eshy76

Hi everyone,

As part of the stretch of clear nights we had at the beginning of September, I went for these targets. I couldn't resist trying to capture both these objects in the same field of view, although the capture itself was affected by guiding and focus issues, not to mention the full moon.

In terms of processing, I went for a "natural blend" narrowband colour mix here, though I may try a Hubble palette version of this in due course.

The Lobster Claw Nebula, or Sharpless 157 (Sh2-157), is an emission nebula and, according to some sources, is between 8,000 and 17,000 light-years from Earth between the Cassiopeia and Cepheus constellations. There are several interesting features in the image, not least the Bubble Nebula, NGC 7635, a HII region emission nebula which lies 7,000-11,000 light-years from us and is a shell surrounding, and excited by, the star SAO 20575. Also in the frame are the Wolf-Rayet massive star WR 157, an open cluster of stars, NGC 7510 and the nebula NGC 7538, which is home to the largest yet discovered protostar, 300 times the size of our solar system.

14.2 hours of integration shot over two nights, WOZ73 + CEM25P + ASI1600 + Astrodon filters, 99% moon!

Full details here

Thanks for looking!

Just now, x6gas said:

Very nice.  really dynamic rendition.

Thank you - that is very kind!

6 minutes ago, MartinB said:

Very nicely framed and I too like the colour.  Excellent work.  

Thank you very much...I feel like I've made a breakthrough with the colours in this image vs. my previous Hubble attempts! 

1 minute ago, alan potts said:

Well I think it looks great, the beauty of the Hubble colours is nothing is really wrong at least thats the way I see it. I always feel many over egg the colours too, this for me is just right.

Alan

Thank you! I was very conscious of trying to avoid garishness... 

The Soul nebula is another example of a DSO that was not exactly top of my list to capture, but I'm very glad I did...there are some beautiful features within it.

7 minutes ago, knobby said:

Lovely image, especially the way you've captured the cloud of gas blown from the baby's bottom

I now see this object in a new light...thank you for that!

1 minute ago, alan potts said:

A lovely shot though I do prefer this in normal red, you have done a great job though.

Alan

Thank you - I also generally prefer the more natural red palette, not least due to not having to tweak colours when processing...but I'm trying to force myself to get better at the old Hubble Palette!

Amazing - congratulations! Rho reaching out to the Milky Way disc is one of the best things in the sky in my view. Love it!

Hi everyone!

Captured this data in one night from my back garden. My struggles with the Hubble Palette continue...on this occasion I went for the slight adjustment to hues in PI and then SCNR green approach and then tweaked curves from there....I think I made the colour adjustments too late in the process which put some noise back into the image...but colours are getting there.

6.8 hours of SHO integration, WOZ73 + CEM25P + ASI1600 + Astrodon filters.

Full details here

Thanks for looking!

Hi everyone,

A couple of days after my previous capture of the Western Veil, the skies were clear again, so I had the opportunity to shoot the Eastern Veil and once again opted for bi-colour narrowband.

In a sense, it's the shame the UK weather has been so unpredictable as I could have set up a 2-pane mosaic of the Veil, but doubting how many clear nights we would get in early September, I set up the framing of the Western Veil in a way which made a mosaic impractical...but I've ended up with two nicely framed individual images, so it's all good!

As before, captured in APT, pre-processed in APP and post-processed in PixInsight. 3.9 hours of total integration using a William Optics Z73 on an iOptron CEM25P and captured with a ASI1600 MM Pro + Astrodon filters.

Full details here

Thanks for looking! 

On 12/09/2019 at 10:04, kirkster501 said:

Very nice.  I think I prefer the original FoV.

Thank you very much! Yes that seems to be the consensus view - thanks for the feedback!

12 hours ago, Xplode said:

Very nice and detailed image for such a small scope, colors are also very good.

Thank you very much! The Z73 has proved to be a pretty decent performer, I would agree.

4 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

That really is something else for 5.5 hours.  A real testament to your processing skills.  Stunning.

Thank you! I think what helped is that I shot this on a new moon night...the OIII data was really crisp....and of course Barry’s technique looks like it works for me!

My first attempt at this beautiful part of the sky and was very happy to capture this data in one night. Another first was using Barry Wilson's "starless" processing technique for narrowband images - I hope I did the comprehensiveness of Barry's excellent tutorial justice with my attempt!

I was really gunning for a wider field of this object to capture the rich filaments in and around it. 

5.5 hours of integration using a William Optics Z73 on an iOptron CEM25P and captured with my trusty ASI1600 MM Pro + Astrodon filters. Captured in APT, pre-processed in APP and post-processed in PI.

Full details here

Thank you for looking!

1 hour ago, ollypenrice said:

Good capture, sensitively processed. It's very unusual for me to say this but, for me, you could bring in the black point just a tad more. I don't like an overly dark background sky at all but I think when it's as light as this you take a bit of drama out of the image.

Great stuff in any event.

Olly

Thank you very much Olly! The previous iteration of this image had a darker background, but that also seemed to dim the immediate area around the galaxy too much...so I brought out the black point! I kind of agree with you, so it is probably a case of delicately adjusting the contrast with curves in PI (I'm a PI person).

What I really struggle with is differing brightness levels when processing - it might look good on my laptop or computer screen, but then seem too light/dark when looking again on SGL or Astrobin or on an iPad.

Feedback always appreciated!

5 hours ago, Star101 said:

Very nice capture.

I was imaging this last night with the TS65Q. I would be pleased if mine was only half as nice as this.

Thank you very much! I think integration time has been key for me...spending an extra night or two on the same object seems to make a lot difference

Thank you all for the nice feedback so far! 

I am kind of torn between the crop and the full frame in terms of what I prefer, as you might have guessed...maybe leaning a bit more toward the full frame this morning!

And here is the original field of view with my setup:

Hi everyone!

I've taken advantage of most of the clear nights recently, so after my recent M31, here is M33! 

This is my second capture of this beautiful spiral galaxy - last year's effort was one of my first with my mono camera...hopefully a year on, some improvement has been made in terms of capture skill and processing!

Captured with APT, pre-processed with APP and post-processed with Pixinsight. This is a heavy crop of the original image, which I will look to include in the next post.

6.9 hours total integration time using William Optics Z73 atop a iOptron CEM25P and the ZWO ASI1600 MM Pro camera + Astrodon filters.

Full details here

Thank you for looking!

11 hours ago, daemon said:

That is a stunning image! I'd be more than happy with that. Well done!!

Daemon

Thank you very much Daemon! 

32 minutes ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

Thats a cracking image with lots of detail 🙂

Taken with same camera and scope/ flattener as myself so why can't I get the same detail, maybe I need to try harder 🙂 

Steve

Thanks Steve! I think the integration time was key, although one of the four nights was pretty much a write off with the FWHMs all over the shop for RGB data...APP weighted those subs very lowly...I had to reshoot that data, but I am happy with the outcome.

Overall - I ended up with a LRGBHa split of about 12%/25%/25%/25%/13%, but taking into account the messed up night (which I still fed APP), probably roughly equal useable integration across all filters.

Edit: Oh and LHE in PI editing seemed to bring out more of the dust lanes around the core. I also tried HDRMT, but that seemed to reduce the core to its singularity form...so I binned that!

37 minutes ago, Space Oddities said:

Very nice! I'm particularly impressed by the fact you can see some details in M110, probably some dust lanes as well?

The only criticism (if I may...) would be that I find the final image slightly too warm. Andromeda has a lot of blue in the outer parts, that are less visible with this warmer tint   

Thank you for this - yes I struggled with the colours and also gradients in the background and it is definitely warmer than other M31s I've seen...pushing the blues didn't really get me anywhere, so I settled on this for now. 

I think ultimately this is in Bortle 7-8 in summer and not in the new moon, so I don't know how much is salvageable, especially with my current processing ability!

But thanks for the feedback, much appreciated!

34 minutes ago, tomato said:

Nice one, I love the detail in the dust lanes.

Thank you! I could have made this easier on myself by (a) waiting for autumn and (b) capturing this around the new moon (I think it was average moon phase of 50%), but I like the result!

Hi everyone!

It's been a while, mainly due to the cloudy nights over summer...

My second ever M31 attempt, this time with a cooled CMOS mono camera and filters versus my previous DSLR effort about a year ago.

It's an early M31, I was too impatient to wait for the autumn evenings when this incredible, awe-inspiring object will be highest in the sky and went for it in late summer here in the Northern Hemisphere.

I love this hobby so much and the main limiting factor is my processing skills, but the only way to improve is to keep trying... hopefully I'm on the right track!

Captured using APT, pre-processed using APP and post-processed in Pixinsight.

Thanks for looking!

10.1 hours of integration time over 4 nights in August from my temporary back garden (we've moved house due to renovation work).

Full details here

Hi everyone,

The North America and Pelican nebulae are situated in the Cygnus constellation and are thought to be 1800 light years away. My favourite part of the image is "The Wall", which is the "Mexico" part of the North America nebula and is a source of intense star formation.

The data for this image was collected all on one night and therefore could do with more integration, but I like the result. I've used my go-to "natural blend" narrowband (as originally suggested by Jon Rista on Cloudy Nights):

R = 76%*Ha + 24%*SII
G = OIII
B = 85%*OIII + 15%*Ha

I personally prefer this "natural blend" to the Hubble palette both in terms of look and ease of processing!

4 hours integration time, captured with WO Z73/ZWO ASI1600MM Pro/Astrodon Filters. Full details here.

Thanks for looking!

Hi everyone,

IC 1396 in narrowband shot over 3 nights at the end of June and processed using the SHO palette. Despite the relatively moonless nights, I opted for narrowband capture due to the lack of astronomical darkness in the U.K. in the summer.

The Elephant's Trunk Nebula, or IC 1396A, is a concentration of interstellar gas and dust within the much larger ionized gas region IC 1396 located in the constellation Cepheus about 2,400 light years away from Earth. It, and the whole of IC 1396, is illuminated and ionized by the very bright, massive star, HD 206267, just to the east of IC 1396A.

Captured with the ZWO ASI1600 + Astrodon filters, pre-processed in Astro Pixel Processor and post-processed in Pixinsight. 9.1 hours total integration time.

Full details here.

Thanks for looking!