Thursday, October 6, 2016

Astrometry Plate Solving

I was going through my folder with NGC 281 images and came across a single 5 minute image of a bright star using my Canon T3i and an H-alpha filter.  I processed it slightly in PS because it looked like there were hints of nebulosity around the bright star.  So I resized it and uploaded it to nova.astrometry.net to have it plate-solved.



It was Betelgeuse!   And looking through some deeper images of Rogelio's, I noticed that there isn't much in his images of the Betelgeuse region.  Could be stuff here to image.   Those NGC objects in the northern section of the image are listed as "non-objects" in the NGC/IC project.

Studying the image in more detail...   Looks like the round nebulosity near the top is
the back end of the Angelfish Nebula which is centered around Meissa.  But the nebulosity to the right of Betelgeuse remains somewhat mysterious.

Just a single frame of the Pacman Nebula (NGC 281)

This is just a single 10 minute frame of NGC 281 massaged in Photoshop.   I wanted to post it as a point of comparison.   I will be processing a small stack in PixInsight over the next couple days.


When I push the curves in Photoshop I can see a hints of nebulosity around this object.  But no one seems to have a deep image of it.   Hm.....

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

PixInsight Workshop

Just doing some catch up...


Back in May, I attended an imaging workshop in Tucson.   Six days of intense imaging instruction with a knowledgeable gentleman named Vicent Peris.  


Though we probably sat down for 6-8 hours a day, it was a great jump start into the software.


Screenshot of the PixInsight interface while working on a Milky Way shot.

Plan to shoot IFN again

I have a few images that I'm finally working on again.  They'll be posted in the next few weeks.

I hope to shoot an IFN centered roughly on NGC 3343 that I had tried getting a year and half ago.
I need to get a camera adapter for the Atik One.   But the adapter is out of stock.

So the plan is to center the shot on NGC 3343, which is a mag 14.7 (dim) galaxy in an odd section
of the Draco constellation, just northwest of the M81/82 area.




Technically, most of the nebula is centered in Draco.  The nebula takes up about 75% of this field.

In terms of equipment, if I shoot this with the Atik One, I need to use a wide-field camera lens.  I think a 85mm will do it, but I may need 50mm.   Also, I need to rig up a ring to hold the lens as I consistently had some kind of flex which manifested itself as trailing.   I think the "flex" was either the camera moving due to the single 1/4-20 screw holding it on the dovetail OR there was differential flex from the small telescope/guide camera.   Since the Atik One has an integrated OAG, I may have to remove it.   Not sure at this point.

From what I recall, the guiding in PHD showed decent tracking.

In Nov/Dec, I really should only be shooting this after 2 AM.   In Jan, I can probably shoot it after midnight.   I'd like to collect around 12-15 hours before the end of the year.