QuantumRelief

IC434 (4K).tifIC434 (4K).tifHello Everyone, a newbie here. This is my entry and my first "proper" Astro photograph. I live in a Bortle 7 (Cadiz in S.Spain) and have tried the Horsehead nebula over the past year without success using a modded Canon 6D (with Ha filter) then a Atik414ex, but with horrible sky pollution here, its always a barely recognisable mess. The scope is an eBay special, a Meade 6" Schmidt/Newt 762mm and mount is again a second-hand Skywatcher EQ5. Was almost about to give up after seeing the uTube successes from AstroBiscuit and AstroBackyard, but rather than give up I decided to bite the bullet and got a mono ASI2600mm and H-a 3nm filter. Taken from the balcony of my flat. 40x Subs at 180s at Gain120. Lesson learned! No star reduction or any other post-processing, just stretching in GIMP. I have aggressively cropped the photo down to 3840x2160 for display on my 4K TV. I hope you like it. Original is available as a downloadable TIFF, the Web image (below) is displayed much too dark, so is losing some of the subtle gas trails, so any suggestions gratefully received on how to present it better. Thanks Steve.