Ol' Horsey

[oska (John)]

After all the weather we've been having lately it was a pleasant surprise the sky cleared about 1am last night but the seeing was maybe the worst, short of complete fog. Mars for example was twinkling :/ But what the hell, I was just happy for some star time. I had to reframe to get away from Alnitak, but the glare is still there Oh well.

I gave the LX200 8" a run at F6.3
I got 0.6" total guiding after giving some unorthodox effort to correct the backlash, although it was probably just lucky balance
I figured (guessed) from my previous playing around if I concentrated on NGC 2023 that Ol' Horsey would sort itself out.

150 x 30s ASI1600MC -10C, 139g, 25os, UV/IR cut
Dark, Flats & Dark flats (100 each)

I'm guessing the big blue star flares are because of the poor seeing?

Definitely needs more time, just sharing for fun. Thanks for looking.
Any pointers is greatly appreciated.

[DarwinAstro (Chris)]

Looks good John.

[oska (John)]

Thanks Chris

[xelasnave]

Well done John you have not blown out that nice little nebula and it looks great.
alex

[oska (John)]

Thanks Alex

[Crater101 (Warren)]

For something that's known to be a difficult target, that's a fine result! Nice work.

[oska (John)]

Thanks Warren

[Dave882 (David)]

An excellent result well done! Great to see some more sct imaging going on!! I think you’ve brought out the colour and intricate detail in ngc2023 really well. If it were me I might just nudge the framing a bit to bring 2023 out of the border and deal with that pesky Alnitak with some photoshop magic. But great image!

[oska (John)]

Cheers Dave. I had it framed initially as you suggest but the shot was interrupted by some aliens that managed to warp out before I got them on cam although the wife insists it's an interstellar jellyfish It's weird/cool how out of shot bright stars can do that.

[Doogs38 (Alex)]

Ye Ol' Horsey looks great John, and no doubt will be a target worth revisiting over summer should we ever see stars again Looking fwd to seeing this one develop further.

[oska (John)]

Thanks Alex, we're getting at least some cloud free nights but the seeing is pretty much always decidedly average thanks to that ever present SEQ high humidity and the accompanying 30 mins after dusk dew :/ By all accounts it's "not worth the time" and if I were after the perfect image I would agree. Thankfully I have heaps of fun just taking the subs and enjoying the DSS live stack rolling in. I'll definitely get some more next time the LX200 gets a run.