M57 rc8

[jjjnettie]

A moon washed Ring Nebula.:)
19x3min @ iso800
Darks and flats taken separately.
DSS and CS3 for stacking and processing.
Wish I'd captured more, but my hub gave up the ghost half way through the run. Meaning I couldn't autoguide.

[Tom Davis]

Nice one. The ring is right overhead up here in the rainy north.

Tom

[Dennis]

More nice work from the “Nettie” imaging factory! Do you ever sleep??:lol:

Cheers

Dennis

[multiweb]

Good stuff JJJ! You're going to give Fred a run for his money soon :lol: ;) :thumbsup:

[SkyViking]

Thats very nice jjj, I remember it looking exactly like that in my 10" newtonian, albeit with less colours, when I lived in the northern hemisphere. Unfortunately I have trees blocking it from my observatory these days so it's been a long time since I last saw it. Great to see it again :)

[TrevorW]

Told ya, now for more on a clear night :thumbsup:

[jjjnettie]

I'm making up for lost time Dennis. :)
The last 6 months have been a bit of a write off.
But I'm fit and well again, just in time for the Winter constellations.:thumbsup:

[JD2439975]

That extra focal length makes all the difference to detail.

Nice one.

[Paul Haese]

Nice image JJJ. Don't be afraid to use much longer subs though. If necessary use a LP filter. 10 minute subs will give you far more detail than 3 minutes subs. Even using really large numbers of subs at short exposure lengths will not overcome the noise that will pop out as a result of the signal not overwhelming the background ADU (this is probably not well explained).

If you are having trouble guiding then perhaps look for another solution so that you can guide for longer. I am not sure if there is some limiting factor that you have which requires such short subs.

Your images show incredible promise, but you just need to capture longer subs to achieve fantastic results. Just my opinion. :)

[jjjnettie]

Ah yes.....
That limiting factor would be me. I lack the skills necessary to get it all working together smoothly.
Over the last week or so I've come to the conclusion that I'm going to have to start manually guiding.
And I'm perfectly OK with that. So long as I can still take my pretty pictures I'll be happy.

[TrevorW]

The RC and 80 etc on the HEQ5 may be pushing the limits of the mount maybe it's time to invest in an EQ6

[RobF]

Autoguiding is a bit of a rubik's cube sometimes, that's for sure. The HEQ5 should be up to it, but agree you're close to its limits. Being the optimist I am, I figure that just means youll learn more along the way though ;)

Balance is really important of course - with the 8" Newt just a few cms movement of the counterweights in RA can improve things (or make it worse). I always aim for bit East of fully balanced. DEC generally has to be evenly balanced.

I've had my best results so far doing away with a "proper" guidescope and using the SSAG in the back of a 2nd hand finder guider - really do think that's worth a try sometime.

Then there's a whole bundle of software settings to play with. I've always found Guidemaster the best with the HEQ - seems to handle my considerable backlash best. Bit more messing than Phd, but more control in the end. Happy to show you next time we're out somewhere if you want Jeanette. You really need to devote a series of nights to nothing but systematic tweaking (hardware and software) and recording what makes a difference for you. Can be very illuminating. Nothing worse than guiding misbehaving at a dark sky site, so ultimate goal is to avoid that at all costs.

Enough of that - great Ring JJJ !!

[jjjnettie]

I do feel I've reached my "technological" and "physical" limit in the hobby.
An EQ6 would be way too heavy for me to lift safely. I chose the RC8 over my 200mm newt for this reason. Had enough grief with hernias over the last year and a half, now I'm all fixed up, I don't intend to undo the surgeons good work.

[TrevorW]

Sorry JJ didn't know about the hernia, you will just have to wait like me until you get an observatory

[jjjnettie]

Thats ok Trevor. LOL I do have an observatory, unfortunately, it's not here where I live.
I use a side by side plate with the RC. It's not so top heavy then.
I also use the little iOptron 80mm as my guide scope. It's very light weight.
I'll have to weigh them all and find out exactly how much it totals.

[RobF]

I don't believe it for a minute, with the incredible images you've put out over the years Jeanette - they just keep getting better and better.
More of a pause while you consider your next route to head further up the astrophotography mountain..... :)

I had forgotten about the hernia too must admit - glad to hear you're feeling a lot better though.

[Hagar]

Very nice Jeanette, you are certainly getting the RC working very nicely. Well done.