Tuesday 15 March 2022

NGC 5906 in Draco

 Three quarters moon, so I dispensed with RGB and just too luminance. Some nice details I think.



Wikipedia: NGC 5907 (also known as Knife Edge Galaxy or Splinter Galaxy) is a spiral galaxy located approximately 50 million light years from Earth.[2] It has an anomalously low metallicity and few detectable giant stars, being apparently composed almost entirely of dwarf stars.[3] It is a member of the NGC 5866 Group.


NGC 5907 has long been considered a prototypical example of a warped spiral in relative isolation. In 2006, an international team of astronomers announced the presence of an extended tidal stream surrounding the galaxy that challenges this picture and suggests the gravitational perturbations induced by the stream progenitor may be the cause for the warp.

Friday 28 January 2022

Tuesday 18 January 2022

SH2 157 Lobster Claw Nebula

 ok. I know, its only the brightest bit. Full moon, garage light going on all evening, etc. LP mayhem.


Gain 76 Offset 50

L 180

R 120

G B 100

Even so, star colour is improving. I think I can increase RGB exposure times, make them even and use  2x2 binning. Similarly, I think I can increase L time to maybe up ro 300s as long as LP is low.



Saturday 15 January 2022

M31 under new regime.

 Very bright moon (gibbous), which meant conditions were far from ideal, but I tried imaging M31, because it was some way away from the moon.


Gain 76

Offset 50

L:  120s   (still some clipping though)

R: 80s

B: 60s

G: 60s

If the sky were darker then exposures could be higher, I think. In total, L was around 1 hour, RGB around 30 mins.



I think the colour is better, at least enough to persevere with  these settings. (BTW, Astro Pixel Processor, after taking a LOT longer to process, the result seemed much the same as using DSS, PS and LR)

Friday 14 January 2022

Exposure, Gain, Offset and Colour

 I haven't been happy with the colour results that I get. I have been using:

Offset 50

Gain 139

Exposure 114s for all channels

Bin 1x1

My photos never look as good as most I see on the internet. So, after reading and trying a few things, I am now going to be using this as a baseline:

Offset 50

Gain 76

Exposure:  180s for L, 120 for R, 100 for G and B (but , using the Pixel aid tool in APT to ensure that the range is between 0 and 65000

So last night I used these setting on M37 (and took a few, not enough,  of M33). These were processed in the usual way, using DSS , PS and then LR.






The colours in M37 seem to be a bit more intense.  The S/N is so poor in M33 that I can't tell.

I am also trying the processing in Astro Pixel Processor to see how it turns out in there, given the processing is totally different.


Wednesday 5 January 2022

NGC 1579 in Perseus, The Northern Trifid

 First session of the new year. Usual settings, usual lack of enough frames. I have been taking the colour frames as 1x1 but I think maybe I ought to revert to 4x4? Will try tonight.




NGC 1579 (also known as the Northern Trifid) is a diffuse nebula located in the constellation of Perseus. It is referred to as the Northern Trifid because of its similar appearance to the Trifid Nebula, which is located in the southern celestial hemisphere of the sky. It is a H II region, a region of star formation.

The star cluster contains the emission-line star LkHα 101, which provides much of the ionizing radiation in the nebula.

NGC 1579 lies within a giant molecular cloud known as the California Molecular Cloud.

Tuesday 7 December 2021

IC1795 in Cassiopeia - The Fish Head Nebula

 This has been a while coming. Laptop problems, weather, building work....So the data has been collected between     October and December. Normal settings. No darks, no dark flats, no lights.....and no artefacts???  Not sure about why.

The fish head is looking down, btw!



 IC 1795 is an area of gas and dust and also a star forming region in the northern constellation Cassiopeia.

 IC 1795 is an extension of the larger Heart nebula or IC 1805.