try this one this year too.

[Astrobdlbug]

Great start Tony, couple of years back I got really obsessed with the Spaghetti Nebula and spent hours and hours and hours capturing mosaic panels and proccessing this nebula and other obects around it in Auriga... its a very compling object to image.

 

I assume your are using your dual band filter on this - depending on the hours you decide to spend on this it will be interesting to see how much Oiii comes through as I found  that the Oiii was extremely faint and I had to push the Oiii data very hard to get any Oiii to come through on the image - just looked at my astrobin and I spent 16 hours using 7nm Optolong filters - sorry I don't have a filter integration breakdown - but your 4.5 hrs already has a lot of detail , 10hrs per panel would be a great project with dual-band filter,

 

On a second note, interesting that you went for the beta release on ASIair - I'm going to hold off any upgrade until the official release - glad you didnt have any issues

 

Bryan

 

 

 

[mightymonoped]

10 hours ago, Astrobdlbug said:

Great start Tony, couple of years back I got really obsessed with the Spaghetti Nebula and spent hours and hours and hours capturing mosaic panels and proccessing this nebula and other obects around it in Auriga... its a very compling object to image.

 

I assume your are using your dual band filter on this - depending on the hours you decide to spend on this it will be interesting to see how much Oiii comes through as I found  that the Oiii was extremely faint and I had to push the Oiii data very hard to get any Oiii to come through on the image - just looked at my astrobin and I spent 16 hours using 7nm Optolong filters - sorry I don't have a filter integration breakdown - but your 4.5 hrs already has a lot of detail , 10hrs per panel would be a great project with dual-band filter,

 

On a second note, interesting that you went for the beta release on ASIair - I'm going to hold off any upgrade until the official release - glad you didnt have any issues

 

Bryan

 

 

 

 

Thanks Bryan, I can see why you got obsessed with it. Don't really know why I installed the Beta to be honest, was just one of those impulses. I do know that I was curious to see what enhancements had been made to the Sky Atlas, as this is one of the most useful features I have found recently.

 

I did suspect I would get good results from the l-eNhance, especially because it was effectively a New Moon. Despite overlooking the car park, the skies are pretty great when the Moon is young. I think that will probably be the biggest factor in capturing for this project, I'm effectively fighting against time with the Moon waxing and the window for capture getting increasingly smaller as the target rises earlier. Fingers crossed I can get a couple of night clear soon, I've got the two pane mosaic plan setup in the ASIair, just need the weather to comply.

[Sonyme]

Never seen this before.  Fascinating.   Gary