New Image: Pelican nebula

[Petrol]

This was suppost to be a 4 panel mosaic but I ran into problems with the other 3 panels. The mount wouldn't slew far enough in NINA after a flip for plate solving because I had mount limits enabled in Ascom. Rookie error but it's now sorted. This is the second time I've posted an image up of this target but I drove to a dark site (Bortle 4) for this. I've also tried to process it a bit less agressive than my last effort to try to make it look a bit more natural. I've always had problems with stars, bloated like dinner plates in the beginning then egg shaped with tilt or back focus issues. Then there's focus, it's just so difficult to nail this astro imaging.
This is 2.5 hours of 180s subs with flats, dark flats
Samyang 135mm lens
Player One Poseidon-C Pro (IMX571)
ZWO dual band filter (not recommended for fast optics)
ZWO autofocuser
EQ5 mount guided - Yep, not the HE model, over 10 years old now and still going strong!

Pelican Nebula by P Raymond, on Flickr

I appreciate OSC has significant limitations over mono but the skies here are not clear very often.
All I want to do is improve so feel free to help me out if you can. Honest feedback will be welcomed!

Thanks for looking
Clear skies!

Pete

[messier 111]

I find it very beautiful, a little dark but very good overall, thx.

[Ylem]

I'm on a mobile screen Pete and it looks amazing!

[Juno16]

That is a fine image Pete!

Amazing fov and very nice details for only 2.5 hours. Well done!

I am with you on the weather. I am trying (now) to collect some data on the Lobster Claw (Sh2-157) with intermittent clouds. In fact my initial autofocus (NINA) was through the clouds. It has cleared (for now) and the second AF run was only a few clicks from the initial run. NINA Hocus Focus is amazing.
This is my third time setting up to collect data on this target and I have gotten clouded out the past two without collecting any data. Very frustrating!!!

[Petrol]

Thank you for your valued feedback. I've spent quite a bit of time sorting this mobile rig out, it's certainly been an interesting journey and an eye opener in many respects but I think it's more or less sorted now. I'm very impressed with the Samyang F2 lens. I'm going to keep things simple and not bother with mozaics for now. The weather here has been terrible for months. Only 2 good nights really and both of those were mainly wasted with problems. The plan now is to get some hours in on a single taget to see what I can get.
I also use Hocus Focus in NINA Juno16, it's a great bit of software because from my understanding, it's calculating the star HFR whilst the next auto focus image is being taken.
I'm hoping it's going to be a good season with some clear skies but the weather seems quite unpredictable this side of the pond!

Again, thank you for your valued comments

Pete

[Mirrorgirl]

That's a very nice image Pete well done

[jthommes]

Wonderful image Pete!