87 replies to this topic

[mfratto]

I have tried to pick out a few different types of targets for June, 2024 that might appeal to a variety of people. There are some stand-bys but also some challenges. I haven't tried for all of these myself, but I will, if the clouds ever clear over Central New York.

 

Easy (fan favorites)
NGC 6543, Cats eye nebula
NGC 6572, planetary nebula
NGC7160, Swimming Alligator Cluster

 

Moderate (maybe easy to see but getting a good image maybe harder)
NGC 5529, an edge on galaxy
NGC 2537, Bear Paw Galaxy
M64, Black Eye galaxy
Galactic Center 17h 45m 40.04s, −29° 00′ 28.1″ (because why not)

 

Challenging (comets are a new interest for me. I find them hard to get.)
65P/Gunn comet
C/2021 S3 comet
NGC6210 planetary nebula
13P/Olbers comet

[GazingOli]

Thank you for the choice - some new to me.

 

One remark: NGC 2537 is actually an object best observed from Dec to April, at present it is way too low. At least for me in Central Europe.

 

CS.Oli

[mfratto]

Thank you for the choice - some new to me.

 

One remark: NGC 2537 is actually an object best observed from Dec to April, at present it is way too low. At least for me in Central Europe.

 

CS.Oli

It's a little low for me at 43n but between 10 and 11 pm ET, it's at 20n above the horizon. It's a good one to test the limits of your filters.

[GazingOli]

Thanks you, any ideas on filters for trees and a big barn in the West?

 

Just joking. Lots of interesting targets without NGC 2537.

 

CS.Oli

Edited by GazingOli, 28 May 2024 - 11:07 AM.

[Cey42]

A fun collection of objects. NGC7160 is one my favorite open clusters.

 

Here is the SkySafari observing list.

 CN June 2024.skylist   2.42KB   39 downloads

 

For the Galactic Center I used two objects.

TYC 6840-1241-1: This star is within about 2' of the center

Gum 70: This is about .4 degrees away from center.

[mklosterman1]

Here's the Cat's Eye Stack of 5x 8s exposures, dark, L'Enhance filter 18" dob. I would have gone longer but had some huge tracking issues mid stack. 

Attached Thumbnails

• 

[Meies]

I had clear skies last night, and got a start on the challenge list.

 

NGC5529, CC8 x 0.67, ASI2600MC bin 2, UV/IR, 45 x 60", darks, flats, guiding

 

The CC8 suffers from vignetting with a crop sensor. Even with flats, some vignetting survives, and I usually clip the background in the Live Stack Histogram to remove it. I am trying a lighter touch on clipping, however, so the vignetting is apparent in this shot. I also processed in Pixinsight and this is my first time using Brent's suggestion for comparing the SharpCap Live Stack with the processed image. If you click on the thumbnail, you will see the saved-as-seen PNG, and if you hover the mouse over it, you will see the processed image, for comparison.

 

There is not a lot of detail for the galaxy in either version. I see a little more structure in the processed version. I count 8 very dim galaxies in addition to the main one in the EAA version. I count 10 in the processed image, and a few of them even have structure rather than being simply fuzzy blobs.

 

NGC6210 (Turtle Nebula), CC8 x 0.67, ASI2600MC bin 2, UV/IR. 45 x 60", darks, flats, guiding

 

I had to be more aggressive with the Live Stack Histogram on this one, to reduce the diffraction spikes that would otherwise obscure any structure. There are at least two tiny arms on the nebula, but otherwise it appears as a featureless blue ball. Processing in PI reveals no additional detail.

 

NGC6210 (Turtle Nebula), CC8 x 0.67, ASI2600MC bin 1, UV/IR. 101 x 10"

 

The nebula is bright enough that I tried using SharpCap's Planetary Live Stack on it. The central star is now visible, and while the nebula is tiny, it is no longer featureless. I used a 50% stacking filter, which led to some improvement in contrast. With planets, people typically use sub-second exposures to take advantage of clear moments in the atmosphere. I played around with gain to get the shortest possible exposure, but below 10" the nebula was quite dim.

 

NGC6543 (Cat's Eye Nebula), CC8 x ).67, ASI2600MC bin 2, UV/IR, 45 x 60", darks, flats, guiding

 

Similar story for the Cat's Eye nebula. The traditional Live Stack reveals very little structure to the nebula. Close examination reveals a central star and a nebula that is not circular.

 

NGC6543 (Cat's Eye Nebula), CC8 x ).67, ASI2600MC bin 1, UV/IR, 100 x 10"

 

SharpCap Planetary Live Stack revealed quite a bit of structure to the Cat's Eye. The details may be artifacts of the planetary sharpening, however. My image bears only a passing resemblance to the most detailed images on Astrobin: https://astrob.in/bigd0b/0/ (C14, 8 hours integration). I was able to bump the gain down to 100 for this bright object. It might have been better to leave the gain at 300 and reduce exposure. An experiment for another non-cloudy night.

 

NGC6572 (Blue Raquetball Nebula), CC8 x 0.67, ASI2600MC bin 1, UV/IR, 100 x 3"

 

I tried using shorter exposures on the Blue Raquetball. With the Planetary Live Stack, I can at least see that it is oblong in shape. I didn't do a traditional Live Stack on this one. Hey, it's only the first of the month.

 

NGC7160, CC8 x 0.67, ASI2600MC bin 2, UV/IR, 30 x 20", darks, flats, guiding

 

There was no real advantage to post processing this image, so, of course, I did so anyway. A mouse hover on the EAA image just shows that processing brought up background stars that were clipped in the Live Stack Histogram. I din't see any nebulosity to this cluster.

[Regulus 1.36]

I have tried to pick out a few different types of targets for June, 2024 that might appeal to a variety of people. There are some stand-bys but also some challenges. I haven't tried for all of these myself, but I will, if the clouds ever clear over Central New York.

 

Easy (fan favorites)
NGC 6543, Cats eye nebula
NGC 6572, planetary nebula
NGC7160, Swimming Alligator Cluster

 

Moderate (maybe easy to see but getting a good image maybe harder)
NGC 5529, an edge on galaxy
NGC 2537, Bear Paw Galaxy
M64, Black Eye galaxy
Galactic Center 17h 45m 40.04s, −29° 00′ 28.1″ (because why not)

 

Challenging (comets are a new interest for me. I find them hard to get.)
65P/Gunn comet
C/2021 S3 comet
NGC6210 planetary nebula
13P/Olbers comet

All of these are in the Seestar database except for Comet 65P; however, I'll just focus on NGC4496 since the comet should be within the Seestar's field of view. Thank you for this month's challenge. It should be fun.

[mgCatskills]

May 31 was a clear night... I looked quickly for the June targets.  They weren't pinned, I didn't find them, and had a full program planned anyway (up to 5 Arps -- I successfully observed 3) plus the late night Messier targets in Sagittarius I'm missing from my personal "Messier Challenge" .  I managed 3 (all clusters) to raise my total to 89 of 110.  One of "successful" captures was 1 minute on M28 at 19° elevation through a hole in the trees.  Pretty much everything's that's left is wildly inconvenient to observe from my back yard.   To finish this off, I'm going to need to travel to a dark site with a lower southern horizon.  Sigh.

 

Anyway the 48 hour forecast said that June 1 would also be clear.  So I figured, "I'll start the June challenge tomorrow!"  Famous last words.   It mostly wasn't.  Clear, that is.   By early evening the hourly forecast updated to mostly cloudy.  Still, the cloud forecast is often wrong, even in short time scales, so I stuck my head outside around 9 PM.

 

The sky was pretty much solid clouds.  I could see 3 stars in tiny holes.   I checked back around 10:30 and things had opened up a fair amount:  big bands of medium altitude clouds crisscrossing the sky, taking out about half.   Then high clouds filling half of the gaps... transparent enough to show bright stars.  About a quarter of the sky was reasonably transparent.  Now the hourly forecast acknowledged it was "mostly clear"-- they exaggerated -- but continued to forecast mostly cloudy for the rest of the evening.

 

In the interest of time I decided to pop the SeeStar on my deck rather than go through the process of setting up and focusing my EdgeHD, which takes a good half hour.  To my surprise the SeeStar had no problem locating NGC 7160.  I tried a few other targets.  It found M64, but the transparency was terrible so I'm not going to torture you with it.  On a good night you can get an OK capture of M64 (it's a bit small for the focal length/sensor), but it needs decent transparency.  I tried the Cats Eye, but it came out as a bright spot with no detail at all, looking more like an over-saturated star than a planetary nebula.  And 65P was completely invisible.  Clouds were closing in so I shut down.

 

Monday night's forecast is looking reasonably promising, so we'll hope for another shot, this time with the Edge...

 

NGC 7160 / 6m

 

Edited by mgCatskills, 02 June 2024 - 08:23 AM.

[gun4hire]

It looked like the first good night for the June challenge!! SQ 20.33 and FWHM high 4's that ended up in the high 5's. I did a camera shuffle to get my Edge back in the fight. Might have to tweak the darn collimation again. It was very clear. All the sudden I could not stack a few frames. I finally walked outside an was greeted by CLOUDS!! I had a few holes and kept sorting with the brightness filter. The skies cleared again, but it made for a long night and only 20 minute captures. 

 

CEM40EC/ZWO533/EdgeHD8 at full f/10/flats-darks-sharpcap- bin2. All captures had some cropping done.

 

I got a few of the Challenges. The Raquetball Nebula was a bust. I had all the stars smear a bit during one frame and I didn't see it until it was too late. Sharpcap needs a "remove last frame" feature to save the stack from one bad frame.

 

Forecast is bad for the near future. 

 

 

M64---20 frames 20 minutes

 

 

Bear Paw--20 minutes 20 frames.. first time for this one!!

 

 

Cat's Eye Nebula--- 20 frames  20 minutes. Needs more time!!

 

 

NGC5529---15 frames 15 minutes I am not happy with this one...I will re-shoot it!

 

 

NGC7160--- 5 frames 5 minutes

Edited by gun4hire, 02 June 2024 - 07:15 PM.

[MarMax]

Nice captures Dale.

 

What filter did you use for the Cat's Eye?

[gun4hire]

Nice captures Dale.

 

What filter did you use for the Cat's Eye?

none... I wonder if my RGB Antila filter would help it??? I wouldn't think my Ultimate would do anything would it??? Isn't the nebula all broadband light??

[MarMax]

none... I wonder if my RGB Antila filter would help it??? I wouldn't think my Ultimate would do anything would it??? Isn't the nebula all broadband light??

I've tried many different approaches to the Cat's Eye and plan to spend time on it this month if the skies will clear up. I'd think the no filter (or UV/IR cut) or L-Ultimate are the best choices for this object. I've just deforked the C11 and will set it up on the G11G. Something I've kicked around for the better part of two years.

 

I have a two-part plan for the next Cat's Eye visit. Both will be with the 533MC Bin2. Part 1 will be with the L-Ultimate filter and 2 minute subs. And maybe even 5 minute subs if the guiding is solid. This will be a 60 minute soak using faint fuzzy techniques.

 

Part 2 will be focused only on the bright core and will be with the UV/IR cut filter and 4 to 15 second subs. And using PN techniques for best presentation of the core. Because of the rules you can't combine the two process but you can show them separately and then link the combined post-processed version.

 

I've tried this before but the mount was limiting Part 1. It will be fun to revisit this and see if more of the outer shell can be imaged.

[dob45]

18" f/4.2  self-built dobson (OnStep motorized), ASI 178 MM, Baader MPCC, Bortle 7.

 

ngc 5529: 105x4s = 7 min

 

[PeterAB]

There was a brief clear sky period last night that allowed some observing.   Seeing fair, transparency 3/7. 

 

Astro Tech 102EDL, SkyRover 1x flattener, asi294mc, ir-uv cut filter, cg5 ASGT mount.   SharpCap live stacked, darks only, color  background noise reduction, gain 130.   1.5x1 degree view.    North up, east left.

 

NGC7160, Swimming Alligator Cluster.   300 seconds (20x15s)  Link to large image.

 

 

Peter

[mgCatskills]

A dark and mostly clear night.  Transparency was so-so but the seeing wasn't too bad. Astro Dusk at 10:38, though in my experience you can observe after 10 PM pretty much anywhere in the sky except NW.

 

Just after sunset, I fired up a fab iPhone app called Theodolite and pointed it towards where 13P/Olbers would be around 10:15: 314° az (NNW) and 9° altitude.  I have a great western horizon, but there are some mid distance trees at 300° that bump my horizon up to 20° from 6°,  Couldn't start earlier because of sky glow....  Scratched that off my observing plan for the night.

 

Next priority was Arp 6, the Bear Paw Galaxy, which was around 30° elevation at 10:15.  I figured at that elevation transparency was going to be mediocre anyway, so I decided on setting my 294mc-pro at Bin2 so I could capture it as quickly as possible.  Turned out to be a good decision, so I stayed at Bin 2 for all 3 of my galaxy captures:  all at 30s/305g, UV/IR cut filter, dithered every 2nd frame, no guiding.

 

Arp 6 / 20m

 

M64 / 30m

 

NGC 5529 / 17m

 

Attempted the Cats Eye Nebula with no success, I think it was a transparency issue.  I switched to Bin 1.  I could get reasonable color in the Cats Eye at about 10s/120g.  But then SharpCap didn't have enough stars to align.  Up the gain/time, it would stack, but the Nebula was completely blown out.  Tried to make that work for half an hour or so and gave up.

 

It was now pretty late and several of the southern Messier targets I've never managed to capture were now rising.  So I switched to my Messier obsession for the rest of the night with one new capture.  Shut down around 1:30 AM.

Edited by mgCatskills, 04 June 2024 - 06:42 AM.

[bigbangbaby]

Conditions:

Clear skies

SQM-L: 19.4 at zenith

 

Scope: Lightholder 826 8" f/4 @ f/3 Newtonian

Camera: QHY533M Pro @ 68 gain for broadband, and 100 gain for narrowband

Filters: LRGBHaOIIISII

Mount: AM5

Guiding: PHD2

Livestacked in Jocular

 

NGC 6210: This tiny planetary nebula would need a lot of zooming and cropping to see any detail.

 

3x60 sec each of LRGB: 12 minutes total

 

NGC 6543: Also tiny, but it has an extended area of nebulosity.  Not much happening in broadband:

 

5x60 sec each of LRGB: 20 minutes total

 

I switched to L + Ha and OIII (HOO), which amped up the diffraction spike, but also brought out the surrounding nebulosity. Those with OSCs may want to try a dual-band (Ha/OIII) filter.

 

8x60 sec Ha + 12 x 60sec OIII: 20 minutes total

 

 

I captured the following in one session on May 30-31.

 

Messier 64: 

 

18 minutes shared among LRGB

 

NGC 7160

 

12 min shared among LRGB

Edited by bigbangbaby, 04 June 2024 - 02:43 PM.

[gun4hire]

I wanted to try again on the Cat's Eye. I used the Optolong Ultimate filter to try to get more of the structure of the Nebula. I used my Askar 107PHQ, no reducer BIN 2. I forgot to get my sky quality reading, but it seemed great. I saw 2's on the FWHM for the first time! I let this one soak for 40 minutes. I didn't see much improvement from 20 minutes to 40 minutes. I used the dither feature but still got a bad pattern in the background.

 

 

 

Cat's Eye Nebula---40 frames 40 minutes.

[mgCatskills]

I wanted to try again on the Cat's Eye. I used the Optolong Ultimate filter to try to get more of the structure of the Nebula. I used my Askar 107PHQ, no reducer BIN 2. I forgot to get my sky quality reading, but it seemed great. I saw 2's on the FWHM for the first time! I let this one soak for 40 minutes. I didn't see much improvement from 20 minutes to 40 minutes. I used the dither feature but still got a bad pattern in the background.

 

 

 

Cat's Eye Nebula---40 frames 40 minutes.

Thanks, Dale.  This image was helpful to me because I realized that I had the wrong idea about the catseye.  I took a quick look at the online AP images and just assumed that all that detail was contained in the bright center.  I now realize that all of the structure is in the halo.  So the capture strategy I employed the other night was completely wrong.  No wonder it "didn't work"!

 

With respect to your background noise, are you using the dither feature in SharpCap?  How frequently?  I find with 30s exposures I need to do it every 2 exposures.  Doing it every 3 exposures results in noticeably more noise.  So, with your 60s exposures, I think you'd want to dither after every exposure.

 

Also, keep in mind that the dither settings in SharpCap are a little misleading.  If I remember correctly, the GUI suggests you're entering dithering in pixels, but in fact you're entering it in arcseconds and need to provide a different number depending on your focal length.

[gun4hire]

Thanks, Dale.  This image was helpful to me because I realized that I had the wrong idea about the catseye.  I took a quick look at the online AP images and just assumed that all that detail was contained in the bright center.  I now realize that all of the structure is in the halo.  So the capture strategy I employed the other night was completely wrong.  No wonder it "didn't work"!

 

With respect to your background noise, are you using the dither feature in SharpCap?  How frequently?  I find with 30s exposures I need to do it every 2 exposures.  Doing it every 3 exposures results in noticeably more noise.  So, with your 60s exposures, I think you'd want to dither after every exposure.

 

Also, keep in mind that the dither settings in SharpCap are a little misleading.  If I remember correctly, the GUI suggests you're entering dithering in pixels, but in fact you're entering it in arcseconds and need to provide a different number depending on your focal length.

yes good points, you reminded me I SHOULD have dithered every frame since I was doing 60 second captures. I forgot to change it. I believe I was doing every three. I get in a hurry ALL the time fighting mosquitoes and sleep, so I usually forget a few things.

 

I am surprised the Ultimate filter worked.. I was thinking it was all broadband light. Sometimes Astronomy is hard 

Edited by gun4hire, 06 June 2024 - 12:14 PM.

[bmcclana]

Thanks, Dale. This image was helpful to me because I realized that I had the wrong idea about the catseye. I took a quick look at the online AP images and just assumed that all that detail was contained in the bright center. I now realize that all of the structure is in the halo. So the capture strategy I employed the other night was completely wrong. No wonder it "didn't work"!

With respect to your background noise, are you using the dither feature in SharpCap? How frequently? I find with 30s exposures I need to do it every 2 exposures. Doing it every 3 exposures results in noticeably more noise. So, with your 60s exposures, I think you'd want to dither after every exposure.

Also, keep in mind that the dither settings in SharpCap are a little misleading. If I remember correctly, the GUI suggests you're entering dithering in pixels, but in fact you're entering it in arcseconds and need to provide a different number depending on your focal length.

There is lots of detail in the bright core as well. It is small and bright and needs a big scope to resolve. Thankfully it is very bright so short exposures can be used even with a slow long focal length.

This object runs to extremes of bright and dim such that it is probably impossible to get both in an EAA exposure, some kind of high dynamic range combination is required to see the full range.

[bmcclana]

yes good points, you reminded me I SHOULD have dithered every frame since I was doing 60 second captures. I forgot to change it. I believe I was doing every three. I get in a hurry ALL the time fighting mosquitoes and sleep, so I usually forget a few things.

I am surprised the Ultimate filter worked.. I was thinking it was all broadband light. Sometimes Astronomy is hard

Since this is a planetary nebula it is an ideal target for a dual narrow band or other elemental narrowband filters. The dim halo is probably impossible without the right filters.

[bigbangbaby]

I wanted to revisit the Cat's Eye Nebula, in particular the outer nebulosity, which I discovered two nights ago responds well to an OIII filter. The plan was to run 50 minutes of OIII and 10 minutes Ha, but I was only able to get 15 minutes of OIII before the clouds arrived. Still, the shell is beginning to show. It turns out this is an extremely difficult object to image because of its wide dynamic range. The core gets blown out before the faint nebulosity detail builds. 

 

Lightholder 8" f/4 @ f/3

QHY533M Pro @ 100 gain, 0 degC

PHD2 guiding

AM5 mount

Livestacked in Jocular

 

15 x 60 sec OIII

[dob45]

ok for the outer nebulosity of ngc 6543, but to capture the details inside the nebula what is the most suitable EAA technique?

Perhaps, being a very bright nebula, the planetary live stacking that Meies used?

Or perhaps classic livestacking by greatly decreasing the individual subexposures?

Some advice ?

[bmcclana]

ok for the outer nebulosity of ngc 6543, but to capture the details inside the nebula what is the most suitable EAA technique?

Perhaps, being a very bright nebula, the planetary live stacking that Meies used?

Or perhaps classic livestacking by greatly decreasing the individual subexposures?

Some advice ?

Its the balancing act of keeping the nebula core within the dynamic range of the sensor AND having enough stars for alignment.  balancing short exposures and lower gain to find something that will still stack. 

 

the planetary stacking can also work well. This could remove the need to have stars for alignment. I've tried it a couple times, but I was getting better results with regular live stacking.