SVX80T First light - M78

[The_bluester (Paul)]

I splashed out in January on a brand new Stellarvue SVX80T-3SV (the 3SV having a 3" focuser) which arrived just a bit too late to do anything with on the last new moon. So, after a few test nights to sort spacing and some sensor tilt that seems to be in my camera (I think I may have run it into the tripod once in the early days of me doing AP (A year ago) and it would not take much to tweak the front plate with respect to the sensor)

I decided I was happy enough for now and chose M78 as a good target for a first light, though a bit late in the season, the waning moon and position of M78 means I have so far got only 29 X 300 second subs but it is a nice looking start. Still a sniff of tilt to sort out but pretty good.

Scope: Stellarvue SVX80T-3SV at F6 with the dedicated flattener.
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC Pro
Subs: 29 X 300 seconds
Calibration: Darks and flats only.

Integrated in Astro Pixel Processor with post processing in Photoshop, the processing is certainly not perfect, constructive critiques welcome!

Astrobin high res here https://www.astrobin.com/full/stjvr9/0/

[Andy01 (Andy)]

Lovely sharp stars and details starting to be revealed - just needs more data now
Congrats - you've got a very nice new toy there!

[The_bluester (Paul)]

Hopefully the sky cooperates for me to get more data before it gets too far into a poor position. It is in a good spot to get at least a couple of hours on in any given night for now.

[The_bluester (Paul)]

A new version with more subs and more aggressive processing. About as hard as I can push it before it really falls to bits. Astrobin link is the same.


That is it for the season I reckon. Monday night looks like it may clear up after midnight but M78 is too low by then and by next new moon it will be too low on dark.



https://www.astrobin.com/full/stjvr9/B/

[jahnpahwa (JP)]

I think this is excellent, Paul! Processing my own version now makes me realise how nice your effort is, particularly dark lanes and not blowing out the core. so nice!

[gregbradley]

A lovely image. The stars look amazing. Perhaps a bit more exposure or boost what you have a bit more as overall the image could do with some lightening.

Greg.