Planetary Nebula NGC6781 - Ghost of the Moon Nebula

 

Planetary Nebula NGC6781 is located in constellation Aquila and about 1500ly away from Earth.

My first attempt to image this Planetary Nebula was on location @ Helios member Guido. But due to lot's of issues this attempt failed completely. The good news is that some of the issues were rootcaused resulting in new way of polar allignment using sharpcap. Yesterday (aug 12, 2022) I was able to use my adjusted set up with an "excellent polarallignment" and a guiding error of 0,75px. This second attempt was succesfull while having a full moon sky.

Stephen James O'Meara's (Herschel 400 Observing Guide p 249) calls this planetary nebula "Ghost of the Moon Nebula".

Setting: TAL200K f/8.5, ASI2600MC and my new guide scope 50x180 with ASI290MM

Exposure: lights 14x300s, darks, bias, flats and darkflats; binning 2x2

Software: SharpCap 4, ASIStudio, N.I.N.A., Astro Pixel Processor, CS4 and DeNoise AI

Jupiter - reworked image

 

My earlier images of Jupiter are reworked. In stead of keeping the best 10% frames during stacking I kept 60%. The GRS is beautifull visible surrounded with lots of details. 

Setting: TAL 200K f/8.5 with ASI224MC
Imaging: ADC and Barlowx2
Software: SharpCap 4, AS3! (best 60% frames), CS4 and DeNoise AI

Saturn - reworked imaged

My earlier images of Saturn are reworked. In stead of keeping the best 10% frames during stacking I kept 60%. As a result more details are visible.

Setting: TAL 200K f/8.5 with ASI224MC
Imaging: ADC and Barlowx2
Software: SharpCap 4, AS3! (best 60% frames), CS4 and DeNoise AI

Jupiter and Saturn with ASI224MC

Jupiter and Saturn in the night from Aug 7 to 8th.

Setting: TAL 200K f/8.5 with ASI224MC
Imaging: ADC and Barlowx2

Software: SharpCap 4, AS3! (best 10% frames), CS4 and DeNoise AI

Moon Golden Handle

The best moment of the Golden Handle on the Moon just passed ... Picture taken with TAL200K f/8.5 abd ASI2600MC.

Saturn almost at Opposition

Saturn will be at opposition on Aug 14th. This evening the planet was captured using my TAL200K f/8.5 and ASI224MC.

Setting: TAL200K f/8.5, ASI224MC

Specs:  ADC, Barlow x2  

Software: SharpCap 4, AS3!(20% best frames), CS4 and DeNoise AI

First light with TS Guiding Scope 50x180

In May this year I bought a second hand TS Guiding scope 50x180 @ ATT Essen for my TAL200K f/8.5 replacing the ZWO mini guide scope 30x120. Yesterday I did some testing with following set up:

TAL200K f/8.5 with ASI2600MC

Guide Scope 50x180 with ASI290MM

Setting: binning 2x2 for ASI2600MC; 180s exposure time

Imaging Software : N.I.N.A and PHD2

Picture edited using CS4.

Results : 

Guide scope gives good field of view and sharp stars which makes it easy to select stars. No issue with calibration and guiding assistance used for guiding settings; adjustment time 1,5-3s and set to 1,5s.

ASI2600MC set to 2x2 binning; start are bright and circular. 

I did have some issues with guiding itself and not sure what the rootcause was. I made 11 pictures of which 4 without "startrails".

Learnings:

N.I.N.A. image settings to be changed to FITS in stead if TIFF. It would be good to have more PHD2 profiles as I have multiple guide scopes. Next I will be testing "multiple stars" guiding.