A long project with a total exposure time of 22 hours.
Start at the Hoher List Observatory
The project began with a truly great session at the Hoher List Observatory. In the analysis, it is marked as Day 1.
Problems with the Telescope Setup
After two or three sessions and the first photo developments, it became clear that I was facing serious issues with reflections in the telescope. Details can be found here: https://astrocamp.eu/en/internal-reflections-from-hell/
The Second Half of the Project
Sessions 4 to 6 were conducted with a modified photo setup. It turned out that the reflections were caused by two inversion rings, which I was able to remove in the revised setup.
Full resolution on Astrobin:
Session Analysis
The six sessions overall went quite smoothly. My issues were more fundamental. There’s nothing particularly relevant to say about the sessions themselves that isn’t already evident from the analysis data.
Findings
There were also some important insights—at least three, but the most relevant ones are:
- Accessories that may seem insignificant for astrophotography can significantly degrade even a high-end system.
- My Pegasus OAG was not the source of my reflection issues. However, I do need to pull the OAG prism out a bit further, as it caused slight spikes on two very bright stars.
- A dark sky makes a massive difference compared to a Bortle 5 city sky—but I’ll cover that in a separate article.
The annotated astrophoto:
Session Details:
| Telescope | Baader Apo 95 CaF2 – Travel Companion |
| Focal Length | 590mm |
| Erecting Lense | Baader M68 Field Flattener |
| Camera | ToupTek SkyEye62AM |
| Filter | Baader LRGB CMOS Optimized 50.4mm |
| Mount | Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro, Belt and Hypertuned |
| Guiding Equipment | Pegasus Astro Indigo OAG (3 Sessions) |
| Guiding Camera | ToupTek GPM462M |
| Photography Date | 01/31/2025, 02/01/2025, 02/02/2025, 02/16/2025, 02/17/2025, 02/18/2025 |
| Exposure-Time Lights | L 296x180s, R 62x180s, G 47x180s, B 37x180s |
| Correction frames | FLATS, DARKFLATS, DARKS |
| Sensitivity | GAIN 100 |
| Processing Date | 02/23/2025 |
| Software Stack | Stellarmate OS, PixInsight, Affinity Photo |
| Capture Place | Hoher List, Germany / Koblenz, Germany |