This is not a very good effort even compared to some of my previous images of this object, but it does represent my first attempt at using the Orion Thin Off-axis Guider, which does some amazing things. Most amazing to me was the complete elimination of differential flexure, which has plagued me forever. The image doesn’t move around, to the extent that hot pixels that would normally have been eliminated by my “auto dither” due to flexure are not removed. So this was mainly an attempt to get the TOAG working and to simultaneously focus both the guider and the imager. All of that worked, even if the image itself leaves a lot to be desired. Conditions for this image were not great. The wind was blowing and there were occasional clouds. I used the wrong filter for this target. The focus went soft during the run. I could have stretched more aggressively but the background noise was pretty bad. Hopefully I’ll get better with experience and better conditions.

Date: 26 Oct 2016

Subject: NGC 7331, Deer Lick Galaxy

Scope: AT8IN +High Point Scientific Coma Corrector

Filter: Baader Planetarium UHC-S

Mount: EQ-6 (EQMOD)+PEC

Guiding: Orion TOAG +DSI Ic+PHD 2.6.2.4 (Win 10 ASCOM)

Camera: DSI IIc, no chiller CCD ~15 °C

Acquisition: Sequence Generator Pro 2.5.2.4 with Nebulosity 4.1.1 ASCOM camera driver (Win 10)

Exposure: 28x600 s (RGB)

Stacking: Neb 4.1.1, bad pixel map, bias included, 33 flats, match histograms, trans+rot align, Deep Sky Stacker Kappa-sigma (κ=1.5) stack.

Processing: StarTools 1.4.316: Crop; Wipe; Develop: 77.33%; HDRptimize; Color:Scientific, 148% saturation, red bias reduce 1.28; Deconvolute: 2.2 pix; Life:moderate; Track: Smoothness 87%, 4.5 pix; Magic, shrink 2 pix. Photoshop CS6 + Astronomy Tools: Deep space noise reduction; several iterations of levels and curves; layer masked levels to darken background; layer masked unsharp mask on dust lanes; Astroframe.