Southern Torch of Freedom - NGC3576

[Addos]

Esprit 120 / 294mm combo at it again. Decided to ditch the oag and save the 72ED from more dust gathering in the closet. Up to about 15kg on the EQ6R and it seemed to perform even better that with 12kg. Approx 0.4" avg guide error across the entire set, peak to peak under 1.3 with not the best seeing I've ever had. Pretty impressed.

3 clear nights in a row was an absolute unicorn this summer in Bris. All in on this target, which I've never imaged before. Managed to get about 22hrs of NB and an hour of RGB for the stars.

As always, non-200kb atrocity at the 'bin link below, and a starless version.
https://www.astrobin.com/icbncl/
:)

[Startrek]

Adam
Glad you had some sky time
Great effort there on a unique target
I’ve yet to nail an decent image on this target due to lack of data
When this incessant horrible weather goes on the east coast of NSW , it’s on my list again
That tight guiding on your EQ6-R !!!
What’s your secret ?
Do you use PHD2 ?
I carry nearly 15kg ( 8” f5 metal tube newt ) and the best Ive had out my EQ6-R mount after physically tuning backlash out of the worm gears and drive belts , re balancing etc... is around 0.60 total rms on a good night ( which is pretty good anyway )
I suppose these middle to low end mass produced mounts have a low QC due to quality/cost constraints and it’s hit and miss when you buy one. Some folk get incredible guiding , others struggle to get below 0.80 to 0.90. However they have been the top seller across the world in the past 3 years in their class ( $2.5k is not a lot of money to shell out in this hobby )
Well done !!
Martin

[Peter Ward]

Oh bugger...I am often obtuse....but finally got the image title "...torch of freedom"

Duh.

Yellow and Blue palette. Nice one

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[Ryderscope]

A good alternative composition for this field with a colour palette that works well. Nice one :thumbsup:

3 clear nights in a row
How dare you have three clear nights whilst we are clouded out. Hmmppff!

[glend]

Oh, you mean the Statue of Liberty nebula.

[Addos]

Gday Martin

Cheers mate. Its a lovely target, and one that in my opinion really looks amazing in a starless version.

With the new imaging rig meaning carina is now a 9 panel mosaic, what better time I thought than to focus on the little gems around it. The chook is next on the list :)

I'd agree, 0.6 is still really good for a mass produced synta mount. My old Heq5 with only 5kg on it didnt guide this well, even with a couple of manual tweaks to the gears. I think I just got a really good example from the factory!

I dont really have any secrets with guiding (and do use PHD2), though I do have a couple of observations that might've helped:

- targets near the pole. always better guiding than near equator.
- getting pretty anal with balancing in both axis. ever so slight bias to camera side, and weights side
- always using multi star guiding, and always doing at least 2 mins guide assistant at the start of each session. keeping ra aggressiveness below 60 and 75-80 on dec. used to have to go lower on dec aggressiveness, but nina's 3 pt polar align means I can get sub 1' pae in under 5 mins. love it!
- havent locked in PPEC yet, but always ensuring I either record a pec curve at the start of the night, or using one from previous nights if I havent had to move the mount

here's to clear skies again soon!

[Addos]

Thanks Pete! :P A little presumptuous of me, but I figured an object thats really only visible in the South shouldnt be named after a Northern landmark :)

[Addos]

Thanks Rod! That's exactly what I was going for, especially after seeing what great use of creative framing Andy makes. Don't think I quite nailed it this time though, as I didnt want to cut off the left side of frame quite where I did and should've positioned the poi a touch higher to capture that 'tail' of Ha that runs off to the right. Guess at some point I'll just have to do this target again :)

Yea, ask me back in October whether we'd be making so much fuss about 3 clear nights in 6 months and I'd have said you're crazy. La nina be a brutal mistress.