It’s been a while since I last posted here. Images are posted first to the Breckland Astronomical Society Facebook page which a more interactive medium for discussion.
I’ve been busy in the meantime gathering images of the supernova remnant Simeis 147. This is a huge object requiring a 4 pane mosaic to cover it. So far I’ve only completed the Ha image to my satisfaction.
After a marathon data gathering exercise on this target I’ve been working on processing the results. Final data tally was Ha: 32 hours, OIII: 16 hours, RGB: 1 hour each.
In 1966 when George Abell compiled his catalog of planetary nebulae entry 85 in Cassiopeia was mis-classified. While it has some resemblance to a planetary nebula it is subsequently been found to be the remnants of a supernova explosion . However, unlike the Cygnus loop it’s emission is mainly in H-a with very little O-III.
I’m still collecting data for this object but this is a process of the first 12 hours of images shot through a Baader 3.5nm Ha filter.
There is an older, fainter supernova remnant in Cygnus and it lies just up from the double star Albireo. At about 30000 years old (Veil 7500 years) and further away 2500 ly (Veil 1500 ly) it is correspondingly fainter. The part I’ve imaged here has the designation Sh2-91.
I last took pictures of this object back in 2014 with my QHY9 colour camera and it wasn’t entirely prominent but by combining the old data with 4 hours shot through my new Baader 3.5nm Ha filter a more distinctive image is formed.
I’ve rejected some of the original frames that had some thin cloud and re-stacked, then registered the new Ha frames and combined using the Pixinsight NBRGBCombination script.
I finally took the plunge and ordered a Moravian G3-16200 camera. This is a monochrome camera and whilst the pixels are slightly larger than the KAF-8300 equipped QHY9 there are also a lot more of them. Setting up has been rather a long process that still isn’t completed but at least it’s attached and able to take pictures. The increased sensor size and weight has highlighted some issues with my Takahashi FSQ85-ED Baby-Q. There is some tilt in the optical train and stars are elongated in the corners. Hopefully, I’ll be able to work out solutions for these problems.
One of my purchases was a Baader 3.5nm Ha filter and this image was taken with it last night. The night’s are still very short here so only 2 hours in 20 minute sub-frames of the emission nebula IC1396 in Cepheus.
On a wet and windy bank holiday Monday I finally got back to this subject for another attempt at processing. Having dedicated about 23 hours acquiring the images and spending countless more hours processing the data I still felt that there was more in this image than I’d managed to extract.
I’ve learnt a lot about the Pixinsight tools I regularly use on other projects and added a few more to the toolbox. Overall, I’m very happy with this result.
Astronomy Now magazine were kind enough to use this image in their June 2016 edition.
Looking back through my image archive I found a couple of hours worth of images of NGC2403 in Camelopardalis that I took in 2014. Over a couple of clear nights during the past week I added another 8 hours to this and an initial process is quite promising.
Located in Camelopardalis, Kemble’s Cascade is a remarkably straight line of colourful 6th to 10th magnitude stars. Named in honour of Friar Lucian Kemble who discovered it while sweeping the skies with a pair of binoculars. It’s a nice fit for the field of view with my FSQ-85 and QHY9 camera.
A near full moon interfered with fainter targets and caused some issues with this one with artefacts due to internal reflections in the camera. Thirty 2 minute exposures, stacked and processed in Pixinsight.
This is an image from last December when I gathered 6 hours worth of 10 minute subframes over several evenings. This is a large colourful emission nebula in Cassiopeia and is part of the Perseus spiral arm of our galaxy.
With some favourable nights back in October I increased the number of 15 minute subframes I’d acquired of the Iris nebula and the final tally was around 23 hours. A few were rejected and the remainder stacked and processed in Pixinsight.
This is the latest version.
