Now we’re getting somewhere

Backing up and re-focusing on some basics has paid off. I’m quite pleased with this first result on M27. This is 4 hours of data over about 2 weeks, 1 hour each of LRGB, with RGB binned 2×2. QSI 583 camera on an AT8RC, autoguided with a Lodestar, on a G11.

What I did differently to make this result better than previous ones:

• Better autoguider and more attention to guider settings.
• One colour per session, taking time and not rushing.
• Focused for each filter.
• Flats for each filter, immediately after the data gathering, so filters and flat frames are certain to be exactly aligned.
• Normalized & stacked with CCDStack, basic processing in Maxim, more processing in Photoshop.

The problem is, this is quite addictive. Now I want more data — several more hours of each, and I can see never being satisfied. More data to follow when the clouds leave.