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December 2023 - EAA Challenge

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#1 Cey42

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Posted 01 December 2023 - 11:49 PM

Welcome to the December challenge. While I normally spend weeks trying to decide what to put on the list, this time I did it in one hour because I am in filling in. So this will be short but sweet. A few of these objects have not appeared on previous challenges.

 

 

Galaxy: M74, Caldwell 24, NGC383/Arp331, NGC7217

 

SNR: M1

 

Open Cluster: M103, Kemble's Cascade, M45(if M45 is too big for your setup then NGC1435),

 

Planetary Nebula: NGC1535

 

Emission Nebula: NGC1491

 

Planet: Jupiter (I had to put this on the list given SharpCap's new Planetary Live Stacking)

 

 

More Details (Added Dec 2)

M74: From Wikipedia: Messier 74 (also known as NGC 628 and Phantom Galaxy) is a large spiral galaxy in the equatorial constellation Pisces. It is about 32 million light-years away from Earth. The galaxy contains two clearly defined spiral arms and is therefore used as an archetypal example of a grand design spiral galaxy. The galaxy's low surface brightness makes it the most difficult Messier object for amateur astronomers to observe.

 

Caldwell 24/NGC 1275 is a member of the large Perseus Cluster of galaxies. It is a type of Seyfert galaxy. How may galaxies can you see?

 

NGC383/Arp331: From Wikipedia: NGC 383 is a double radio galaxy[3] with a quasar-like appearance located in the constellation Pisces. It is listed in Halton C. Arp's 1966 "The Arp Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies." Recent discoveries by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in 2006 reveal that NGC 383 is being bisected by high energy relativistic jets traveling at relatively high fractions of the speed of light. The relativistic electrons in the jets are detected as synchrotron radiation in the x-ray and radio wavelengths. The focus of this intense energy is the galactic center of NGC 383.

NGC7217: From Wikipedia: NGC 7217 main features are the presence of several rings of stars concentric to its nucleus: three main ones –the outermost one being of the most prominent and the one that features most of the gas and star formation of this galaxy – plus several others inside the innermost one discovered with the help of the Hubble Space Telescope; a feature that suggests NGC 7217's central regions have suffered several starbursts.


M1: From Wikipedia: The Crab Nebula (catalogue designations M1, NGC 1952, Taurus A) is a supernova remnant and pulsar wind nebula in the constellation of Taurus. The nebula was discovered by English astronomer John Bevis in 1731. It corresponds with a bright supernova recorded by Chinese astronomers in 1054 as a guest star. The nebula was the first astronomical object identified that corresponds with a historically-observed supernova explosion.


M103: From Wikipedia: Messier 103 (also known as NGC 581) is an open cluster where a few hundred, mainly very faint, stars figure in Cassiopeia. It was discovered in 1781 by Charles Messier's friend and collaborator Pierre Méchain. It is located between 8,000 to 9,500 light-years from the Solar System and ranging over about 15 light years. It holds about 40 certain-member stars, two of which have magnitudes 10.5, and a 10.8 red giant, which is the brightest within the cluster. A bright known foreground object is the star Struve 131, not a member of the cluster. M103 is about 22 million years old.

 

Kemble's Cascade: From Wikipedia: Kemble's Cascade (designated Kemble 1) is an asterism located in the constellation Camelopardalis. It is an apparent straight line of more than 20 colourful 5th to 10th magnitude stars over a distance of approximately 3 degrees (five moon diameters) of the night sky. It appears to "flow" into the compact open cluster NGC 1502, which can be found at one end.

 

M45(or NGC1435): From Wikipedia: The Pleiades also known as the Seven Sisters, Messier 45, and other names by different cultures, is an asterism and an open star cluster containing middle-aged, hot B-type stars in the north-west of the constellation Taurus. At a distance of about 444 light years, it is among the nearest star clusters to Earth. It is the nearest Messier object to Earth, and is the most obvious cluster to the naked eye in the night sky. It is also observed to house the reflection nebula NGC 1432, an HII region.
The Merope Nebula (also known as Tempel's Nebula and NGC 1435) is a diffuse reflection nebula in the Pleiades star cluster, surrounding the 4th magnitude star Merope. It was discovered on October 19, 1859 by the German astronomer Wilhelm Tempel. The discovery was made using a 10.5cm refractor. John Herschel included it as 768 in his General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars but never observed it himself.


NGC1535: From Wikipedia: NGC 1535 is a planetary nebula in the constellation of Eridanus, discovered by William Herschel on February 1, 1785. It is very similar to the Eskimo Nebula in both color and structure but the central star can be quite difficult to observe visually. At the center of NGC 1535, there is an O-type star with a spectral type of O(H)5.


NGC1491: From Wikipedia: NGC 1491, also known as LBN 794 or SH2-206, is an emission type bright nebula located about 9,800 light years away from Earth in the constellation of Perseus. The nebula gets its deep red coloration due to many massive stars (such as BD+50 866) embedded within NGC 1491 producing large amounts of ultraviolet radiation and ionizing the hydrogen gas that makes up the nebula.

 

 

 

SkySafari observing list

Attached File  CN Dec23.skylist   2.23KB   33 downloads

 

Enjoy & Clear Skies!

 

 

 

 

 


Edited by Cey42, 02 December 2023 - 02:57 PM.

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#2 alphatripleplus

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Posted 02 December 2023 - 07:56 AM

Nice varied selection, Cey. Looking forward to these, especially M74 - one of my favourites.



#3 BrentKnight

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Posted 02 December 2023 - 08:14 PM

Thanks Cey for stepping up and volunteering!



#4 mgCatskills

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Posted 02 December 2023 - 09:32 PM

Wow, Cey!  Maybe you've hit on the secret, limit thinking to an hour.

 

I've been working for weeks on the upcoming January list and I'm still agonizing.

 

Great choices!  Looking forward to some clear nights so i can image some of these puppies!!

 

Michael



#5 dob45

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Posted 03 December 2023 - 06:40 AM

I have already captured some targets for the December challenge in the past 2 months and shared them in the gallery; I also share them here.

 

A comparison on M74 between my 18" and my 6":

 

M 74:  18" f/4,2  self-made dobson, ASI 178MM , Bortle 8 ,  resize, crop, no dark, no flat, bin 2. 120 x 4s = 8 min

M74_Stack_120frames_480s.jpg

 

M 74:  6" f/4  self-made newton, Ioptron Mini Tower II,  ASI 178MM , Bortle 8 ,  resize, crop, no dark, no flat, bin 2.  105 x 4 s = 7 min

M74_Stack_105frames_420s.jpg

 

ngc 7217 with 18"dob : 75x4s= 5 min.

7217_Stack_75frames_300s.jpg

 


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#6 Cey42

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Posted 03 December 2023 - 01:45 PM

I was able to this in an hour because I broke most of my rules. Here is what I normally try and do:

 

1 - Find objects in my observing log program that I rate as good or great that are good to view in the current month and next

2 - Select a mix of objects that work for wide FOV and narrow FOV

3 - Select objects that work for both Seattle and San Diego latitudes

4 - Select a couple of objects that I have never seen before

5 - Select objects that have not appeared in the challenge in the past year but preferably last two years

6 - Select some objects that have never appeared in the challenge before

 

For this month, I focused on (1) and for (5) just did not want objects done in the last couple of months. I ignored rules 2, 3, 4 and 6.

 

After doing step (1), I had only 30 objects to choose from. So picking 10 from that was not that hard because several fell off because they had been done recently.

 

I do prefer spending more time selecting the objects.


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#7 OregonSky

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Posted 03 December 2023 - 04:03 PM

I've been wanting to set up and test a new possible remedy for my ongoing mount walking into position problem.

With only a couple open patches of sky and seeing not good -  I could not believe that I even was able to get aligned.   Thanks to Starsense manual alignment.   Several of my alignment points had less than 30 stars. 

I saw a couple open patches in the West where I needed to test  -  but by the time I could get set up,  they were in the East and gone.

The only open patch left was near M103 so I used my remaining 2 minutes of clearing to grab it.

 

M103_30 X 4 sec_120s_.jpg

 

M103  --  30 X 4sec   -

Celestron 6se - 6.3 Reducer - Player One Uranus C -


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#8 Larry Mc

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Posted 03 December 2023 - 07:47 PM

NGC1275 the core of Abell-426, the  "Perseus Cluster" from 11/12/2023 @ Calhoun Cty dark sky Park in WV.

8" f6.3 SCT optical tube on an Atlas Gem, ASI294MC Pro & L-Pro broadband filter, ROI=4144x2822, PHD guided 3 minute subs, livestacked using Sharpcap for 30 minutes.

(converted to negative image as it better shows all the tiny little galaxy cluster members)

 

Abell426n-11122023.jpg

 

NCG1275 is the largest galaxy, left of center, with NGC1272 just to the right of center. Then a whole bunch of NGC's scattered all over, NGC1270, 1271, 1273, 1277, 1278, 1281, 1282, 1283,,,, around this point I blinked and lost track of all the others,,, lol.gif   (really need to start using annotation).

 

P.S.  using Alvin Huey's "Observing the Abell Galaxy Clusters" observing guide downloaded from his website: https://www.faintfuz...ingGuides2.html   Highly recommend his guidebooks. You can use them either on your favorite PC device or take it to Fedex and have them print a booklet.


Edited by Larry Mc, 03 December 2023 - 08:11 PM.

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#9 dob45

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Posted 04 December 2023 - 11:00 AM

m45 in a wide field view obtained with a 50mm FL reflex lens at f4 , Minus Violet filter, asi 178 MM, 154 x4s =10,3 min

m45_.jpg

 

Merope nebula - ngc1435 with 6" f/4 newton, asi 178 MM, 106x4s =7,1 min

merope_Stack_106frames_424s.jpg

 

ngc 1491 , 6" f/4 newton, asi 178 MM, 60x 8s = 8 min

1491_Stack_60frames_480s.jpg


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#10 alphatripleplus

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Posted 04 December 2023 - 11:45 PM

Here's Jupiter this evening using SharpCap 4.1's new planetary live stacking tool with a C8 operating at f/19.8 with a telextender, UV/IR filter, and captured with a Player One Neptune C-II at 140gain, 25ms sub-exposures and a 2000 frame stack. Conditions were better for Jupiter the last time I was out, but you take what you can get.wink.gif

 

Jupiter, 25ms x 2000 frames.

 

Jupiter_f19.8_25ms_G140_2000st_00004_WithDisplayStretch.png

 

 

 


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#11 Astro Sky

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Posted 05 December 2023 - 02:57 PM

M74 Galaxy

10s@ 25 min. Seestar s50 

Attached Thumbnails

  • Resize_20231205_133231_1385.jpg

Edited by Astro Sky, 05 December 2023 - 11:38 PM.

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#12 BrentKnight

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Posted 05 December 2023 - 03:27 PM

M74 Galaxy


Thanks for the contribution. Please provide a little more info about your capture. Suggested minimum is to include the target name, and the total exposure time. Equipment used is also appreciated...

#13 alphatripleplus

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Posted 05 December 2023 - 05:04 PM

A few more targets from last night with the C8, but using an experimental afocal set-up (40mm Plossl and 8mm CCTV lens) yielding approx f/2.1. I also switched cameras to the ASI290MM mini at 300 gain, no filters and no binning.  I cropped the frames as off axis aberrations are very noticeable in the ultra fast afocal set-ups I've played with. (The C8 is also sometimes a little temperamental in terms of image quality on some shots).

 

M74 (cropped);  51 x 3 sec

 

M74_f2.1_RScrop_G300 2023-12-04T21_09_34_Stack_51frames_153s.jpg


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#14 alphatripleplus

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Posted 05 December 2023 - 05:07 PM

Continuing with the same C8/ASI290MM  afocal set-up, here's a quick but grainy 60 secs capture of the Crab Nebula:

 

M1 (cropped); 20 x 3 sec

 

M1_f2.1_RScrop_G300 2023-12-04T21_28_29_Stack_20frames_60s.jpg


Edited by alphatripleplus, 05 December 2023 - 05:08 PM.

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#15 alphatripleplus

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Posted 05 December 2023 - 05:12 PM

Last one with this set-up: a longer (5 minute capture) of NGC7217. I was hoping to get a bit more detail in the outer ring.

 

NGC7217 (cropped);  100 x 3sec

 

NGC7217_f2.1_RScrop_G300 2023-12-04T21_45_29_Stack_100frames_300s.jpg


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#16 steveincolo

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Posted 05 December 2023 - 11:36 PM

I tried the newest features in SharpCap's planetary live viewing tool, including the autofocus based on edge detection.  Seeing is pretty bad tonight, as probably also is my technique, so don't blame the tool for these results.  It's actually extremely impressive if you looked at the live feed!  AT130EDT at f/5.6, UV/IR cut, QHY5III715MC at 0 gain.  This camera gives about a 4x factor (pixel scale to f/ratio) on this OTA.  20 ms x 1000 frame stack limit.  Cropped afterwards.

 

Capture 00001 WithDisplayStretch

Edited by steveincolo, 05 December 2023 - 11:38 PM.

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#17 mgCatskills

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Posted 06 December 2023 - 01:13 PM

Yikes... checking my file dates, we haven't had a truly decent observing night since November 16.  Between then and now, maybe 4 total hours of clear skies over a couple of nights (that flummoxed my SeeStar).

 

Forecast this afternoon is for snow showers ending around sunset, then partly cloudy, then clear for maybe 3 hours starting around 10 PM.  Given my desperation I'll be setting up the Askar and hoping for the best!  Long range forecast is pretty bad.

 

Wish me luck!



#18 mgCatskills

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Posted 06 December 2023 - 09:04 PM

Well the forecast was partially correct.  At sundown it was indeed mostly cloudy.  I stuck my head out at 8 and was pleased to see that while West was a wall of clouds, it was clear overhead, Polaris was visible, and much of the eastern sky was clear.

 

I went out and managed to get a very good polar alignment.

 

Slewed to NGC 383 and got a nice couple of minutes.  Then lost several dozen in a row, then the odd filter success, i.e. 10m to get 30s.  Then totally blasted.  Pity because after two and a half minutes, it was looking promising.

 

NGC 383 | 2m30s

NGC0383 Stack 10frames 150s WithDisplayStretch
 
Stuck my head outside, decided the direction of M103  was promising.  In the end, the same story, although it's obviously a much brighter target and I did get 5m30s minutes.  So it's an OK observation...
 
M103 | 5m30s
M103 Stack 22frames 330s WithDisplayStretch
 
Tried a few other targets which were completely socked in.  Stuck my head out again and the skies are about 90% cloudy.  I've shut SharpCap down, but am keeping the dew heaters and the mount going.  Hoping it may actually clear later as the forecast predicts, but I'm not optimistic.
 
On the Jersey Shore, they have dodge-em cars where you blast into each other.  Here in the Catskills we have dodge-em clouds

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#19 mgCatskills

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Posted 06 December 2023 - 11:22 PM

Well, about an hour later I stuck my head outside and darned if it wasn't mostly clear.

 

Started with the Pleiades/M45 since it was the last target I'd tried and quickest to slew to.  I'm so glad I did!  I was observing M45 with the Askar at 270mm, and thought it gorgeous.  But at 600mm it's even more spectacular.  I LOVE this one!!!

 

M45 | 16m

M45 Stack 64frames 960s WithDisplayStretch
 
Then went back to NGC0383 and got about 12 minutes solid.  Then Dodge-em Clouds commenced.  Decided to declare victory after taking another 15 minutes to capture 3 minutes more, despite my relaxing the brightness a bit.  Lot's of teeny-weeny galaxies in this pic.  I think I ended up using stretch level 8, which is maybe a first for me.
 
NGC 383 | 15m
NGC0383 Stack 60frames 900s WithDisplayStretch
 
Stuck my head out the door, decided Kemble's Cascade was in a clearish zone.  Challenging target!  I wish I had my Askar at 270mm, but it is at 600 so can only get about half the Cascade.  Perfect target, though, for using NINA's framing assistant with the Manual Rotator.  Used it, got the rotation within 1 degree... so any error here is mine, not NINA's.  If you're interested, I wrote up a Cheat Sheet for how to install and use with SharpCap... works perfectly.  You can find my post here.
 
Strangely, this looks better in the thumbnail than in the full photo.  I realize the astro photos we see definitely screen out a lot of the background stars to emphasize the cascade.  Not so easy in EAA, but the thumbnail effectively post-processed for me and emphasizes the brighter stars (I may be in trouble)!
 
Kemble's Cascade | 7m30s
Kemble's Cascade Stack 30frames 450s WithDisplayStretch
 
Then tried to find the Crab Nebula.  I can't believe it but my installation of SharpCap doesn't have M1 in its library, and not NGC1952 either.  Ended up going to NINA Sky Atlas... it certainly has it, but ASTAP failed to platesolve.  Outside looked mostly cloudy again.  So I'm shut down.

Edited by mgCatskills, 07 December 2023 - 11:18 AM.

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#20 GaryShaw

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Posted 07 December 2023 - 09:07 AM

Hi

Nice narration…frustrating perhaps for you, but nice for others to read. BTW, with all the ‘ …head out the door’ action, perhaps a future project for you would be to set up a nice ‘all-sky’ camera. Of course standing for a few minutes every so often, is a good thing.

My sky window is so limited that a single Wyze camera covers most of it. You might need a proper all-sky view.

cheers,

Gary


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#21 m2c4

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Posted 07 December 2023 - 11:09 AM

I tried the newest features in SharpCap's planetary live viewing tool, including the autofocus based on edge detection.  Seeing is pretty bad tonight, as probably also is my technique, so don't blame the tool for these results.  It's actually extremely impressive if you looked at the live feed!  AT130EDT at f/5.6, UV/IR cut, QHY5III715MC at 0 gain.  This camera gives about a 4x factor (pixel scale to f/ratio) on this OTA.  20 ms x 1000 frame stack limit.  Cropped afterwards.

 

Nice - what moon or moon's shadow did you get transitioning at bottom center?



#22 gun4hire

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Posted 07 December 2023 - 11:33 AM

Ahhh the joy of EAA!! My scope side computer's monitor is dead or the cable is bad. I had to use my laptop and did not have the luxury of sitting in the warm house remoted in. The good news is it is record warm in South Dakota right now!! My SQM read 20.55-.33 for these shots. I had issues with high thin clouds for the last couple days. I would get set up and thank God I was using the brightness filter on sharpcap to save my shots and let the clouds pass. A few shots took an hour to get 20 minutes of good cloud free frames.The sky was boiling and my FWHM was all over the place. I had a hard time focusing....Just a generally blaa month so far. Askar 107PHQ/ZWO2600DUO(unguided)/Ultimate filter at times and Antila Tri-band on Broadband targets. I need Jupiter yet. As usual, I will revisit some of these with different apertures/cameras/filters. I am not that happy with a few of my shots, but here they are!!!  

 

get.jpg?insecure

 

M45---20frames 30 minutes..this one used the .7 reducer no filter

 

get.jpg?insecure

 

M1--- 27 fr 40.5 min Antila tri-band..zoomed

 

get.jpg?insecure

 

NGC1535--- 32frames 16 minutes.. I used -25 gain with the ZWO2600 on this...zoomed

 

get.jpg?insecure

 

NGC1491---Fossil Footprint-- 20 frames 20 minutes.. Used Ultimate filter..zoomed in

 

get.jpg?insecure

 

M74--- 63 frames 31.5 minutes..Used the Antila tri-band filter on this one...zoomed in

 

get.jpg?insecure

 

NGC383---45 fr 22.5min... not much clear to see.. a lot of little galaxies in this one!

 

get.jpg?insecure

 

M103---16 fr 8 min

 

get.jpg?insecure

 

NGC1502/ Kemble's---24 frames 12 minutes---- not the best scope for this..but you can see a few of the line of stars.

 

 

 

get.jpg?insecure

 

NGC7217---71fr 35.5min I forgot to unguided dither


Edited by gun4hire, 07 December 2023 - 11:53 AM.

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#23 mikenoname

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Posted 08 December 2023 - 12:35 AM

Did the challenge live tonight:

 

https://www.youtube....h?v=NnuUrkkRsKc

 

Nice varied selection Cey!


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#24 Meies

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Posted 08 December 2023 - 02:15 AM

get.jpg?insecurehttps://astrob.in/qmda77/0/

M45, FMA180, ASI2600MC, 56 x 30", L-Enhance

 

get.jpg?insecurehttps://astrob.in/44lkdv/0/

M1, CC8, ASI678MC, 54 x 60", UV/IR, guiding

 


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#25 PeterAB

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Posted 08 December 2023 - 11:08 AM

I observed Jupiter last night EAA with SharpCap 4.1 and visually.    Seeing was poor to fair.   Transparency near m4 naked eye.    Visually Jupiter was going in and out of focus and moving around a lot.    Same thing in the live view from the camera.

 

Meade 2080 8" SCT (f10),  asi585, IR-UV cut filter.   

 

I first attempted to work through a 2x Barlow  lens.    That didn't workout and I removed the Barlow.     It turns out the issue was not caused by the Barlow.    I had the display stretched turned on.     Live stacking does not play well with the display stretch turned on.    Planetary or DSO.   I didn't notice this until after I gave up on the Barlow.     It will go back in the next night with better seeing.

 

I also need to set up a unique camera profile for planetary live stacking.   This should work better than starting from a focusing or DSO profile and changing exposures.    I'll be more likely to get all the setting correct and consistent from night to night.

 

I have tested a SharpCap planetary live stack on a .ser file of Jupiter that I previously captured on a good seeing night last year.    The result was basically as good as I get from the traditional processing methods.    However, I am not a practiced planetary imager. 

 

Jupiter.   6ms x 67 frames.   Best %5 used.   Gain 230.    Not a great view, but, still way more detail than I could pick out visually.

1-Capture_00001_WithDisplayStretch.jpg

 

Peter


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