M16 Eagle Nebula and the Pillars of Creation

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menardre
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M16 Eagle Nebula and the Pillars of Creation

Unread post by menardre »

M16 is very low in the South, just barely above the trees in my backyard. I only have about a 2 week period where it is visible at my site. I imaged M16 about a year ago but was not entirely satisfied with the result. So two nights ago I decided to give it another try. The night was challenging. There were high clouds on/off throughout the night. I started imaging about 9:30PM and concluded about 2AM when M16 dipped below the trees. I did have to keep an eye on the process (autoguiding, etc) throughout the night since clouds occasionally disrupted the autoguiding.

I took 120 images of 2 minutes with my 90mm refractor and ZWO ASI2600. I wanted to not only image M16 but the nebula to the far bottom/left.

Processing with Pixinsight I could see many frames with some clouds. I decided to keep all of the frames and process them.

Attached are two images. One is full frame and the other is a cropped version which focuses on M16 and the Pillars of Creation. The full frame shows all of M16 and the nebula below M16. The other nebula did not show up as well as I hoped.

Roger
M16 Master_ABE_ExDN_PCC_ArcSInH-RSmask_HTbg_Curves_MLTsharp_EzSR._HDR_Curves.jpg
M16 Master_ABE_ExDN_PCC_ArcSInH-RSmask_HTbg_Curves_MLTsharp_EzSR._HDR_Curves.jpg (12.6 MiB) Viewed 418 times
M16 Master_ABE_ExDN_PCC_ArcSInH-RSmask_HTbg_Curves_MLTsharp_EzSR._HDR_Curves._DC.jpg
M16 Master_ABE_ExDN_PCC_ArcSInH-RSmask_HTbg_Curves_MLTsharp_EzSR._HDR_Curves._DC.jpg (2.63 MiB) Viewed 418 times
Roger M.
Celestron CPC1100 EDGE, Stellarvue 130T refractor dual mounted on iOptron CEM120 on permanent pier mounted in Observatory. Imaging camera ZWO ASI2600 OSC, guide camera Lodestar or ZWO ASI290MM.
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Pete
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Re: M16 Eagle Nebula and the Pillars of Creation

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Excellent results Rog. I was setup and ready to go but gave it up due to the intermittent high cloud.
Pete P.
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menardre
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Re: M16 Eagle Nebula and the Pillars of Creation

Unread post by menardre »

Pete

Thanks... I almost gave up. Decided to persevere. I did not know how the intermittent clouds would impact the images. I like said, several images had areas that were covered with clouds. Processing with Pixinsight did a good job of integrating all of the subs and produced a master that was better than I expected.

I take this as another learning opportunity.

Roger
Roger M.
Celestron CPC1100 EDGE, Stellarvue 130T refractor dual mounted on iOptron CEM120 on permanent pier mounted in Observatory. Imaging camera ZWO ASI2600 OSC, guide camera Lodestar or ZWO ASI290MM.
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Pete
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Re: M16 Eagle Nebula and the Pillars of Creation

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Sometimes imaging comes down to a risk vs. reward kind of situation. Should I setup tonight when clouds haven't cleared as per forecast? And the big factor is the time & effort associated with the setup. If setup takes little time, as with stepping outside with a binocular, risk is minimal. If setup involves going to an observing site and then setting up and aligning equipment one tends to be a bit more conservative.

My own time frame (estimated): Checking forecasts during the day (4 minutes) / Picking a target during the day (5 minutes) / Opening the dome, uncovering the scope, plugging in the laptop, turning scope & laptop &desktop on and then setting the scope time hack (5 minutes) / Running an alignment check on a single star (2 min) / focusing (3 minutes)

That's a 19 minute investment before even slewing onto the target.

I've got the time and being out in the dome and mussing around is a bit of a reward all by itself. And that weighs into the equation.

In actuality I'm usually out 1/2 hour to an hour before its dark enough to start imaging. Another 15 minutes to 1/2 hour can be spent running a quick flat field and associated dark flat, centering target, double checking focus and initiating PHD2 guiding.

One would think that with a dome it would be possible to be running in 5 minutes but it ain't so.
Pete P.
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menardre
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Re: M16 Eagle Nebula and the Pillars of Creation

Unread post by menardre »

Pete

I 100% agree with your assessment. With my roll-off roof about the best I can do is 15 minutes. That includes:
Turn-on power to scope.
Zero position the scope and then rotate to be out of the way of the roof.
Using the winch, roll off the roof.
Turn on computer.
Do a quick 1 star alignment.
On the computer run the mount software, the rotator software and PHD2.
Sometimes I do a PHD2 calibration. If the equipment has not changed I might skip this step.
Run SPG4 and select the proper profile and directory.
Using SGP4 use the Frame and Mosaic tool to select the object and adjust the framing.
Add events to SGP4 ..select exposure time, binning, number of frames, etc
Do a test of focus. If nothing has changed from previous nights I then just execute the sequence and let SGP do autofocus perform the platesolve, restart PHD2. At this point SGP4 takes over and automatically manages all imaging, focusing, platesolving, meridian flips, etc.

I then go to my home office and do a 'remote' to my observatory so I can track progress and make changes if necessary. I keep an eye on it for a while (during TV commercials), then go to bed.
Roger M.
Celestron CPC1100 EDGE, Stellarvue 130T refractor dual mounted on iOptron CEM120 on permanent pier mounted in Observatory. Imaging camera ZWO ASI2600 OSC, guide camera Lodestar or ZWO ASI290MM.
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