M20 Trifid Nebula with ASI482MC planetary camera

[Doogs38 (Alex)]

My ASI482MC camera has been sitting unused so I replaced the 294MC with this uncooled planetary camera to see how it would perform on a bright DSO. The smaller FOV of the 482 vs the 294 is well suited (for my scope) to something like the M20. I did a single 300s trial image using a gain of 200 and nearly fell of my chair! While the image was noisy and had visible amp glow, it was full of colour and detail and I hopped around the room like a little kid making strange noises that amused my wife. Would be a good EAA camera. Soooo I tried to get about 2hrs of 180s subs but ultimately only got 36 mins due a plate solving issue that I eventually resolved. I used a UHC-S filter hence the emission nebula doesn't have the lovely pink colour that seems to be captured in a true broadband image; the orange colour is more Ha-ish. I will play/experiment/collect more data when I'm next home and there's no moon. Alex

SW120ED x 0.85 Reducer/Flattener
12 x 180s subs, ASI482MC
Baader UHC-S filter
Darks, flats, dark flats. APP, PS, DeNoise and lightly cropped.

[Dave882 (David)]

Nice Alex- looks like you’re having lots of fun! M20 is one of my favourites too!!
Re the interesting orange hue- I’ve seen that pop up more than once in APP during the calibrate star colours function, and if that’s the case with you too, can be fixed by just using the balance rgb option.

[AstroBogan (Jacob)]

Very nice image, Alex!
Awesome colours and detail. Definitely adding this one to my to-image list

[Doogs38 (Alex)]

Thanks Jacob and Dave - I'm enjoying the learning experience that comes from experimenting with everything in my setup.

Dave - thank you for your excellent tip. That's what I like about this group; the willingness to share knowledge and help utter newbies like me Per your suggestion, I've just had a play using APP's 'balance rgb' option and it resulted in a significant improvement in colours - I'm stoked Only 36 mins of data does not produce a startling image however it does provide an idea of what I can look forward too with more effort.

[AstroViking (Steve)]

Alex,

Very nicely done, indeed. Especially for such a short integration time.

The purple/blue image seems to have more of a 3D-effect to my eye - anyone else see that?

Cheers,
V