Lagoon Nebula Mosaic in HAlpha

[lazjen]

It's been a long time since I've had anything to post... and this isn't the greatest, but it's significant progress for me.

I was the lucky one who acquired Lewis' ST-X8E a while back and I've been learning how to use it. I've also taken the leap to using Linux/Kstars/Ekos for my image acquisition - and it's quite impressive in capability.

This image is unguided as I couldn't get ST-X8E to guide in Ha very well. I'm awaiting parts to hook up my ST-i in front of the filter to solve that problem.

Ha: 22 x 30 sec (weeded from 61)
Darks: 30
Bias 30
Temp: -15 degrees.

167143

Astrobin (http://astrob.in/110777/0/)

[cometcatcher]

A nice mosaic in Ha Chris.

[Amaranthus]

Taken with the RC10? Some nice detail for only 30 sec subs.

[lazjen]

Yes the RC10, plus the FR 0.67 - seems to make it a good combo. I'm looking forward to getting the guiding going again for some longer exposures.

[LewisM]

What silly dill sold you that CCD? :(

Yeah, she's a great camera - ULTRA sensitive. Just watch out for blooms - it doesn't have ABG. MaxIM does a good pre-process job of removing them, Pixinsight less effective, and CCDStack average.

Keep those exposures coming. I wouldn't go much more than about 7 minutes per sub on M8, as I found at f/6.3 the blooms really started getting long on the bright stars.

[Rex]

Nice one Chris. Learning new equipment always takes time, but looks like your well on your way mate. Great result.

[lazjen]

Thanks.

Since that image, I haven't had any further opportunity to get more data... and the weather suggests it might be a while longer yet too.