Apparently my image of M51 contains the Quasar SDSS J133004.71+472301.0 which is located 11.8 billion light years away. Definitely the most distant object I have captured so far that I am aware of.
2018-12-27 18:00-22:00
Clear, no moon, some wind, 99% humidity, 3 degrees C
M33
Exposures:
43x60s L
(30+30+30)x60s RGB
30x90s Ha
Rotation:180 degrees
First light with new equipment: TS-Optics 8″ f/4 UNC Newtonian with GPU Superflat 2″ Coma Corrector, ZWO OAG, EQMOD and SESTO SENSO robotic focusing motor. Was only going to finetune and test the equipment but the clear weather persisted and I couldn’t resist capturing when looking at the subs. Unfortunately guiding wasn’t perfect due to hard wind (having problems guiding in DEC for some reason).
Camera: ASI1600MM-COOL+ZWO EFWmini, Baader R,G,B,Ha, IDAS LPS-D1, gain 200, offset 50, -20C
Lens: TS-Optics 8″ f/4 UNC Newtonian with GPU Superflat 2″ Coma Corrector
Mount: HEQ5 Pro
QHY 5L-II-M OAG auto guider
Software: Sequence Generator Pro, PixInsight, Photoshop
Location: Borås, Sweden
Below is an overview of my new setup:
2016-07-28 23:30-01:00
Clear, no moon, no wind, 12 degrees C
2016-08-02 00:00-02:00
Low clouds, no moon, no wind, 10 degrees C
2016-10-03 21:00-03:30
Some initial high clouds, some wind, 85% humidity, 5 degrees C
Took some more test luminance frames on 2016-07-28, 2016-08-02 and 2016-10-03 to decide upon gain, offset and exposure time. Added RGB from previous DSLR image of same object, see https://astrophotos.se/?p=600
66x30s+17x60s+9x90s+19x120s+8x180s+26x240s+3x300s exposures with ASI1600MM-COOL and IDAS LPS-D1 filter used for luminance (224.5 minutes total exposure) taken with gain 77, offset 12 and gain 100, offset 17 settings of the camera cooled to -20C. 16x300s+8x240s+9x180s exposures with Canon EOS600Da used for RGB (139 minutes total exposure for RGB)
With gain 77 setting, the 120s exposures seem to be optimal (with some caveat since the sky was not fully dark). With gain 100, offset 17 I could not see any difference in amount and detail of nebulosity and stars when stacking 23 30s exposures compared to 3 240s exposures apart from the 30s stack had less noise and less saturated stars. This suggests that 30s exposures could be used.
2016-07-19 00:00-01:00
Clear, full moon, no wind, 10 degrees C
Taken at full moon and dusk (astronomical night still a couple of weeks away) using just 5 60s unguided LIGHT exposures at -20C, unity gain with my new ASI1600MM-COOL camera
100 DARK
200 BIAS
Filter: IDAS LPS-D1
Lens: Sky-Watcher Esprit 80ED + Sky-Watcher field flattener
Mount: HEQ5 Pro
Skywatcher SynGuider auto guider and Celestron 80mm guide scope
Software: Sequence Generator Pro, PixInsight, Photoshop
