M 20 from a Stellina Telescope – First-Night Experiences
Location: SW New Mexico
Conditions: A fairly clear night during monsoon season
Total exposure: 172 x 10 sec = 26 minutes
Image Width: 1 deg
After collecting the data on M 20, Karen and I still had a little adrenalin high from the first image of the night (
https://astrob.in/d3pdrb/G/); we started into this one. Again, it was really too low in the sky for a good image, but the sky was steady, and we gave it a try. To the right (Image ‘B’) is what the tablet screen showed after 20 minutes of exposure. At that point, the scope warned that it wanted to refocus, and we almost quit. But the focus was quickly completed, and we continued for another 10.5 minutes. That 10.5-minute screen is in image ‘C’ to the right.
Culling the data of trails and some of the lower-quality subs left 26 minutes of exposures that, with processing in PixInsight, Topaz, and Aurora AI, yielded the above image. I’m not completely happy with my processing—saturated some of the stars—but we will collect more data if/when the skies clear again.
We certainly enjoyed working with the Vaonis Stellina and welcome comments and questions.
Alex & Karen
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