IC 2948 - chicken gizzards

[markas]

This image was shot between dusk and moon rise in somewhat extreme conditions: SQL 20.7 - not great; seeing ~3"; ambient temp 18C, RH 99.9% for the whole 2 hours' exposure.

With such a warm saturated atmosphere I didn't expect too much..... fan going flat out, window heater flat out. Only had time for RGB 40 min each.

ASA10N at f/3.6; G3-16200; Astrodon filters; ASA DDM60. The image is approx 30% area crop - FOV is about 54' X 48'. Processed in Pixinsight without deconvolution or noise reduction. Synthetic L from all the colour subs.

[RickS]

Nice rich colours, Mark.

[topheart]

Very nice. A testament to how efficient you and your gear are!!
Cheers,
Tim

[strongmanmike]

Really lovely colour Mark

Site conditions can really play havoc with a powerful system like yours. I used a similar outfit to yours in a crap location for 18 months and started to think my gear was below par :scared:, then I moved...and coupled with better image scale and seriously improved site conditions, the same scope produced markedly different results:

Inner Newcastle NSW - (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/135749877/original) sea level, coastal, moist skies and heavy light pollution along with very regular crap seeing

Semi rural Canberra (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/159319372/original) 600m ASL, dry, inland, generally good seeing conditions and pretty dark skies

:)

Mike

[markas]

Michael, Tim and Rick,

Thanks for the comments. I guess I'm lucky to also have access to a higher (680m), darker site which can be very cold with high RH, but never warm with high RH.

Still, this was a good test of the camera window heater effectiveness!

Mark