Imaging session - My first effort on the NGC 6888 The Crescent Nebula

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 I am slowly getting to grips with the idiosyncrasies' of the EQM-35-Pro.  Balancing in DEC is straightforward as it moves and rotates easily. Balancing in RA is tricky.  The grease used by Skywatcher is gunky and makes rotation stiff. 

Anyway, here are the acquisition details of my latest effort - NGC 6888 The Crescent Nebula.

equipment: 

Canon 800 D DSLR astro-modded

WO Zenithstar 61ii refractor with field flattener

ASIair mini with ZWO 120mm mini guide cam and RVO 32mm guide scope

Celestron Lithium Pro power bank

EQM-35-Pro

photograph details: 

lights: 60 x 180" at ISO 800

20 each of flats, biases and dark frames

And here are the photos, after post editing in SIRIL, GraXpert and Affinity Photo: 

I never understand how I manage to get a different result on exactly the same data every time I use SIRIL. Baffling! 

and here are two further processed from the originals. If you asked me what I did - I have no idea! 

So, NGC 6888 - around 5000 light years away and discovered by Herschel in the late 1700's.  An emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus, it is formed by fast stellar winds from the Wolf-Rayet star WR 136. 

This stellar wind collides with and energises a slower moving wind ejected by the star when it became a red giant some 400,000 years ago.  The result of this collision is a shell and two shock waves. 

Postscript:

I have done some follow up post editing and here is my final image from this data set: