The Silver Sliver Galaxy (NGC 891). This galaxy is about 30 million light years away in the constellation Andromeda. It's an unbarred spiral galaxy, and would look very similar to our own galaxy, The Milky Way, if we could view our own galaxy edge-on from a distance.
It's sometimes called the "Outer Limits Galaxy" because it was the first of several galaxies rolled during the closing credits of the original Outer Limits television series.
It was discovered by
William Herschel (who made all sorts of discoveries) on October 6, 1784.
Silver Sliver Galaxy (NGC 891)
Integration:
Astronomik Hα: 231×90sec = 5.78 hours
Optolong L-Pro: 641×60sec = 10.68 hours
Astronomik R: 109×60sec = 1.82 hours
Astronomik G: 109×60sec = 1.82 hours
Astromomik B: 110×60sec = 1.83 hours
Total integration time: 21.93 hours
Bortle Class 7 skies
Equipment:
Meade 10" LX200-ACF on an equatorial wedge
Optec Lepus 0.62 focal reducer
filters (see above)
ZWO ASI1600MM-COOL monochrome camera
Software:
Nighttime Imaging 'N Astronomy (N.I.N.A.)
PHD2 guiding (goes without saying)
PixInsight
Topaz Labs Denoise AI
Success in astrophotography is the sum of all problems encountered, all problems identified, and any solutions that happen to be found. Even if a problem doesn't have a solution, I still consider it a success because it might point to a solution later on down the road. That, and because thinking about it any other way is maddening. There are always so, so many problems when attempting astrophotography that if you don't embrace the problems themselves you are doomed to lunacy and despair.
Mid-way through this project I found a solution/workaround to a problem that has been haunting me for months (triple success!). As anybody following my posts will know, I have been battling guiding and tracking errors (success!). I thought it was probably my old LX200 mount. It turns out it wasn't: it was N.I.N.A. stomping all over PHD2's pulse guiding commands.
I now have experimental proof of this. I'm not sure if the root cause is with N.I.N.A., PHD2, or my ASCOM driver, but whatever the case, it seems that when N.I.N.A., polls the mount asking "are you still here? And btw., what's the current Altitude, Azimuth, Right Ascension, and Declination?" it stomps on PHD2's guiding commands, making many of those pulse commands useless. (Success!)
The workaround (success!) is after the target is all centered and framed up nicely, is to disconnect the mount from N.I.N.A., and then start guiding with PHD2 such that PHD2 is the only thing connected directly to the mount. N.I.N.A., can still be connected to PHD2, the focuser, filterwheel, and whatnot; but just not the mount. Then start the imaging sequence.
Using this workaround means that I have to give up slewing to new targets automatically in the middle of a session, but that's OK, because I usually stick to a single target for several days anyway. I can still do all the plate solving and stuff before the sequence starts (just not mid-sequence). Dithering is not affected, since N.I.N.A. doesn't need to be connected to the mount in order to dither; it just needs to be connected to PHD2. Also, PHD2 keeps track of the mount's declination automatically, so N.I.N.A. not being connected to the mount does not adversely affect guiding.
Discovering this workaround was a big deal to me. (Success!) Before, my guiding/tracking errors, while usually tolerable, would sometimes veer off into ±4-5 ARCSEC peak, every few minutes for no apparent reason. But then when I disconnected N.I.N.A. from the mount before starting the sequence, "High-Ho Silver," the guiding is almost always within around ±1 ARCSEC peak, with an RMS error of only around 0.5 ARCSEC.
It's as if Andromeda and the Lone Ranger had some sort of evil lovechild that gobbled up the guiding errors. All praise the Andromeda & Lone Ranger demon spawn!
My silver-haired compatriots will recognize the Lone Ranger as the fictional masked hero of the American old-west, who, together with his horse "Silver," would defeat the villains, save the day, and leave a silver bullet as his calling card. The Lone Ranger harkens back to fictional time where even the bad guys wore masks.
So in summary, the Silver Sliver Galaxy was a very successful project. And to boot, while imaging this galaxy, not a single werewolf attacked for some reason (not necessarily a success!).
