M16 Eagle Nebula

[Startrek]

Back in Sydney’s lovely Bortle 8 Skyglow imaged M16 under a full moon plus neighbours flood lights ( why do I bother , answer, I like a challenge)
Subs were only 60 sec but still whitewashed out at ISO800
Captured just over 2 hours of data plus darks
6” f6 Bintel GSO newt on an EQ6-R Mount
Canon 600D with Baader coma corrector
PHD2 guiding at 1.20 to 1.40 arc sec error
Goto and tracking EQMOD, StellariumScope and Stellarium
Frame, focus and capture BYEOS
Stacked in DSS
Processed in Startools V1.5 Linear data set ( obviously a huge amount of noise in the image which affected everything , nebulosity, stars , colour etc... ) but Startools managed to salvage some sort of image out of the garbage in

Comments welcome

[PKay]

Your having a go Martin, that's the main thing.

Can you try one of those fancy filters?

The result is to be expected, and it's OK.

Tip: Make friends with your neighbours!

[Startrek]

Peter
Thanks for the encouragement
Neighbours like to waste power leaving flood lights on til late for no apparent reason , its their right I suppose. Movement sensors would be a logical approach for all of us. Artificial light pollution is not getting any better in big City’s , its actually getting worse.
Fortunately I have my South Coast retreat where I can enjoy bortle 3 skies ( and more importantly no neighbours lights )

[RyanJones]

I’ve always been impressed with what you produce with your light pollution with no filter Martin. Tonight, I’d have to tentatively disagree that city light pollution is getting worse..... stay with me. Down in the Covid capital tonight we’ve headed into stage 4 lockdown. The moon is full and there’s only breaks in the cloud cover but I think for the first time ever, I can see every star that makes up the scorpius constellation from my Bortle 8 backyard. One of the very few things I have to look forward to at the moment is maybe some delightful imaging once the moon moves away and all the lights are turned off.

[Sunfish]

A great image. The Eagle is hard. Small and faint I think from light polluted sky. You have done pretty well.

[Startrek]

Ray
Thanks for your kind comments
M16 is not that hard to find during a new moon period , it’s quite bright actually at mag 6, however I knew it was wishful thinking about a descent result but you won’t know until you try
Here’s my M16 captured last year in Sydney with only a first quarter moon around and about the same amount of data , same scope and settings etc...
Huge difference in quality and detail ( the moon is our friend and foe )
Martin

[xelasnave]

Nice work Martin ..as always.

Make yourself a baffled dew tube you will find that the light next door will go away and also it eliminates stray light from stars, planes, even minimises the sky glow...look at Hubble...tube extended well past secondary and it is baffled...I have not got one on the 115 mm yet and I noticed last night a circle of light..oh no what the heck...mmm Jupiter..now if I had the "stray light inhibitor tube" I would not have had that light worrying me...now you notice Jupiter but you don't notice the stray light running around and finally hitting the sensor...the more you can do the better will be your contrast...if you don't want to go to the trouble of baffles at least try a roll of cardboard with sawdust paint ..make it two and a half feet...maybe two.
Alex

[raymo]

Very nice Martin, much better than my efforts which utilised shorter subs,
and were black clipped, as you will see from my version which will appear later on in my oldie's series.
raymo

[LostInSp_ce]

Martin, I have similar skies and by the sounds of it similar surroundings too. I understand the challenges and this is fine effort. It looks great, you've done well! :thumbsup:

[kosh]

Looks pretty good Martin, even with the challenges.