This is the last mono version I will do with this data - This is 27x1800s in Ha on the Crescent nebula. The nebulosity around the main target has come out well and the crescent looks nice and detailed. 

I may well continue to get some more data on this in Ha - But will be looking at making a start on the OIII soon to make a bi colour image.

This is where I am at so far with NGC4565. This is 16x1800s so far of luminance data. It's not coming up too badly for sure, but I do want a lot more luminance data to really get those dust lanes popping.

I've just checked out my last galaxy image and there was 54x1800s of luminance in M101. I'm not sure I'll get that far, but  I will get more than I have here.

Keep an eye out and see how this develops.

This is the scanned page from the magazine, so not great quality. You can see the original high res version by clicking here.

​Many thanks to Astronomy Now magazine for publishing it 

I continue to be VERY impressed with the Mesu 200 mount and despite having wondered if perhaps I should have got a mount where guiding was not needed... This guide graph shows that when a mount guides this well, then there's no problem at all with having to guide.

The ODK10 is on the mount at 1700mm. The guiding resolution at 0.26" per pixel is a great achievement. The Mesu has blended into the background now. I don't give the mount a second thought when imaging as I know it points where it should and does all that I need. I don't monitor it and just let it do what it should.

Would I recommend this mount to anyone? You bet I would. It works exceptionally well, has a great payload for imaging at 50kgs and is very good value for money when compared to the competition.

Here's a comparison between 7 subs and 23 subs. The images are not identically processed, but processed sufficiently as I always do to display on the blog. What this is showing nicely is that you really can push the processing more and there is far more detail showing through in the Crescent area itself.

The nebulosity around the Crescent is also looking much better with more data. This is as I would expect, but it's always interesting to show it with a side by side image.

I will continue to get more Ha data on this and then concentrate on the OIII. I am pleased as well to see that the calibration is finally working well as there's been some problems of late that have involved a software change. The calibration routine in the software I was using just wouldn't calibrate properly, no matter what I did.

I know that it seems that I am always starting something new, but there's method in my madness..... honest!

As you can see there's some fantastic nebulosity already showing in the area around the crescent. This is taken with the Mesu 200 mount, ODK10 and QSI683 with a 3nm Ha Astrodon filter.

While I would love to continue with the Ghost and the Needle galaxy, as they are LRGB targets and the moon is about, then I need to go to narrowband. This is the Crescent nebula that I've always wanted to attack with a longer focal length. This is the start of a longer term Ha and OIII project which I am really looking forward to. 

This is only 7x1800s at the moment, so very noisy and much more data needed.

Very much still in it's early stages...... this is a total of 7.5 hours of data on a very faint target..... When there's this little data it really needs to be pushed to show up.

2.5 hours of data - Masses more required....not enough to even remove the satellite trail that you can see going across the frame!

I can see both of these carrying over to next year. I think if I can get all the luminance this year, then the colour can wait for a while!!