Two Fall Galaxies

With the Moon waning and a few nights of clear skies, I've tried to take advantage by switching back to straight RGB imaging. (I did take the cheap Meade IR cut filter off my camera and am using a Baader Fringe Killer UV-IR cut filter instead. I'm doing this because it will be easier to switch between RGB and Hα this way, particularly if I'm using a focal reducer. The Meade filter goes between the camera and its nosepiece, so it slightly alters the distance between the focal plane and any focal reducer mounted on the nosepiece, slightly altering the image scale. With the Baader Fringe Killer, which mounts on the front of the focal reducer, that won't happen.)

Last Tuesday night was clear, so as I thought about what I might image I realized the Deer Lick Galaxy Group was pretty high in the sky. I didn't want to miss it this year so that was my target. If you want to see lots of faint fuzzies all in one frame, the Deer Lick Group does not disappoint. I guess my title is wrong; you can see a lot more than 2 galaxies in this picture. Conditions were not great because there were a lot of random wind gusts; not good if you want to image at full focal length. This image is probably a bit greener than it should be.

Wind is tossing the scope to and fro. Chiller running at 2.5 A, but I'm still seeing 19 °C, which suggests something is wrong. Probably should have chosen a target which would have used a focal reducer tonight. Did meridian flip and continued; things seemed to settle down some.

Date: 16 Sep 2014
Subject: NGC 7331, Deer Lick Galaxy Group
Scope: AT8IN
Filter: Baader Fringe Killer
Mount: CG-5 (Synta motors, PicGoto Simplificado)
Guiding: 9x50 Finder/Guider + DSI Ic + PHD 2.3.1 (Win 7 ASCOM)
Camera: DSI IIc chiller at 2.50 A, 15 °C
Acquisition: Nebulosity 3.2.1, no dither
Exposure: 61x300 s
Stacking: Neb 3, bad pixel map, bias included, no flats, normalize first, trans+rot align, 1.5 SD stack.
Processing: StarTools 1.3.5.279 Crop; Wipe:Color & brightness 75%; Develop 89.78%; HDR:Reveal Core; Deconvolute auto mask 3.1 pix; Life:Moderate; Color:Scientific, 275%; Track RNC 32.11%; Magic:Shrink 2 pix. Photoshop CC 2014 Astronomy Tools Increase star color; Deep space noise reduction; Make stars smaller (2x); Levels; Astro Frame.

Clear Friday nights, when I can image and not have to get up to go to work the next morning, are not to be missed. I like imaging the Triangulum Pinwheel Galaxy because it is large in my field of view without exceeding it. (That's one of the big problems with Andromeda: it is huge so even at the shortest focal lengths available to me I have trouble fitting it in one frame. Maybe I'll have to try a panorama again.) Friday's conditions were as good as they ever get at my site: good seeing, almost no wind, and no clouds. I was able to image pretty much from the time the galaxy rose until morning twilight. I got things started, set an alarm for 3:15 AM, and slept until the alarm woke me to do a meridian flip, which was easily accomplished with the ever-capable PicGoto; it is so nice to use even when I'm putting my body through contortions to sight through the Telrad near the meridian. Unfortunately, when I stopped for the meridian flip I discovered the focus had softened a bit, so I could have had a sharper image than I got. I like how the hydrogen emission regions in M33 (the red, Hα-colored areas) show up in this picture.

Conditions don't get any better than this: clear, no wind to speak of, and comfortably cool. Dec guiding excellent, RA pretty good. Chiller at 2.5 A, 14.5 °C (I don't think it is working very well). Still imaging with Neb 3 (Mac) and controlling everything else with Windows versions. Initial synch was on α Trianguli. Set an alarm and got up at 3:15 AM to do meridian flip. Found the focus was a little soft and fixed it. Went back to bed and let the scope continue imaging until dawn.

Date: 19 Sep 2014
Subject: M33, Triangulum Pinwheel Galaxy
Scope: AT8IN+Antares 0.5x focal reducer
Filter: Baader Fringe Killer
Mount: CG-5 (Synta motors, PicGoto Simplificado)
Guiding: 9x50 Finder/Guider + DSI Ic + PHD 2.3.1 (Win 7 ASCOM)
Camera: DSI IIc chiller at 2.50 A, 15-10 °C
Acquisition: Nebulosity 3.2.1, no dither
Exposure: 74x300 s
Stacking: Neb 3, bad pixel map, bias included, no flats, normalize first, trans+rot align, 1.5 SD stack.
Processing: StarTools 1.3.5.289 Crop; Wipe:Color & brightness 80%; Develop 74.99%; HDR:Optimize; Color:Scientific, 500%; Life:Moderate; Deconvolute 2.7 pix; Track: 1.7 pix, RNC 13.97%. Photoshop CC 2014 Astronomy Tools Increase star color; Deep space noise reduction; Smudge tool to fix some badly oblong stars; Astro Frame.