Experience and recording M42 “Widefield” and IC 1805/1848 with Askar FMA300 PRO and Omegon VeTec 571c

Hello Mr. Kloß,

Enclosed are the images and acquisition data. The image processing definitely needs improvement. I only started working intensively with PixInSight three months ago.

On Monday, February 20, 2023, after various problems, I only had 117 minutes left to expose for M42. Unfortunately, I had to discard many images because the trees in our garden gradually moved more and more into the sky. However, I didn't notice this during the acquisition because I was tidying up my workshop. I was then able to use 84 minutes for the stack. The stack was created without darks because I didn't have them available. I processed the data at a friend's house because he has the BlurXterminator from RC Astro. I wanted to try it out. However, I forgot to bring my master dark. So there's definitely room for improvement. The image was heavily cropped (about 40% is missing) because it had a strong gradient (a neighbor's advertising sign).

Here are the image data for M42:

Location: Adelsdorf Long. 10° 52' 48" / Lat. 49° 42' 30" 265m
Field: RA: 5h 35m 14.4s DEC: -05° 17' 32.8"
Time of recording: February 20, 2023, 9:08 PM - 11:07 PM
Images: 39 x 180-second RGB (OSC)
Camera: Omegon VeTec 571c (bin1)
Telescope: Askar FRA 300, focal length 299mm
Mount: Celestron AVX
Guiding: PHD 2 with Altair 290m/SVBony 165 (130mm)
Calibration: 27 flats, 27 flat darks
Processing: PixInSight, Affinity Photo

At IC1805/1848, despite poor image quality, I had Given the reported conditions, I was able to expose for 5 hours in narrowband (Optolong L-Extreme). I was able to use 93 of these images for the stack. Unfortunately, the fog from around 10 p.m. onwards slightly reduced the signal-to-noise ratio. Nevertheless, details are still visible in the last images taken after 2 a.m. I didn't drizzle the images; I'll do that again next time. I'll also follow Christian Vulpescu's tip and increase the gain for narrowband (I used a very low offset of 100 and a gain of 139). The image was only marginally cropped during processing. All in all, a nice introduction to the new telescope, even if it probably won't be used much at first. Focal length will probably be the key in the coming weeks.

Image data IC 1805/1848:

Location: Großenseebach
Crop: RA: 2h 42m 54s DEC: 61° 02' 55"
Time of recording: February 21/22, 2023, 9:12 PM - 2:21 AM
Images: 100x 180-second narrowband with Optolong L-Extreme (OSC)
Camera: Omegon VeTec 571c (bin1)
Telescope: Askar FRA 300, focal length 299mm
Mount: Skywatcher EQ6R Pro
Guiding: PHD 2 with Altair 290m/SVBony 165 (130mm)
Calibration: 30 flats, 30 flat darks, 1 master dark
Processing: PixInSight

Greetings from Adelsdorf
Jürgen G.

Link to the Askar FRA300 Pro:

https://www.teleskop-spezialisten.de/shop/Teleskope/ED-APO/bis-80mm/ASKAR-FRA300-Pro-60mm-f/5-Quintuplet-Flatfield-APO-Astrograph-Refraktor::5714.html

Link to the Omegon VeTec 571c camera:

https://www.teleskop-spezialisten.de/shop/Astrofotografie/Omegon-Astrokameras/Omegon-Kamera-veTEC-571-C-Color::5055.html