All Night - One Object
January 20th was the last opportunity for clear dark sky before future weeks of clouds and brightening moonlight. All neighboring glaring floodlights were miraculously turned off this night! This was a good time to attempt a long exposure on just one object. I pointed Seestar at IC443, the Jellyfish Nebula, in Gemini which was above the northeastern horizon. I hoped to follow the Jellyfish for as long as possible as it crossed the sky from east to west.
Seestar was plugged into external power so the internal battery wouldn't run out during the exposure. Eventually, I shut Seestar down after roughly seven hours when the Jellyfish was beginning to set behind a neighbor's house. About 64 percent of the 7-hour operating time produced 4.5 hours of frames suitable for stacking. The resulting 4.5-hour effective exposure of IC443 is the longest exposure I've ever achieved up to this point. Mosaic mode and light pollution filter were engaged to produce the following image.
The Jellyfish Nebula is a supernova remnant about 5,000 light years away within our own galaxy. The explosion happened approximately 33,000 years ago. The bright circular arc on the left is a blast wave interacting with relatively dense material. The bright star above the nebula is the foreground star Propus about 380 light years away in Gemini. Its yellowish color is washed out by overexposure.
After 19 subsequent days of clouds, moonlight, freezing temperature, and strong winds, a suitable imaging night finally arrived on February 8th. I attempted a long exposure on NGC2174, The Monkey Head Nebula, in Orion. Although Seestar worked for about 4.5 hours with light pollution filter engaged, it only produced a disappointing 80 minutes of usable subframes for stacking. So, only about 30 percent of Seestar's operating time actually produced the next image.
The monkey's "chin" is the lower left nebula portion. The monkey's "eye" is the V-shaped indentation above the "chin". (At least that's how I see a monkey head.) The red color is from glowing hydrogen gas excited by stars in the center. An interesting detail is the tiny red nebula centered on a star left of the "chin".
New Moon was approaching on February 13th. This would perhaps be the last cloudless dark night for another month, so Seestar was put to work again. I wanted to see LBN863, Lower's Nebula, in Orion - a nebula off the beaten path I'd never heard of before. With light pollution filter engaged Seestar took images for 5.5 hours. Only about 40 percent of these images were useful for stacking, however. The resulting 130-minute effective exposure is shown next.
While Seestar's aperture was open to the sky for 5.5 hours several neighbor lights were turned on and off. This caused a few blue streaks across the background sky. I removed these streaks, but in doing so, the red nebula color might have been slightly changed.
Another 24 days with clouds and bright moonlight elapsed before clear sky returned on March 9th. My target this night was the Leo Triple - galaxies M65, M66, and NGC3628 in the constellation Leo. I hoped to follow this group across the sky from east to west as long as possible, perhaps for as long as 8 hours. Seestar was plugged into external power, so battery capacity was no problem. Sky conditions were a problem, however. At my observing location it's hard to get 8 consecutive hours of clear dark sky. After about one hour scattered clouds moved in from the east. Fortunately, they soon dissipated. Then haziness gradually increased throughout the night. By 3:30am haze thickened so much that I ended the imaging run after Seestar had taken images for seven hours. Only about 61 percent of these images were suitable for stacking. The final result was an unfiltered 4.25-hour exposure using mosaic mode shown next. This exposure is the second longest I've been able to achieve.
In the image above, edge-on galaxy NGC3628 with dark bisecting dust lane is on the left. Detail can be seen in the inner portions of galaxy M66 on bottom right. Galaxy M65 on the upper right has a subtle dark dust lane. (Click on the image to view best detail.) All these details show much more clearly than in a previous 20-minute exposure taken two years ago. Details would be even better if the blasted clouds and haziness hadn't been present!
It's probable that mounting Seestar equatorially would decrease the number of rejected subframes. Then a higher percentage of operating time would yield suitable frames for stacking. Unfortunately, equatorial mounting introduces another complication level that reduces Seestar's quick convenient use.
