M17 Swan ( Omega) Nebula

[Startrek]

My image of M17 Swan Nebula captured on Tuesday night in Sydney
Conditions were suppose to be great but the first 50% of my subs where below par, stars not sharp and lots of noise in the raw files
I salvaged the last 50% of the 2 minute subs which were slightly better as they were captured from 40 degrees to around 70 degrees Alt
My guiding was poor and dithering was knocking the mount around a fair bit , it never really settled back to stable guiding
There was low lying cold moist air hanging around from about 10.30pm onwards and it got worse later in the night . After M17 , I tried to image Jupiter around midnight and couldn’t even focus properly it was just a fuzz ball . So shutdown and went to bed. I image from about 20m above river level at the bottom of a hill in my suburb , not the greatest location for astrophotography but conditions were poor at least from my location

6” f6 newt and HEQ5 mount
32 x 2 minute subs
25 x darks
ISO 800
Canon 600D unmodded
BYEOS
PHD2
Stacked in DSS
Processed in Startools

Thanks for looking and comments welcome!!

[casstony]

Still turned out a pleasing image Martin.
Too many objects to image right now and not enough clear nights.

[xelasnave]

That little six does an amazing job Martin.
Excellent image.
Alex

[Startrek]

Tony and Alex
Thank you for the kind comments
Yes the 6” newt is a great scope for AP , not popular, but does the job nicely
I’m surprised a lot of beginners go straight for a 80mm refractor , maybe collimation scares them off who knows. My scope cost me $299.00 but it’s worth it’s weight in gold , the images prove that I think
Heading down the coast on Monday to our holiday pad for 10 or 12 days so I’ll be setting up the 8” f5 newt , I hope we get some clear nights
Cheers

[Ant0nio]

Some lovely detail & colours there Martin. Very promising for just over an hour of data. I feel your pain regarding throwing away half your subs, we have chosen a pursuit which is largely governed by elements beyond our control. In spite of this we battle on:cloudy:
Cheers,
Tony

[Startrek]

Thanks Tony
Heading down the coast next week to my weekender and dust off the 8” f5 newt and do some imaging under Bortle 3 skies
Might even get the 12” Goto dob out and observe some nebulas and clusters before the moon get to big
Cheers