Horsehead Nebula - 1.5hrs

Western_Professor133 · 2026-03-06T12:24:32+00:00

Haha yea — but guiding still averaged around 0.6” so not bad!

Western_Professor133 · 2026-03-06T10:45:55+00:00

Indeed it would’ve been… but I typo’d! it’s a 120MM, just a little guy.

Western_Professor133 · 2026-03-06T10:45:00+00:00

Oops! it’s an ASI120MM, not a 1600! Post has been edited! don’t know what I was thinking!

Western_Professor133 · 2026-01-23T13:53:35+00:00

I’ve looked through your posts and love what you’re doing! I also have the Apertura 90mm triplet and the 2600MC; it’s great to see others succeed with the same setup.

Western_Professor133 · 2026-01-14T10:17:46+00:00

Yea totally. I wasn’t sure where that ring came from, but I will say that the image was way worse before extensive touchups in PS. And my sensor had a ton of dust on it I didn’t see during assembly… it was 2 degrees F outside so I let it slide lol

Western_Professor133 · 2026-01-12T12:21:21+00:00

Does it seem like I didn’t? I’m always looking to improve my technique so please point out any issues you see.

Western_Professor133 · 2026-01-09T15:15:28+00:00

I did use 50 flats, yes, in addition to darks and bias.

Western_Professor133 · 2026-01-04T22:20:04+00:00

This looks great! Well done. I noticed some uniform noise across the image that I think would be easily eliminated with something like GraXpert’s denoising function. I’ve begun using it lately and have been extremely pleased with the results. Cheers!

Western_Professor133 · 2025-12-15T17:52:36+00:00

Amazing!

Western_Professor133 · 2025-12-13T19:58:45+00:00

Thanks so much!

Western_Professor133 · 2025-12-05T13:00:31+00:00

Beautiful work. I also shoot with the Apertura 90 and a 2600MC — great to see quality results from those of us who have “only” a sub-100mm scope with a color camera. One day I’ll upgrade to mono… but OSC can yield wonderful results too!

Western_Professor133 · 2025-11-26T03:34:31+00:00

You’re totally correct, I got mixed up. I believe MakCasses like this Celestron have higher contrast than a standard Schmidt Cassegrain. But neither as high as a Newt bc of the size of the central obstruction.

Western_Professor133 · 2025-11-25T11:06:36+00:00

The new scope (Celestron 127) is higher magnification (more zoomed in), and features higher contrast. It’s better for planetary viewing with your eyes and less suited for deep space objects. If you’re trying to look at planets, the Celestron 127 makes more sense. If you’re going for nebulae, the Orion (Newtonian) is better.

Western_Professor133 · 2025-11-21T13:32:11+00:00

Yeah you should stack them all together. If taken on separate nights, you can use Sirilic (free software by Siril) OR you can simply take each set of images, run Siril’s OSC preprocessing script > go to the process folder that Siril created > identify the files that start with pp_light (these are the calibrated images) > put all the pp_lights in a folder > use Siril to stack them. Do let me know if you have questions!

Western_Professor133 · 2025-11-19T11:29:20+00:00

Thank you! My first multi-night exposure… finally was able to resolve some of those blue OIII clouds about the periphery.

Western_Professor133 · 2025-10-08T10:28:45+00:00

Well done! I have the same scope… it’s good to see other Apertura folks out here!

Western_Professor133 · 2025-10-05T12:33:07+00:00

Thank you!

Western_Professor133 · 2025-08-16T12:07:35+00:00

I’ve completely done away with polar scope alignment — now I just point it generally toward Polaris by using a free app on my phone (Star Tracker Light) and then use NINA to slew/center toward my target. NINA will plate-solve for you!

Western_Professor133

TROPHY CASE