SharpCap Forums

Had chance to get the scope out last night for an imaging session started a bit late so did not collect much Sii on the target as it had gotten a little low in the sky but managed a reasonable amount on Ha and Oiii. The image below is comprised of the best 70% of subs captured.

Equipment
Avalon M-UNO mount + EQDirect cable
APM LZOS 780/130 refractor + Riccardi 1.0x Flattener
Altair 60mm Guidescope + GPCAM290MM Guide Camera
Imaging Camera ASI1600MM-Pro at -20c
Filters 6nm Astronomik Ha / Oiii / Sii
Software Sharpcap Pro/ PHD2 / Stellarium / EQMOD / Astro Pixel Processor + Photoshop CC

Exposures Ha 25 x 180s / Oiii 24 x 180s / Sii 11 x 180s gain set to 139 offset at 50

Bortle 4.5 - 5.0 sky / Moon 72.7% - 66.6%

_19_09_20 - NGC6992_Eastern_Veil_Ha_x25_Oiii_x24_Sii_x11_180s_139g by Nick Davis, on Flickr

Thanks for looking and clear skies

Cheers
Nick

Hi,

Thanks for sharing – that's a really great image

Cheers, Robin

Awesome image!

Very nice Nick - congratulations.

Dave

Nick

How did you decide on the ratios for the filters?

Dave

Hi Dave it was not very scientific I planned to do 90 minutes on each and then stack the best 70 - 75% but we started a bit late and I never looked at when it would get low to the west hence the shorter SII period.

The 180s come from the fact that I like to use the average filter rather than median in APP so need 20 plus frames in the final image for that purpose once it gets more into the winter I will use the brain in SharpCap as I will have more imaging time although with the ASI1600MM Pro I think you do not really want to go much past 6 minute subs.

I have not tried the brain with the new Astronomik 6nm filters to see how long it proposes but will give it a try one night to see what happens for combining the three filters I do this in APP using the RGB combine function and then just do a minor levels tweak in Photoshop CS and also a slight adjustment curve as I find it easier to do this in CS than APP.

I plan on having a go at the Western Veil next but will need to use the reducer or I will only get the Witches Broom portion, it will also be interesting to see how the ASI1600 works with the new filters as due to the imaging chip cover of the camera not having antireflective coatings on it in the past I have experienced issues when a very bright star is in shot.

Cheers
Nick

Thanks for that Nick.

Dave

Vey nice image!!! Thanks for sharing, Nick.

Can you explain your PHD2 setup with SC? My setup is having both cameras connect to the same USB hub up on my scope which runs down the pier to my laptop. PHD2 guides but SC will not produce an image even though it is running. I explained this recently under General Discussions and Robin explained why. Curious to know how others are doing this.

Bruce

Hi Bruce,
I am probably not going to be much help as I am not using a USB hub as I have an Eagle2 Pro on the scope that is running everything and I just remote in either by Wi-Fi or by LAN depending on whether I am at home in the observatory (LAN), or away from home Wi-Fi Power and everything else comes from the Eagle so I only have two cables going to the scope main power + LAN.

My main imaging camera goes into the one of the USB3 ports on the Eagle the GPCAM290MM goes into one of the USB2 ports as I can remotely turn the USB2's on and off. The mount is hardwired between the Eagle and the Synscan control board through a USB3 port which then connects in PHD when connecting the Equipment under the profile again all these connect to the eagle for data / power. As can be seen in the image below it will look a bit strange as it is on the tripod not the pier and is actually pointing straight up in reality.
Cheers
Nick

Thanks, Nick.

Very nice setup. Appreciate the info. I need to figure this out.