IC342 (Hidden Galaxy) with 34h:40m in 14" and P1 Zeus

 IC 342 has always fascinated and flustered me.  As always please give me tips so I can get better.  

 

I had a hard time flatting this and found it noisy without darks or bias. Also my normal workflow of moving from DSS to Siril is complete. Learning to move away from stacks in Siril then Photoshop and finally GIMP was frustrating so I learned more Siril for gradient removal and noise reduction and am more happy but the journey continues. This is a challenging subject and I did lots during a fuller moon, slightly on autopilot as we had a weeks worth of clear skies amidst a major drought in Central North Carolina.  See below for more detailed questions for the hearty helpers out here on CN!

L = 127×5m = 635m
R = 104×5m = 520m
G = 88×5m = 440m
B = 97×5m = 485m
Total = 2080m
34 hours : 40 minutes

 

Location

* Bortle 6/7

* Near 35.675, -78.744 Apex, NC

* Swift Creek, North Carolina, USA

* MPC Obs = W50

 

Akule CCD Equipment H/W

* Type: Custom Home Built Newtonian (Akule | astromike (astromikephillips.wixsite.com)

* Primary Mirror: Carl Zambuto 14" f/4.5

* Corrector: TeleVue Big Paracorr 3"

* Mount: iOptron CEM-120

* Imaging Camera: Player One Zeus-M Pro Camera

* Color Filter Wheel: Player One Phoenix XL CFW

* Filters: Antlia LRGB V-Pro 50mm, Antlia 3nm Pro SHO 50mm

* Guiding: Player OneOAG-MAX

* Guide Camera: QHY5III200M

 

 

Akule CCD Processing S/W

OS: Lenovo T14s - Win11

Acquisition: Nighttime Imaging 'N' Astronomy (N.I.N.A.)

Processing in Siril:

  * Stacking

  * RGB

  * Gradient removal

  * Noise GraXpert

Gimp menuing and file conversion

 

Now for some workflow questions.

 

I was quite pleased to replace RC's GradientXterminator with Siril's Background Extraction for 12 of the 14 nights. 

 

 

 

The final two thawarted me.  I used the flats from the week long / 12 nights total session as well as more recent flats and both ended up not selecting the total background.  I tried keep all samples, and subtracting the galaxy manually but it was painful and error ridden.  What do other's do for longer, multinight sessions?

 

 

This was a welcome learning expericne with many clear nights, lessons learned, stable equipment and new, open source software like NINA and Sirl to learn!

 

My thanks to all the devs and helpful members of our great community!

 

Mike P in NC

Saturn with spokes, Rhea, Tethys, and Enceladus

Click image for animation!

 

Getting into narrowband!

 All around great purchase getting  a 3" coma, full frame mono and LRGB+SHO filters!

Loving the heck out of my new equipment and nina workflows!

Come see the full res on my Telescopius pages - https://telescopius.com/pictures/view/286608/deep_sky/ngc-6974/pickering-triangle/by-michael_a._phillips#annotated=full 

Saturnian spokes!

 I had a bit of clear skies, they're hard to come by lately and tried out the QHY200M on Saturn.  Little did I expect to see SPOKES in my animations!  Glad I automate otherwise I'd likely have missed them.  

If you don't know Saturnian spokes are, "spokes are made of charged ice particles bulging up and away from the rest of the rings. Researchers aren’t sure exactly what causes the spokes, but they suspect it has something to do with the planet’s powerful magnetic fields."  (It's Time for Mysterious Spokes to Appear in Saturn's Rings - Universe Today)

Here's the color animation

and the subchannels, which you should see in all 3...

The full res ones are in my Imgur albums...

My "OMG I GOT A NEW CAMERA" catchup!

Going from the old SBIG8300 to the IMX455 Zeus camera or really just getting a new camera  forced me to rethink how long I sit on old stacks before calling them done or ready to publish.  Here's a grand total of 38 new images, some recent, some as old as 2014+ when the camera was new.  Mostly B&W and some small at 2x2 binned in the 8300.  Enjoy!

Congrats, you made it to the end!  Hopefully more and better quality coming with the new camera, which was your favorite?  Come drop a line on my site - https://astromikephillips.wixsite.com/home

Growing catalog of  Galaxies are here:

    Google Photos = https://photos.app.goo.gl/rW21YSiQb7yGnBzd6

    Imgur - https://imgur.com/a/LbziC

Other deep sky objects: https://astromikephillips.wixsite.com/home/deepskyobjects

Mike P in NC

Finally got average seeing, AND and Io transit, AND on a non work night!

I have been under 1/5 and 2/5 seeing forecasts for so long I was excited to see 3/5 on the forecast, especially with clear skies AND on a Friday WITH an Io Transit. 

The seeing was in an out of avg with some real moments of almost good, so I gave it a 3+/5

I gave the night a good solid 50x RGB runs and kept the best 8.

Deroated and composited. 

My winter galactic fun

 I always love the longer winter nights, they're cold and there's tons of my favorite DSO to observe.  Galaxies to me are all so unique and far away!

Here's NGC2336, with specs: Dist:90–100 MLY, Size:7.1′×3.9′, Mag:10.3 V, Type:SAB(r)bc (barred spiral)