I just returned today from a new observation site (for me) called Skyview Acres near Goldendale, WA. It is a piece of land owned by a Washington astronomy buff who bought it with the intent of using it to host star parties. I just went for one night (Sunday), however people were there from Thursday through Sunday nights. Sunday, as I had suspected, turned out to be the best night for observing/imaging with almost no wind, no significant dew and very clear, dark skies.
My main objective was to use my new color capability to image M42 in the constellation Orion (The Hunter). Unfortunately, with Orion coming up only after 1am and not getting reasonably high in the sky until about 2:30am, I ended up draining most of my battery life before 2:30am. I felt I was getting some very good images and was on a roll that was hard to stop. I powered down with about 18% battery life remaining, which I thought was enough, however shortly after I started imaging the computer automatically powered down and interrupted the imaging after the exposure with the green filter (leaving the blue not done). It was only a 30 second exposure, but I got a tantalizing taste of what Orion can be like on my camera. Despite my not taking the time to carefully center it, I got lucky and it was very well centered (amazing because it nearly fills the field of view). The red filter exposure is shown here with the contrast range increased to show detail in the outer boundaries (saturating detail in the core). Amazing! I've got to get back to this and this time save my battery power!
Okay, now for those good images I was speaking of... at the top, after M42, is the Pelican nebula followed by a blue version for the red-green color-blind people of the world (like my two brothers). Following this are (likewise paired with blue versions) by the Veil Nebula (East), and then the Bubble Nebula. I used the new Bahtinov focus mask to establish my focus up-front, and I thought it was doing pretty well until I got home and saw the Bubble Nebula image... which seems to be a bit out of focus. I had rechecked the focus later in the night with the Bahtinov (before M42) and it looked good, so I don't really know what went wrong. Pelican and Veil are both pretty good.
I also imaged Pleaides, M78 (also in Orion), and M1 (the Crab Nebula), but those did not seem worth publishing here. Crab doesn't have a lot of color, but has a lot of detail that is worth going back and imaging with longer exposures. Pleaides is just tough because it is so bright. M78 also requires more time than I gave it.
The Skyview Acres site worked out very well and I'm looking forward to possibly going back in October. It is NOT a quiet site. There were two donkeys that brayed intermittently through the night. I can't describe the sound well here but I can say that it would have been a bit spooky if I hadn't known that they were donkeys and if it wasn't at the same time so funny! There were also dogs barking, coyotes yapping and howling, bird sounds, guns being fired in the distance, car noises in the distance, and in the morning a lot of noise with neighbors getting up and tending to chores. There was one bright yard light in the distance but it was very tolerable for people imaging (all three of us there were imaging). There was a lot of wildlife... I mentioned the coyotes, but there were a lot of deer walking through the meadows in both the evening and the morning after. I also saw a flock of six wild turkeys and a bunch of bluebirds (seldom seen here in the west side of the mountains).
Both of the other guys there had pickups towing trailers. I had the back of the Honda Civic to sleep in and no, I didn't get any sleep, despite trying after the computer battery died. I got home on a caffeine tablet and haven't yet gone to bed. I already thinking about how I might be able to get out and take another shot at Orion tomorrow night!
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