Another (hyper)quick horsey

[Dave882 (David)]

B 33 / IC 434 / NGC 2024 / NGC 2023
18/19th Nov - Another night of troubleshooting spacing/tilt/collimation with the hyperstar- and although feel i got a bit closer i'm still not happy with the star shapes. Anyways, the only way I can keep sane about such tedious tweaking is to keep pushing out some images, even if imperfect..so after i'd had enough troubleshooting for the night handed the reigns over to ASIAIR and went to bed. Lots of passing clouds all night so after waking up I was only greeted with less than 2hrs of useable data unfortunately...

I love all the reflection nebula in this region - although I think there might be a few additional REFLECTIONS in the mix caused by our good friend Alnitak! Bit of denoise necessary due to limited integration too.

200x 30sec subs (100mins))
ASI2600mc
Guiding with guide scope & asi290mm
Optolong UHC filter
C14 Hyperstar f1.9
Eq8 pro
ASIAIR pro
APP / PS

Thanks for looking!

[AstroViking (Steve)]

For such a short integration time, that's a very good image, Dave.

The halos around the bright stars are interesting. How did you achieve them?

Cheers,
V

[Startrek (Martin)]

Dave,
Nice capture for a quicky , although a tad bright maybe ?
Cheers
M

[Dave882 (David)]

Thanks guys-
Steve, the halos are a mystery to me. At first I thought it was the filter but then I get some without a filter so I’m thinking could be some reflections going on. Notice there’s dual halos on a couple here and I can’t work out where that came from either cause it aint a double star!! Maybe APP freaked out during stacking and did it twice But lol that’s way down on my list of things to work out
Martin, thanks for your observation yes you may be right I think I was trying to bring out some of the shadow nebulously but probably didn’t have the integration time to warrant that… might tune down the highlights next time

[AstroJunk (Jonathan)]

I think you've got about as good a spacing as I've seen with Hyperstar, those stars at the edge are superb given the limitations of the system. I've got a mk I on my 14" and a Mk IV on an 8" Edge which is light years better in terms of star sharpness but I still need to finesse the spacing.

The halo is an artifact most probably caused by the filter, I certainly get them in my images. They do seem to be off centre though which I have not experienced and maybe suggests some tilt somewhere. As for the double halo - did you do a meridian flip during the capture? Given the off centre nature of it, that would explain why it stacked like that.

[Dave882 (David)]

Thanks Jonathan I actually think you’ve hit the nail on the head- I did indeed do a meridian flip so that explains it. My suspicion now is that the corrector plates not centred properly causing the uncentred star halos. That and/or collimation a bit out. Getting closer…

[Stephane]

Dave, that amount of signal in less than two hours should be illegal
I can’t imagine how tricky it must be to improve star shapes on such a fast system, but you are clearly improving acquisition. Keep going!

[gregbradley]

That's an impressive Horsehead. I don't find the star shapes a big deal.
Lots of subtle detail not normally seen.

Greg.

[Dave882 (David)]

Thanks Stephane & Greg- yes I’m always amazed at the shadow detail coming through on some of these targets with the Hyperstar- especially these bright ones! As with every imaging system you’ve got to learn how to use and get the best from it and it doesn’t matter how much I’ve used the c14, at f1.9 I’m absolutely starting from scratch. But I’m just spending a couple hours each night tinkering and feel I’m getting to know how it rolls- and also the fact I’m probably never going to get a truely corrected flat field out of it but hey it brings something to the table that very few other scopes can that’s for sure!

[Stephane]

I am still struggling with backfocus, tilt, astigmatism, collimation, etc, with my f/4 Newt which I guess is over 4x slower than your f/1.9. Like you, incremental changes from one night to the next are helping. I am also guilty of getting carried away with the pixels and sometimes forgetting the amazing overall picture! Looking forward to seeing how you go with hyperstar over time.

[Addos (Adam)]

Nice one Dave! Def keep adding to the data pile - look forward to seeing the updates!

[Dave882 (David)]

Originally Posted by Addos

Nice one Dave! Def keep adding to the data pile - look forward to seeing the updates!

Thanks Adam!