Old Favourites

 Horsehead nebula in Orion and M81 Bodes Nebula

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.

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)

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.

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.