Update: 02/02/23: Gotcha!
Last year I started my Quixotic pursuit of Abell 31/SH2-290 with 10 hours of integration time--an amount that seemed enormous at the time. The resulting image (the original posted here) was beautiful--faint and ghostly--and it encouraged me to continue my quest.
So I invested another 10 hours into the project, and and this time I really think I've got it! I was aided not only by determination and brute force integration, but by another year's worth of processing experience, and by new processing tools that helped me reduce noise and tame unruly stars.
It was very gratifying to see this image develop over time (see the comparison below), and I'm very pleased with the final image...And yet, I'm still tempted to add more data next year!
Original Post: 04/08/22:
I knew it would be a challenge to capture Abell 31 (SH2-290) in Bortle 8 skies with a 6-inch SCT, but I was determined to give it a try.
My strategy, if you can call it that, was brute force: overcome the limitations of my environment and my equipment with the sheer power of long integration. But the hours have been hard to come by. The nights are getting shorter, clear nights are as scarce as ever, and the target's path takes it behind my house earlier and earlier each night. So, for now, I'm left with just over 9 hours integration--more than I have invested in any project to date, but not close to what I'll need to complete this one.
This isn't a final product by any means, but it is a pretty good start. Until we meet again, Abell 31...
(Captured: C6, AVX, Hyperstar, ASI183MC Pro, Optolong L-Enhance filter. Processed: Astro Pixel Processor, PixInsight.)
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