Thought I could sneak in some Hα before the clouds arrived, and I did. However, as I was setting up I realized I have made a pretty good mistake the last few nights: I had both my coma corrector and my focal reducer installed. It has actually turned out pretty well even though I know this is a poor optical combination, so I stayed with it because it was already on the system. I synched from Procyon and did a PicGoto slew to the Medusa Nebula and started imaging just as it got dark. Imaged up to the meridian, performed a flip and reacquired, but clouds arrived before I could start imaging again. HαRRGB to follow.
Date: 24 Feb 2015
Subject: Sh2-274, Medusa Nebula (planetary)
Scope: Astrotech AT8IN+High Point Scientific Coma Corrector+Antares 0.5x focal reducer (oops!)
Filter: Baader UHC-S
Mount: CG-5 (Synta motors, PicGoto Simplificado)
Guiding: 9x50 Finder/Guider + DSI Ic + PHD 2.4.1 (Win 7 ASCOM)
Camera: DSI IIc no cooling (about 0 °C)
Acquisition: Nebulosity 3.3.2, no dither
Exposure: 15x600 s
Stacking: Neb 3.3.2, bad pixel map, bias included, no flats, extract R, histogram match, deBayer & square, trans+rot align, 1.5 σ combine.
Processing: StarTools 1.3.5.289 Crop; Develop: 80.91%; HDR
ptimize; Deconvolute 3.7 pix; Track 4.2 pix; Magic:Shrink 1 pix; Wipe. Photoshop CC 2014 + Carboni Astronomy Tools Hα false color black space; Astroframe; Assemble animated GIF.
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