Some more keyhole area

[multiweb (Marc)]

I got an evening of really good seeing Thursday 29th of April before the full moon got too high. Two subs in particular were really good. Best I've got. Must have coincided with a period of good seeing and the mount tracking better. I've attached a 300s uncalibrated 1:1 crop of the small cluster. CCDIS says it's 2.13" for 300s and 1.89" for 10s which are numbers are get typically on a very good night. It usually is high 2s and 3s from my location.

Since I've sorted out the RA to track under 1" and the DEC is not far off now I'm hopeful I can get to the next level down of details I am after in my quest to get the perfect keyhole shot.

Shot until ~21:00 then moved on to M83 to get some more but the moon got really too bright and caught on the smoke haze. I couldn't find any guide star in the OAG so called it a night.

I have a full field here with the duo band: [1920x1434 -1MB]

and a crop with a color blend: [1167x977 - 573KB]

and straight duo LUM: [1167x977 - 573KB]

I blended 26x300s as a lum with color I had shot the previous week with the QHY8 42x300s.

and here's an interesting crop with added Ha from 2017 bringing the total to 21h and improving SNR to get more details.

NGC3372 duo + ha

[Startrek (Martin)]

Marc,
Some really nice detail there, it’s a wonder you could image at all with all the back burning that’s happening around Sydney over the past week or so
Well done !
I captured similar areas of Carina with my 8” newt about a month ago , so many areas to explore in this region
Cheers
Martin

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by Startrek

Marc,
Some really nice detail there, it’s a wonder you could image at all with all the back burning that’s happening around Sydney over the past week or so
Well done !
I captured similar areas of Carina with my 8” newt about a month ago , so many areas to explore in this region
Cheers
Martin

Thanks Martin. The smoke haze only really bothered me when it started picking the moonlight after 19:30. By then I already had a fair bit of subs in the box.

Carina is bright and well,positioned in my backyard. Ideal to fine tune and test the mount at long FL. I'm now very close to a consistent repeatable solution that I can take in the field to dark skies away from home and do colour, ideally on galaxies.

[PKay (Peter)]

Keep goin Marc!

Moon is waning, skies should clear again soon...

Always interesting work from you

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by PKay

Keep goin Marc!

Moon is waning, skies should clear again soon...

Always interesting work from you

Thanks Peter. Yes the milky way season is starting so plenty of interesting targets to pick and look at up close.

[Sunfish (Ray)]

Loads of fine detail there Marc. Just getting closer and closer.

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Ok so... you are imaging Eta agaaaain Marc... how many times do you recon you have hit this bit of sky over the years? must number in the 100's ...by any chance, does M8 Trump it though?

The close up keyhole is great though looove a detailed Up Yours nebula, even in plain'ol B&W, nice (many year) job

Mike

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by Sunfish

Loads of fine detail there Marc. Just getting closer and closer.

Thanks Ray. That's the idea.

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Ok so... you are imaging Eta agaaaain Marc... how many times do you recon you have hit this bit of sky over the years? must number in the 100's ...

75 times.

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

by any chance, does M8 Trump it though?
lol:...

Not quite. But it's around the corner so I'll be on the hourglass soon enough.

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

The close up keyhole is great though looove a detailed Up Yours nebula, even in plain'ol B&W, nice (many year) job

Mike

The duo is great for my backyard. Saves me a lot of time and I can tune the scope and the mount while still getting some interesting data. When I'm ready I'll spend more time at Ilford and do colourful galaxies. Not long now.

[Robert_T]

hey Marc, I do like these deep detail shots. In some ways the mono brings it out even better than the colour. THis gives a real feel of solidity, like it's fashioned from clay and not nebulous gas. Nice!

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by Robert_T

hey Marc, I do like these deep detail shots. In some ways the mono brings it out even better than the colour. THis gives a real feel of solidity, like it's fashioned from clay and not nebulous gas. Nice!

Thanks Robert. Long FL imaging is pretty cool but challenging technically unless you have $$$ to spend on aperture, mount and permanent setup. I have an excellent scope light enough, with no glass in the imaging train and that holds collimation very well that I can take on the field like a refractor. It's taken a long time and a lot of modifications to get my mount up to speed though. I'm nearly there now ready to take it out to dark skies. Exciting times.