A Quick M16 Eagle Nebula in Ha

[Startrek]

Its been nearly 2 years since I last imaged M16 Eagle Nebula from my B3 Dark site.Unfortunately this Winter so far has been quite disappointing regarding clear nights.Last week presented a 2 to 3 hour window before cloud rolled in so only captured Ha data on this wonderful Nebula. Its been cloudy ever since.

NexDome Obs
Bortle 3 Skies
50% to 60% Waxing Moon
Seeing Conditions Poor to Average ( Stars Scintillating like crazy )
10" f5 Klaus Helmerich Carbon Fibre Newtonian
Skywatcher EQ8-R Pro mount
ZWO 2600MM cooled to -10C , Gain 100
Antlia 3nm Ha Filter
42 x 180 sec Dithered Subs ( 2 hours Integration )
40 x Flats
40 x Flat Darks
Darks from Library
PHD2 Multistar Guiding ( 0.80 to 0.90 arc sec ) Guiding was poor and see sawing in Dec and Ra due to poor atmospheric conditions but maintained round stars as Dec and Ra errors were close to each other with no big excursions.
Tracking and Goto ( EQMOD and Stellarium )
Captured using APT
Subs analysed, calibrated , aligned and stacked using ASTAP
Post processed using Startools V1.8
Used Startools , Spatially Variant PSF Deconvolution to "de Blur" the image at default settings.

Quite pleased with this quick capture considering poor atmospheric conditions

Astrobin links below for full resolution……,
https://www.astrobin.com/q9wcjf/
https://www.astrobin.com/qnyxv6/

Attached native frame version IIS 200kB
Crop version IIS 200kB

Thanks for Looking
Comments Welcome

Martin

[Stephane]

Hi Martin,
A very nice result indeed. I prefer the framing in the first version. Plenty of nice detail!

[strongmanmike]

Yeah, with a Moon up Halpha is the way to go and that's come together nicely :thumbsup: I also prefer the framing of the first one.

Re clear skies, I feel like I am getting enough clear sky time up on the mountain but it's often either a big Moon around or I'm not there :doh: Anecdotally at least, based on three years of observations on site and via the CCTV, I recon about 60% of nights are useable, with all or at least part of the night clear..? This is similar to Mt Stromlo Observatory...so I canni complain too much :)

Mike

[Startrek]

Thanks Stephane and Mike,
Not bad for only 2 hours under crappy conditions !!
Unfortunately for Astro , my Wife and I are heading back to Sydney tomorrow for grand parenting duties on Mondays and Thursdays , so gathering more data on M16 will have to wait until I’m back down at my Dome again , hopefully in mid to late August ??
I can always capture M16 on my Sydney rig ( 8” f5 Klaus Helmerich Carbon Newtonian) under B8 LP skies , yuk !!
Thanks again
Martin