Karen’s Pic of M17 Featured on the Journal of the BAA.

It can be easy to underestimate the time, effort and patience that goes into building the skills to produce images like this but Karen shares her insights here.

She writes:

I captured the Omega Nebula over three nights from my back garden in the Midlands. Because it sits quite low on the southern horizon, I could only manage a couple of hours per night before the target drifted behind my neighbours trees.

Using an 8″ Meade LX90 telescope paired with a ZWO ASI2600MC Pro camera, I took a series of 180-second exposures. The system ran on a ZWO AM5N mount, guided by a ZWO OAG and ASI220MM Mini camera, and controlled via the ASIAir. 

After removing frames with clouds or trailing stars, I stacked the remaining 81 sub-exposures and processed the final image in Pixinsight.  

Despite only capturing about four hours of total integration time in a bortle 6 zone, and during the UK summer, the brightness of the nebula still provided an excellent signal. The target was even visible in a single 180-second exposure!

It is definitely worth pursuing these low but bright targets!

Well done Karen! Keep up the good work!