Final M20 Trifid for this year

[Startrek]

Captured my final image of M20 Trifid Nebula for the year
Conditions were poor to say the least
Next door neighbours two storey houses either side with their outside wall lights and backyard floods on until midnight ( don’t people know what motion sensors are ? for goodness sake )
The bloke diagonally behind me obviously burning timber in his combustion heater which hasn’t dried out enough ( smoke bomb all night )
Seeing was poor to average
Bortle 8 Sydney suburban skies
6” f6 newt on a HEQ5 mount
Canon 600D with Baader coma corrector ( no filters )
34 x 2 minute guided subs ( no dithering this time to see what affect it would have )
15 x darks
PHD2 guiding using the PPEC algorithm in lieu of Hysteresis ( 1.00 to 1.20 arc sec error ) Guiding seems a lot smoother using this algorithm
Goto and tracking EQMOD
Captured on BYEOS
Stacked in DSS
Processed in Startools

Thanks for looking, comments most welcome

[Ant0nio]

A very decent M20 all the same Martin, correct colours as usual & nicely processed. I feel your pain with neighbors antics, the bloke behind me (a new neighbor) has taken to burning a stack of pine pallets one at a time rather than dumping them.
Acrid smoke & a fire 20 ft from where my scope is set up.:mad2: They're sent to try us...& they do. A satisfying image anyway Martin, well done.:thumbsup:
Cheers,
Tony

[JA]

Hi Tony,

Acrid smoke doesn't usually result form burning clean (and dry) timber. There may be cause for serious concern if the timber is chemically treated, which for some pallets it is and that may result in the release of pesticides or worse.

Tread carefully

Best
JA

[Sunfish]

Very clean and colourful triffid with some good detail. Worth the effort.

Pretty smoky here in Winter, neighbours are surprisingly good among the trees but the streetlights could move lower or turn off at midnight.

Quoting Brian Brown’s character in Dean Spanley: As the defendant says facing a Pygmy Judge, these small things are sent to try us.

[RyanJones]

Nice Trifid Martin. Well done. Really nice colours too. :thumbsup:

[Startrek]

Thanks so much Tony, Ray and Ryan
I was surprised how well this processed with only an hour of data and considering the conditions
I was interested to see how the guiding would perform using the PHD2 PPEC algorithm and so far it’s working well after 2 nights with smoother guide pulses, a small improvement in error ( 0.1 to 0.2 arc sec ) and Dec recovering quicker after a dither.Mount was East Heavy on both sides of the meridian
I can’t wait to use my bigger rig ( 8” f5 newt and EQ6-R ) down the coast next week and use PPEC on PHD2 , hopefully a few clear nights
Thanks again
Cheers

[LostInSp_ce]

Nice way to finish up Martin. It seems like everyone has astro friendly neighbours lol. Mine like to leave the bathroom light on with the blinds open for extended periods of time. I don't image to west for this reason. You do so well under that suburban sky. Can't wait to see what you produce from your darksite.

[JA]

Lovely image Martin. I particularly like the subtle diffraction spikes.:thumbsup:

Best
JA

[Startrek]

Thanks Lost in Space and JA
I decided a few weeks ago to do something about my light flooded backyard ( care of my neighbours ) so bought some poly tarps from Bunnings and hung them up. I sure it helping a lot as the OTA is now shielded from direct light (see photos)
Also my little DSLR Cooling Fan is working well , started out with sensor temperature running at 25 degC and after 10 subs got down to 16 deg C and stabilised at 17 to 18 degC all night
Thanks again

[sil]

very nice detail and colour!

[Startrek]

Thanks Steve
Appreciate it

[Pepper]

That’s a nice trifid. One of my favourites.
Neighbors? What are they! I’m finally out of town and away pesky neighbor lights.

[Sunfish]

Good plan. I have been looking at a disused water tank that I can cut and set up on the deck slab around the pier. But then, may as well make it an Ob.