Are you imaging objects low in the sky? - Forums

Topic starter

Jul 4, 2022

Currently in the northern hemisphere we can experience the very nice Antares region. However in my area Antares doesn't rise above 15 degrees. What is your approach to good looking DSOs low in the sky? Do you just skip them or are you imaging them anyway through a lot of atmosphere and just accept that the result will not be optimal? If so, how low do you go?

Thank you for your advice and clear skies
Wolfgang

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normmalin

Jul 4, 2022

I just finished working on Rho Ophiuchi from 42 degrees North Latitude -- so Antares gets to 21 degrees elevation during it's limited exposure. I'm imaging regardless and to make matters worse, I live about 30 miles north of Detroit and look south when I am imaging this target. Nonetheless, if you look long enough, you can get something. So I would say go for it! Here is the result from 5.5 hours of collection with a DSLR over 2 nights .

https://www.astrobin.com/iwwpjq/

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Michael Ring

Jul 4, 2022

I just did Lagoon Nebula, looks like I am a little more south than you, for me Antares goes up to 20°.

When you find targets that you like and that look good in SHO then you have an advantage because low horizon means high light polution and the Narrowband filters help a lot.

Short exposures will help and a bit of Integration time, for Lagoon I collected (so far) arround 1.5 hours each channel @F2.2 which should roughly mean 5 hours at F5 and the results look quite OK, not one of my sharpest pics but also faint nebulosity does show.

I also did a little bit of Rho Ophiuchi in RGB but there my exposures were not short enough to fight the Sky so I will come back later with faster subs or skip the target at all (which would be a shame)

Michael

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Sean van Drogen

Jul 4, 2022

Some targets you just want so bad you will do whatever it takes to get it even if the result might be suboptimal compared to picking a target that is way up in the sky. I image from 52N and have horizon around me at most places of at least 10degrees (nice living in a big city) Just finished my M16 which does not come above 24 for me so have only about 14 degrees to work with meaning i will need lots of nights and darkness is in short supply to begin with

andrea tasselli

Frequent contributor

Jul 4, 2022

Currently in the northern hemisphere we can experience the very nice Antares region. However in my area Antares doesn't rise above 15 degrees. What is your approach to good looking DSOs low in the sky? Do you just skip them or are you imaging them anyway through a lot of atmosphere and just accept that the result will not be optimal? If so, how low do you go?

Thank you for your advice and clear skies
Wolfgang

As a rule I don't image anything below 15 degrees of altitude so forget abut Antares. You want Antares (Anti Ares) you go south. I live 53.2 deg N.

Bob Rucker

Jul 4, 2022

As a general rule, I don't like to image objects that low in the sky. I did make an exception and decided to image the IC 4603 region of Rho Ophiuchi while imaging at a dark sky site. It was below 20 deg when I started and reached a max of 21 deg. I was surprised at the result and would definitely consider imaging low targets if I am at a dark sky site. From my backyard I tend to wait until a target is at least 30 deg to minimize gradients from neighborhood lights.

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Taras Prystavski

Jul 4, 2022

For scientific purposes - yes! This gives a unique opportunity and advantage to observe low-elongation objects, located in some inaccessible regions for many of observatories and surveys.
For good astrophotography - no. Images are of poor quality in this case (I think, it's clear why). So, it's better to wait some time to get object on higher altitude (if it's possible, of course).

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