Need advice on the Western Veil

[jtlandreneau]

Hello all!

I've got about 2 hours worth of subs (~70% at ISO800, the rest at ISO1600, all 4 minute subs) with around 40 darks on the Western Veil, and I'm just starting to see the blue wisps, no reds whatsoever. My question is - is 2 hours enough? if not how much should I expect to have to take? It's in a perfect spot in the sky right now, I can easily spend several nights taking pictures of it if need be. Thanks!

[andrewluck]

For faint objects my personal rule is as much time as I can get with as long sub exposures as I can manage. The more you have, the further you can stretch the image without the noise dominating.

If your camera isn't modified then it will be filtering out a lot of the red Ha from your images & you'll need to go longer to compensate.

8 hours in 10 minute subframes is what I'm generally aiming for as a starter.

Andrew

[Christopher Davenport]

Hello, 

At F5 on 2hrs is enough to see something if you do a stretch, but without a modified camera you will not see much red.

The reality is you need many subs to get the noise down and get the detail into the image.

This image of mine was taken with a 600D non modified at F4.5 at about 2hr30min of subs with only 120s subs.

If you want to get more red into the image a modified camera is needed. One of the reasons I had mine modified.

I don't think any amount of subs will show up the Ha region as it is blocked by the filter. 

Hope this helps you with your thinking.

[carastro]

You should be able to see more than just blue at only 2 hours worth of subs, I suspect your camera is not modified.

this is what I got with 1 1/2 hours of 5 minute subs but with a modified DSLR:

[Christopher Davenport]

@ carastro

My image was taken prior to modification,

I have not tried this object since modification.

So mine is prior and car a is post.

This shows what extra you get on modification.