This was shot with an Askar FMA180 40mm triplet refractor (the original version not the V2). I am a big fan of this little scope, its good for LRGB imaging but produces especially sharp images for its image scale in SHO. Also F4.5 is fast for a refractor and fast enough for me.I have tried to control the pallet in such a way as to show the three separate channels as three dominant colours within the final processed image as opposed to pushing it towards a duel gold and blue that most seem to favour in SHO.

I am a big believer in three filters = three colours, or why did you bother shooting SII. One of the things I like about this little scope is just how nice and flat the field is to the corners of my ASI1600MM Pro sensor making for an idea portable / grab and go imaging setup. That’s something that is important to me these days as since I moved house and lost the observatory in the process I have not had time to setup my Esprit 100 and heavy AZEQ6 GTI, this rig being much more practical in my current situation, I can pick it up in one hand.

This is also the first completed image that I have shot using my StarAdventurer GTI that I got back in August 2022. The biggest advantage over my previous AZ GTI setup being the ability to dither the mount without causing issues due to excessive backlash. This is ideal for a light weight travel setup and makes for a system that can just consistently produce excellent quality subs all night long without much supervision once properly setup.This image consists of a total integration of 29 hours pretty evenly spread across each of my 5nm Astrodon SHO filters in 300second subs at gain 200 offset 50. Calibrated by Darks, Flats and Dark Flats.

Stars have been removed using Starnet V2 and reintroduced in a HOO pallet to approximate RGB coloration. Care has to be taken with this process as Starnet is given to taking some of the brighter or rounder nebula elements along with the stars and so these have to be reintegrated selectively with each SHO channel to prevent details from being lost. This is especially true of the very small and very round planetary nebula PK119+6.1 that is absent from virtually all images of this target that I have seen recently, most likely as people are inadvertently letting their star removal software of choice cut it away during processing.