Messier AP Quest

A place to post your Messier images for the Messier AP Award program.
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Graeme1858 Great Britain
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Re: Messier AP Quest

#21

Post by Graeme1858 »


JayTee wrote: Thu Mar 26, 2020 4:13 am Hi Graeme,

Congrats on the new flair, well-earned.

Cheers,
JT
Juno16 wrote: Thu Mar 26, 2020 4:23 am Very nice images Graeme!

I would be proud of a set like this!

Congratulation on the M40 photo award!

Thanks very much.

It's been fun!

Regards

Graeme
______________________________________________
Celestron 9.25 f10 SCT, f6.3FR, CGX mount.
ASI1600MM Pro, ASI294MC Pro, ASI224MC
ZWO EFW, ZWO OAG, ASI220MM Mini.
APM 11x70 ED APO Binoculars.

https://www.averywayobservatory.co.uk/
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UlteriorModem
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Re: Messier AP Quest

#22

Post by UlteriorModem »


Nice images!

Get some flats to get rid of the dust bunny.
Tom

Current Equipment:
Mount: Celestron CGX-L
Scope: 130mm f7 APO
Cam: ASI071mc-pro
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Graeme1858 Great Britain
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Re: Messier AP Quest

#23

Post by Graeme1858 »


UlteriorModem wrote: Fri Mar 27, 2020 12:51 am Nice images!

Get some flats to get rid of the dust bunny.

Cheers Tom.

I had the cardboard and duct tape light box set up to do some flats but it didn't work on the night! Annoyingly!

I'll have it tested and up and running before next session.

Regards

Graeme
______________________________________________
Celestron 9.25 f10 SCT, f6.3FR, CGX mount.
ASI1600MM Pro, ASI294MC Pro, ASI224MC
ZWO EFW, ZWO OAG, ASI220MM Mini.
APM 11x70 ED APO Binoculars.

https://www.averywayobservatory.co.uk/
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Graeme1858 Great Britain
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Re: Messier AP Quest

#24

Post by Graeme1858 »


M3 added.

Good size quite bright Glob. 4 stacked images 1600iso 10s, 20s, 30s and 40s.


Image


I spent some time on M94 as well but with a 9 day old Moon in the sky I think the images were all washed out. I'll go and have a go at it now.

Regards

Graeme
Attachments
Messier List Viewing Log - 040420.xlsx
(24.32 KiB) Downloaded 193 times
______________________________________________
Celestron 9.25 f10 SCT, f6.3FR, CGX mount.
ASI1600MM Pro, ASI294MC Pro, ASI224MC
ZWO EFW, ZWO OAG, ASI220MM Mini.
APM 11x70 ED APO Binoculars.

https://www.averywayobservatory.co.uk/
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Graeme1858 Great Britain
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Re: Messier AP Quest

#25

Post by Graeme1858 »


45/110 - 07/05/20

My hand controller packed up a few weeks ago so I've sent it back to the supplier under warranty. Last weekend I set up with the laptop connected to the mount. The CGX has a USB on the mount that can be seen by CPWI but you don't get any ASCOM control. I spent the evening doing a Polar Alignment and some visual viewing. It was quite nostalgic! I've not used an eye piece for over a year! So by slewing the mount with the laptop arrow keys I aligned on Venus and stopped to view with my 23mm for a while. Then continued aligning on Capella, Arcturus and Regulus. Finishing on an All Star Polar Align on Regulus. Then I moved round to Albireo and took in the view with the 23mm, 10mm and my 6.5mm. The colour difference was clear and always a pleasure but I couldn't focus with the 6.5mm. Then I had a look at M81 and M82. Both were found almost centre of view (40mm) but both faint fuzzies perhaps just a hint of core in M81. A visual evening made a nice change.

Anyway, it occurred to me that I would be able to set up with the pc with the 600D and APT and capture some data unguided, without the hand controller! So I went out last night and tried it. After aligning I captured some M101 data as a practice run for the May challenge. I'll have another go when I get my new hand controller and the Moon is out of the way. Finally I got some subs on M40, M108 and M94. M40 is getting stacked now. I'll post up the three images over the next couple of days as I get round to processing them.

Updated spreadsheet log attached.

Regards

Graeme
Attachments
Messier List Imaging Log - 070520.xlsx
(25 KiB) Downloaded 183 times
______________________________________________
Celestron 9.25 f10 SCT, f6.3FR, CGX mount.
ASI1600MM Pro, ASI294MC Pro, ASI224MC
ZWO EFW, ZWO OAG, ASI220MM Mini.
APM 11x70 ED APO Binoculars.

https://www.averywayobservatory.co.uk/
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Graeme1858 Great Britain
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Re: Messier AP Quest

#26

Post by Graeme1858 »


So here's the three galaxies from my 07/05/20 session.

Can I ask, do they still count if they're really rubbish images? It was a full Moon and with no hand controller I was doing short duration unguided captures! They all share the same 10 Dark frames, 20 Bias and 20 Flats.

M40 - to quote Steve sdbodin "The Lamest Messier"

Image

Just a pair of stars then. Interesting faint nebulosity around the near star, 70 UMa, probably just Moon glare and over stretched processing. 3 x 30 second Lights at 1600ISO but DSS only stacked 1 due to lack of stars, I think. The flat frames didn't seem to work!

M94 - Croc's Eye Galaxy.

Image

Just caught the core and the line of sight star. I'll have to have another go at this one some time because the whole thing fills my 600D frame nicely. 4 x 40 second Lights at 1600ISO, DSS stacked 2.

M108 - Surfboard Galaxy.

Image

Just a faint smudge really. Great name though! 3 x 40 second Lights at 1600ISO, DSS stacked 1.

Hopefully the new hand controller will show up some day soon.

Regards

Graeme
______________________________________________
Celestron 9.25 f10 SCT, f6.3FR, CGX mount.
ASI1600MM Pro, ASI294MC Pro, ASI224MC
ZWO EFW, ZWO OAG, ASI220MM Mini.
APM 11x70 ED APO Binoculars.

https://www.averywayobservatory.co.uk/
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Graeme1858 Great Britain
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Re: Messier AP Quest

#27

Post by Graeme1858 »


As of 23/05/20 I'm at 51/110. That's almost half way!

Messier log updated and attached.

Gallery updated with all images. There must be a couple of duplicates because there are 68 images there!

app.php/gallery/album/188

Click the image name at the top of the thumbnail for a short description.

Messier List Imaging Log - 230520.pdf
(170.51 KiB) Downloaded 199 times

Thanks

Regards

Graeme
______________________________________________
Celestron 9.25 f10 SCT, f6.3FR, CGX mount.
ASI1600MM Pro, ASI294MC Pro, ASI224MC
ZWO EFW, ZWO OAG, ASI220MM Mini.
APM 11x70 ED APO Binoculars.

https://www.averywayobservatory.co.uk/
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Graeme1858 Great Britain
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Re: Messier AP Quest

#28

Post by Graeme1858 »


Galaxy season is here so I decided to add a few to my Messier Quest.

On Friday night just gone Kent was treated to the clearest night sky for ages! The Moon was less than first quarter and in the opposite direction (nearly) to my targets. Almost all of Ursa Minor was visible (after a period of dark adaption) I like to use the 4 bowl stars as a measure of clarity.

So I put the CGX, the 9.25 SCT and the ASI294MC together, connected up and balanced. Fired up NINA and was all set to go.

My targets for the evening were the Messier galaxies of Leo and Virgo and I managed 10 x 180 seconds on 7 of them. 30 minutes exposure isn't really enough for a quality image so they're mostly over processed! But the craic was had and that's the main thing! I was expecting M105 and friends to be the highlight of the evening but it has to be said, ellipticals are the not the most photogenic celestial targets. The actual highlights both whilst capturing and processing were M66 and M95 beautiful barred spirals. I processed M66 twice, first attempt didn't calibrate the flats so it's full of dust bunnies and vignetted corners. The second attempt didn't de-bayer properly so was a blob of over saturated green. I'm definitely going to go back to these for a couple more hours of data each.

M49
M49-Autosave.png

M58
M58-Autosave.png

M60
M60-Autosave.png

M66
M66-Autosave.png

M95
M95-Autosave.png

M96
M96-Autosave.png

M105
M105-Autosave.png

Tally is now 58/110. Thanks for looking.

Regards

Graeme
______________________________________________
Celestron 9.25 f10 SCT, f6.3FR, CGX mount.
ASI1600MM Pro, ASI294MC Pro, ASI224MC
ZWO EFW, ZWO OAG, ASI220MM Mini.
APM 11x70 ED APO Binoculars.

https://www.averywayobservatory.co.uk/
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