M 27 from a Stellina Telescope – First-Light Experiences

Location: SW New Mexico

Conditions: A fairly clear night during monsoon season

Total exposure: 245 x 10 sec = 41 minutes

Image Width: 1 deg

Setting: This image (presented half resolution) was a first attempt at a DSO under reasonable sky conditions with our new Stellina telescope. We shot about 45’ worth (277 x 10” subs), and blinking revealed only one poor subframe, which had a dark band across part of it. Others were discarded for having trails or low-end quality, as indicated by Subframe Weight Tool. I was ruthless in discarding images. The remaining subs were processed in PixInsight with only a master dark frame made just preceding the capture run. Topaz and Luminar AI also participated in subsequent processing tasks.

Observations: The image output from PixInsight had more noise than hoped, but then, it was only 41’ of exposure time! Topaz Denoise AI vanquished the nose quite acceptable. Still, the faint halo in the distal parts of the nebula needed additional exposure time—at least 2x—as did the core of the nebula. My Bad, not Stellina’s!

True enough, the Stellina scope’s software has room for improvements such as flexibility of exposure times and facilitating capture of dark frames. But the software is a work-in-progress with new releases already planned. In any case, it easily qualifies as functional and straightforward already.

This imaging session was the most effortless DSO capture I’ve ever achieved—by a factor of 100! The large number of subs to process in PixInsight went slower than I’d have liked but still completed well within the tolerable range and went off without a glitch.

The processed image’s quality far exceeded my expectations, and I certainly see where additional capture time will have value-added. We are exceedingly happy with our new Stellina!

If you have questions or comments, please speak up!

Alex & Karen