M57 - Testing 1-2-3

At long last this is First Light with my Celestron EdgeHD 800 Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope (SCT). I purchased this specifically for the many small galaxies of galaxy season. I missed that but fortunately there are a plethora of other small objects which I have avoided over the years. Although I have imaged M57 or The Ring Nebula before, I selected it again because it was bright and in an ideal location for me to do all of this testing. I am very happy with the final images especially given the limited exposure time. I was only using this object as a test and will try something that I have not done before if it ever clears up.

If you are interested in more detail, read in between the paragraphs, otherwise skip to the conclusions and image descriptions.

Data Collection
The first night out I successfully did the collimation, autofocus, and tried some imaging using NINA and APT to no satisfaction and plenty of frustration. The problem may be the computer or Microsoft - whatever the case I ditched it for the Asiair Pro. We have had a horrible stretch of weather here so testing has been exceedingly slow. The next time (a few days later) I had the Asiair Pro up and running. Everything worked - slewing, plate-solving, autofocus, autoguiding, meridian flip, and parking the scope. On the second night (7/5) I collected 60 x 90 second frames with no filter. Also on the second night I collected 19 x 180 second frames using the IDAS NBZ filter. In my haste I did not check the collimation beforehand and noticed it may not have been the best it could have been. The third night (7/11) I did collimate the scope and managed to collect 36 x 90 second frames making the total exposure 96 x 90 second or 2.4 hrs.

Brief Discussion
After reviewing the data from both nights, the collimation was not that far off so it was usable although I should check it every night. I replaced the collimation original screws with Bob’s Knobs which are much easier to adjust. The stars turned out much better than I anticipated they would. They were round (in the central region) and tighter than I thought they would be using an SCT with this focal length (I was expecting them to be more bloated). I recently discovered the color astro cameras do not come with built-in UV/IR filters which can add to star bloating which may have contributed to the large stars of my recent Iris Nebula image using the ASI294 and Canon Lens. I used the same setup on the Elephant Trunk Nebula only with the IDAS NBZ filter and no bloat. The stars on corners of the images are pointing towards the center, this is a classic indication that back focus needs more space. It is close so not too much space is needed.

There were problems with the support frames in particular with the flats. After many trial sets I was able to produce a usable set for the unfiltered data. I was never able to produce usable flats for the NBZ filter. I did order a light panel to aid in this effort. What a pleasure it was to use my old autoguider (6 yrs old) the Orion ST80. This is currently sold as part of the Awesome AutoGuider Package by Orion. I had forgotten how pleasant and easy it is to use a ‘real focuser’ rather than the helical focuser.

Lastly, the Field of View (FOV) for the Edge is much smaller even with the focal reducer than the AT115 which translates into more detail for smaller objects. One of my images shows the comparison between the two using the ASI294. Another way to look at it is the ASI294 uses 11.7 Mp to make an image, therefore, the image made with the Edge will be more detailed than the one made with a cropped AT115 image.

Conclusions
- Collimation adjust every imaging session 
- Backfocus is close as is, however, will adjust in an effort to improve
- Dark Frames look good and do their job
- Flats are going to need some work before I use them
- Orion ST80 with ASI120 mini Autoguider setup works well

Descriptions
Image 1: Cropped - unfiltered RGB + IDAS NBZ (partially)
- The NBZ data was not good enough to make a complete image but was able to use a portion of it to accentuate the Ha/OIII gas surrounding the main portion of M57

Image 2: Uncropped - unfiltered RGB + IDAS NBZ (partially)
- The NBZ data was not good enough to make a complete image but was able to use a portion of it to accentuate the Ha/OIII gas surrounding the main portion of M57

Image 3: Cropped - unfiltered RGB

Image 4: Uncropped - unfiltered RGB

Image 5: FOV comparison
- EdgeHD 8” with 0.7 FR and ASI294
- AT115 with 0.8 FR and ASI294

Image 6: Uncropped - unfiltered RGB
- After stacking and ABE

Image 7: with the Dust Bunny Nebula
- For submission to NASA?  I found a UFO pretending to be a dust bunny!

M57 - Ring Nebula

Dates: 7-5, 7-11
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC-Pro
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 800

Barlow: None
Focal Length: 2032mm (native)
F/10 (native)

Focal Reducer: Celestron .7 Reducer Lens 
Mount: Orion Atlas Pro
Filter Adaptor: ZWO Filter Drawer
Filter: IDAS NBZ (2-inch)
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Orion ST80
Exposure: No Filter 96 x 90, NBZ 19 x 180
Gain: 120
Offset 0
Temp: 0 C
Processing: Asiair app, PixInsight, Photoshop, Gradient Exterminator, Topaz DeNoiseAI.

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IC 1396 - Emission Nebula - HOO* (2021)

Located approximately 2400 light-years away in the constellation Cepheus, IC 1396 (SH2-131) is a large cloud of ionized gas and dust. Within its confines is IC 1396A or commonly referred to as the Elephant Trunk Nebula because of its similar appearance. It sits on the top portion of my image pointing upwards. Most visible light images show IC 1396A as dark, however, that is because it glows in the infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum as does the famous Horsehead Nebula. Several very young stars have been detected in the Elephant Trunk indicating that it is an active stellar nursery.

The really bright orange star located on the lower left at the edge of the nebula is Mu Cephei or Herschel's Garnet Star. It is a red supergiant nearly 100,000 times brighter than the Sun, one of the largest known stars. If it were placed in the Sun's position it would engulf the orbit of Mars and maybe Jupiter. It is also nearing its death as it has burned up all of its hydrogen and is now fusing helium into carbon.

So this is the second image taken with the ZWO ASI294MC Pro attached to the Canon EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM Lens with the ZWO EOS Filter Drawer. I decided to make use of the filter drawer by using the IDAS NBZ filter. I purchased this dual-band filter over many other versions because this can also be used with fast setups including Hyperstar which I now have. I had my lens set at F/4 this time rather than F/3.5 which is what it was set on for the IRIS Nebula. The total exposure was 4.35 hrs (87 x 180s) and was collected over two nights when the moon was up. I would have had more time but I still have been having computer and program issues which are eating away imaging time.

So how do you make an HOO image from a color camera? I call it the “Cuiv Special”! Actually I followed a video from Cuiv (Link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=740ZLTe95eg&t=908s) where he separated the color image and recombined it in such a way to mimic a narrowband image.  I had to modify it a bit as he did a full SHO combination. Of course it will only work if the data you collect is from a Multi-narrowband filter such as the IDAS NBZ. Attached is a short video comparison with and without using the NBZ filter. (Link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TofY62bsTLk)

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IC 1396 - Emission Nebula

Dates: 6-23, 6-28
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC-Pro
Telescope: Canon EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM Lens
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 200mm
f/4.0
Focal Reducer: none
Mount: Orion Atlas Pro
Filter Adaptor: ZWO EOS Filter Drawer
Filter: IDAS NBZ (2-inch)
Focuser: None
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to a ZWO Mini guidescope - None
Exposure: L 87 x 180
Gain: 120
Offset 0
Temp: 0 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, Gradient Exterminator, Topaz DeNoiseAI.

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Using The IDAS NBZ Filter!

Over the last few years, multi-narrowband filters have popped up into the market place.  They are particularly useful for one-shot color cameras and DSLRs although they can be used as luminance filter for monochrome cameras as they are excellent at reducing light pollution.  The current filter choices for these multi-narrowband filters include 1) dual-band (Ha & OIII), 2) Tri-band (Ha, OIII, & SII), 3) Quad-band (Ha, OIII, SII, & Hb).  Numerous manufactures now have these in their lineup and following is a partial list:

ZWO Duo Band (Ha & OIII)

Radian Triad Quad-Band (Ha, OIII, SII, & Hb)

Optolong L-eNhance (Ha, OIII, & Hb)

Optolong L-eXtreme (Ha & OIII)

Altair TriBand (Ha, OIII, & Hb)

IDAS NBZ (Ha & OIII)

IDAS NB1 (Ha, OIII, & Hb)

IDAS NB2 (Ha & OIII)

IDAS NB3 (OIII & SII)

I wanted to get a good multiple narrowband filter to be used with the ZWO ASI294MC Pro and was looking at the various options.  After doing some research I purchased the IDAS NBZ filter specifically because it was redesigned to handle telescopes with focal ratios as low F2.  

I had a chance to test this on IC1396, The Elephant Trunk Nebula, the recently during near full moon from my Bortle 5 skies.  The test consisted of collecting two 180 second exposures without the filter and then collecting two exposures with the NBZ filter.  

Celestron EdgeHD 8" with a ZWO M42 Filter Drawer

 

Recommended 105mm

My Optimal System 108.5mm

Sh2-73 - A Dusty Molecular Cloud

Sh2-73 was originally classified as an emission nebula hence added to the Sharpless Catalog of emission Nebula, however, it is actually a molecular cloud illuminated by the integrated light from the galaxy. It is located approximately 392 light-years (120 parsecs) from Earth in the constellation of Hercules. Although it was misclassified as an emission nebula, it has some colorful stars associated with it and is still very pleasing to image (in fact I think I like imaging dark reflection nebulae more than emission nebulae).

Capturing and processing was straightforward although I did lose a bit of some RGB data as I forgot to set the temperature to zero degrees - trying to do too many things at once. It is very dark and nothing was visible on the individual subframes which always concerns me when imaging. This may be the last image from this scope for a little while as I finally received the EdgeHD8 and will be busy activating that setup as well as the 200mm Canon Lens setup. This AT115 setup has been great and also very stable so I am keeping it untouched which is why I have been building a new imaging setup.

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Sh2-73
Dates: 6-5, 6-6, 6-9, 6-10, 6-16, 6-17
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm
f/7
Focal Reducer: 0.8x AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: ZWO L, R, G, B
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure: L 259 x 90, R 58 x 60, G 53 x 60, B 56 x 60
Gain: 139
Offset 21
Temp: 15 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, Topaz DeNoiseAI.

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NGC 7023 Region (2021) - New Equipment

NGC 7023 or the Iris Nebula is a favorite of mine and only fitting it should be First Light for my ZWO ASI294MC connected to a Canon EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM Lens with the ZWO Filter Drawer for Canon Lenses. The region is heavily laden with interstellar dust as can be seen in the image. The characteristic blue color from NGC 7023 comes from the dust grains reflecting light from the bright central star. Also interesting is that polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have been detected within this nebula so it may be a good place to get some naphthalene (moth-balls).

Located in the constellation Cepheus these molecular clouds are approximately 1,300 light-years away in a rich field of stars. I had to do several rounds of star reduction and made processing a bit difficult. I consider this image satisfactory and would have needed to collect more data than the 2.65 hours to make it a noteworthy image.  I pushed the dusty areas as much as I could but really could not go any further. I am happy with what I did get for the limited time and there is some detail in the core. Most of the stars appear yellow but a good portion of those are yellow because the light is being filtered by the gas and dust of the molecular cloud.

This was a test done over three nights plagued with problems. It was not only first light with the camera and adapter but also of my second imaging computer so I can run two rigs. This Canon 200mm Lens to ASI294 setup was an afterthought while I was waiting for the EdgeHD8 to arrive (which came last week).  I used 90 second exposures as I have found this to be good value with unfiltered images from my yard.  Although the lens can go to F/2.8,I have found F/3.5 to be a decent value for imaging.  All of the data collected on the first night was lost because I had the gain set at zero rather than unity gain of 120. The second night I had data issues due to Microsoft OneDrive hijacking my computer trying to download while collecting images - I don't remember signing up for this but I uninstalled it and hopefully it stays gone. I also had trouble guiding, every time I turn on guiding it interferes with the imaging camera. I am pretty sure the PhD2 knows which camera is which but I had the issue with APT and NINA. Guiding works alone though. Fortunately with only a 200mm FL, guiding was not necessary so this image was made with 90 second exposures.  However, I do have to get this solved guiding is critical for the the Edge.

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NGC 7023 Region
Dates: 6-16, 6-17, 6-18
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC-Pro
Telescope: Canon EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM Lens
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 200mm
f/3.5
Focal Reducer: none
Mount: Orion Atlas Pro
Filter Adaptor: ZWO - None
Filter: None
Focuser: None
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to a ZWO Mini guidescope - None
Exposure: L 106 x 90
Gain: 120
Offset 0
Temp: 0 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, Topaz DeNoiseAI.

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Eclipse (2021)

Just when you thought you saw enough eclipse pictures I have to post mine.  A bit late as I had to work right after capturing and no time to process earlier - although there was not that much to do.  If anything I had to tone down the colors as it really looked like this.  Two of my image have sea birds flying by. The images were taken with my Canon T3i/600d modified camera with my Orion ED80 f/7.5 refractor mounted on an Explore Scientific Twilight Mount.  Location: Birdseye Boat Launch, Stratford CT.