I’ve spent just over 2 weeks away down south at my Dome and managed only 2 clear half nights. The weather has been ridiculous, 35 degrees one day , 19 degrees the next , mostly cloudy and windy with showers for the next 5 days
Captured a quick M17 Swan Nebula descending in the west on both nights under a full moon ( Chose M17 as it fits perfectly in my FOV )
Bortle 3 skies
Full Moon
2 half nights
10” f5 Klaus Helmerich Carbon newt
SW EQ8-R pro mount
ZWO2600MM cooled to -10C , Gain 100
Antlia 3nm NB filters
EQMOD and Stellarium
APT
PHD2 Multistar guiding ( Ra guiding was awful at 0.70 to 0.80 , more than double the value of Dec , smaller stars a tad oval ) I need to polar align again , haven’t checked PA for over a year.
Orion 60mm guide scope with helical focuser
ZWO 290MM guide camera
Stacked in ASTAP
Processed in Startools v1.8 Compose
28 x 3min Ha
15 x 3min Oiii
15 x 3min Sii
Flats and Bias
Pretty happy with the low level of gradients under a full moon using relatively short integration time.
This 2600MM camera is nuts under Bortle 3 skies using the Antlia 3nm filters even with a full moon blasting my Dome. The Ha filter certainly gives you a surprise when the subs roll in ( Shame about the weather )
I’m using ASTAP now for stacking which IMO provides a better cleaner result than DSS with the last 3 objects I’ve captured with the 2600MM.
The Mono 2600MM camera and dedicated filters is a lot of work in capturing and processing but definitely better fidelity than my 2600MC.
Early days yet but enjoying the journey with Mono and yes RGB stars should be the norm but still learning.
Link to Astrobin for full resolution……..
https://www.astrobin.com/n0fekh/
Synthetic Luminance 200KB version
SHO 200KB version
Thanks for looking
Martin
