Sketching in Orion (Tom Gray)

Sketching in Orion

Revision title: Samyang 135mm f2 - LPro and UVIR - Total integration 111m

At last a short break in the poor weather and my first image for 2024, using my newly acquired Samyang 135 mm lens. This quick sketch in Orion shows just how capable this inexpensive camera lens is at sucking in photons at f2. I would never have believed I could achieve this much depth and saturation in just 16.5 minutes.

Mounted to my Altair 183C camera with a T2 backplate, 10mm spacer, and Altair filter drawer, these short 10s and 30s exposures required no guiding on my Star Adventurer mount. Good focus was achieved manually with the aid of a Bahtinov mask.

I have probably spent 10x the integration, processing the data - primarily in Siril, with a little HDR reduction in Startools v9 and final star and noise reduction in Nebulosity v4. My final version shows a more familiar view of these classic targets, albeit nicely framed in a 6 degree field of view.

Revision A - 10s exposures, Rev B plus 30s exposures, Rev D rotated, and Rev E… a closer look at the tilt from the first 10s exposure. My tilt/spacing problem remains, and warrants further investigation. I refuse to be controlled by the numbers, but I can do better than this. In all other ways I am delighted with this lens, and look forward to exploring many familiar and new star fields with it. Imaging at f2 is demanding, but the return is amazing.

B

Title: plus 13x30s exposures - Total 16.5 minutes!

Uploaded: ...

C

Title: Downside up

Description: As revision B with some gentle star and noise reduction in Nebulosity v4

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D

Title: Tilt!

Description: Tilt calculated using Han Klein's ASTAP Image Inspector

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E

Title: Deep Sky Detail - Astrosharp and Astroclean AI tools

Description: Processed with free AI tools https://github.com/deepskydetail/AstroSharp

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F

Title: Samyang 135mm f2 - LPro and UVIR - Total integration 111m

Description: 1.75 hours data (10s, 30s and 180s exposures) captured using L-Pro filter on 30 January, added to previous data (22m) using UV/IR filter. Wide open at f2 the stars using L-Pro (and L-eNhance) have obvious and unsightly halos. For this image I combined the data, processed starless version, including HDR reduction in Startools to reveal more of the core of M42), then recombined with stars using UV/IR filter only. These are far from perfect, but much better. Final processing using Deep Sky Details Astrosharp and Astroclean (denoise) tools.

Uploaded: ...

Altair Astro 183 M/C Hypercams
UK Astro-Imaging
Camera Lens Astrophotography
Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer

	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	9143275
PixInsight job	BKYTV394KHFUCUESZ2GDRWP9MZUNAL92
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	05h38m22s.17
RA (top/left)	05h30m55s.37
RA (top/right)	05h31m37s.75
RA (bottom/right)	05h45m51s.76
RA (bottom/left)	05h45m03s.73

Dec (center)	-03°37′01″.9
Dec (top/left)	-01°00′32″.7
Dec (top/right)	-06°20′39″.4
Dec (bottom/right)	-06°13′25″.3
Dec (bottom/left)	-00°53′11″.4

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