Tracking and Colour Test Beehive Cluster (Messier 44)

The moon was 99.4% bright, but there were no thick clouds, only thin ones, so I decided to test it.

The other day, I was able to track low in the southern sky for two minutes at FL300mm. This time, I tested it near the zenith at FL135mm wide-angle using a full-frame cooled camera for the first time in a while. Since it's highly oversampling, it seems advantageous for tracking tests.

Even without the moon, the backyard sky becomes completely white in 30 seconds with a light pollution filter, so this time I used a 4nm Hyspeed Duo Filter.

Target: Beehive Cluster in Cancer near the zenith.

Tracking: I was able to shoot for 120 seconds with an 80% yield. I noticed that tracking would periodically fluctuate for 4-5 minutes, which may be due to the periodic nature of this Regdoll 17 mount.

Color: Integrated with AstroPixelProcessor, output type set to convert Ha+Oiii to RGB.
Post-processing is a struggle, but for capturing RGB stars in a light-polluted sky, I'd give it about 70 points.
I thought there wouldn't be many stars in this area, but when I raised the level of the dark areas, the stars began to silently appear.
Since this was a test, I used No Crops.

99.4%の明るい月が居座っていたが厚い雲はなく薄雲だけだったのでテストをしてみた。

先日南天の低空をFL300mmで2分間トラッキングできたの、今回は天頂付近をFL135mmで広角で久しぶりにフルフレームの冷却カメラを使ってテストしてみた。超オーバー・サンプリングなのでトラッキングテストには有利かな。

月がなくてもBackyardの空は光害フィルターだと30秒で真っ白になるので、今回は4nmのHyspeed Duo Filterを利用。

Target:天頂付近にあるかに座のBeehive Cluster

Tracking :120秒は80%の歩留で撮影できた。このRegdoll17マウントのピリオディックの特性か定期的にまとめて4−5分Trackingが暴れることがわかった。

Colour:AstroPixelProsessorで出力タイプをHa+OiiiをRGBに変換するモードでインテグレーション。

Post-Prosessingに苦労はするが、光害の空で無理やりRGBの星を撮りたいという利用としては70点くらいかな。

この辺は星が少ない場所かなと思っていたが、暗部のレベルを持ち上げると黙々星が湧いてきた。

今回はテストなのでNo Crropで。

Place: Astropical@Backyard Observatory East Pattaya Thailand (Bortle Class 8, Moon Phase 99.4%)