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Showing results for tags 'horsehead'.
Found 41 results
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Hi, During the 3 clear nights in a row, I had last week, I could not resist giving the Horsehead Nebula a go, using my Vixen VC200L. Whilst imaging with my Canon 450D via APT, I could not make out the Horse's head whatsoever on my laptop screen, but I knew I was on target, because I could see NGC2023, at the bottom of my screen. Anyway I was pleasantly suprised with this result after processing through APP and tweaking in GIMP. Not the total failure I was expecting. Image Info:- Vixen VC200L Telescope Canon 450D camera unmodified ISO 1600 All I could do before fog ended the night:- x20 120 sec Lights, x20 100 sec Lights, x10 80 sec Lights, x10 40 sec Lights x21 Darks, x40 Bias and x40 Flats Processed in APP Regards, Steve
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Reading a few articles about the HorseHead Nebula and wondered if I could bag it visually. It's a clear night on January 1st and a back garden session chasing my quarry with my 200P Dob. It's bloomin' cold (-4°C) outside and I'm wrapped up like a Michelin Man. The seeing is fair to good. Those who have read any of my other reports will know I'm very fortunate to enjoy Bortle 3/4 skies to the South and my "test objects" M1, M33 are easy catches with a 27mm BST Starguider. M33 was also visible through 8x40 field binoculars before dinner, suggesting a good evening was at hand. So onto the HorseHead. Moving Alnitak out of the field of view the Flame Nebula with the dark central band was plainly visible. Moving down and across I could see nebulosity surrounding the most eastern of the three close mag 7 stars. Spent a lot of time observing with options of 12 and 27mm EP's plus and O-III filter that I had to hand. The filter made observing worse for this target, so that was put back in the case. The 12mm EP showed increased contrast of the faint nebulosity around the star and occasionally teased out a line of contrast extending beyond the three start mag 7 stars. It appeared to be IC434. I swapped back to the 27mm and checked the Flame, which was brighter now. IC434 had a defined edge, dark on the East and lighter on the West but "fuzzing" in and out even with averted vision. It was pretty much on the limit of visibility. In all I spent two long cold hours outside and I think I may have caught the HorseHead three times as a darker finger appeared through the line of IC434. Nudging the scope made sure it wasn't wishful thinking - there was something there. However, being pedantic, I couldn't say for sure it was the HorseHead as definition wasn't really there and IC434 was disappearing into the background then some minutes later reappeared. However, there is no other object in the vicinity that would present a darker finger ingressing into IC434, so I think it's quite likely that it was the HH. I've read that a H-Beta filter makes observing the HorseHead easier, so that will be on the shopping list soon enough. Although I couldn't be 100%, I'm fairly sure I did catch a glimpse of it and am pretty happy. Returned inside to warm up, de-frost the scope and enjoy a drop of The Macallan, as is fitting for the New Year. Wishing everyone clear skies for 2019! Richard
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Just had a lovely session on the winter targets that are now coming into view in the early hours. These were the targets that I first tried out my NV monoculars when I got them in November last year so it’s nice to give them another go with the greater experience and better equipment I have now. This was also the first proper go with my Harder Digital Night Vision momoculars and chroma 5nm Ha filter combination. The views were fantastic - I compared side by side with my photonis 4g Night Vision and 6nm Astronomik filter and the gap between the two setups is large. The angelfish was clear and showed good detail with the Harder whereas the photonis was only just showing a trace of the nebula. On Barnard’s loop the full loop was clear and obvious in the Harder whereas the photonis only showed the brighter top half. This was on 21.0 SQM skies. There was just so much nebulosity showing everywhere with the Harder which I haven’t seen like this before. Lots of new things to have a look at in greater detail in the future. With my AP130GTX and 40mm plossl (with 5nm chroma) the views of the horsehead, rosette, monkeyhead, flaming star, heart, California, Pac-Man, the Cone and Lowers were also pretty fabulous. All photos were with my Huawei P20 Pro, unprocessed. I’m really chuffed with my new kit! One of my best sessions ever.
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53 x 2m subs Canon 450D all filters removed, Sigma 120-300m f/2.8 OS + 1.4 teleconverter for 420mm f/4. Astronomik CLS-CCD filter. Processed in PixInsight with darks. Finish off in PS Elements. This is the longest focal length I've seriously used for deep sky imaging yet. Was hoping to pick up the texture behind the horsehead but looking at other photos I think I need more resolution to really pick it up than this widefield attempt. Might try the ST120 on this next time (600mm f/5).
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From the album: Astro Gallery
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From the album: Deep Sky Imaging
Horsehead and Flame nebulae around the star "Alnitak" in "Orion's Belt" in the constellation of Orion. The nebulae are located approximately 1350LY for Flame nebula and 1500LY for the Horsehead curtain glow nebula. Alnitak is a bit closer at about 1250LY and is the source of light for the glow of the nebulae. The Horsehead nebula is a cold dark nebula silhouetted against the pink hydrogen alpha emission nebula IC434. The Horsehead shape is just the shape of the nebula that blocks that part hydrogen emission of IC434. This image was taken using a full spectrum modded Canon 40D. Image consists of Hbeta, HAlpha and OIII data as well as RGB taken through IR cut and neodymium filters across multiple nights in November and December 2015.© Mariusz Goralski
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From the album: Hyperstar and QHY8L
Taken on 15-Dec-2017 (no moon) Hyperstar 9.25" with Baader UFC and IDAS P2 filter Avalon M-Uno guided and dithered with Nebulosity and PHD2 20 x 60 seconds Processed in PI -
Here's my latest, taken back at New Years, and I've been working through the Pixinsight Book processing it, hope you enjoy: 19 x 180s lights, flats darks and bias, equipment as per kit, Pixinsight processed. I didn't get as much data as I would like as dew eventually stopped the session (my guidescope fogged up and the laptop was dripping wet), so noise was a bit of an issue if I'm honest. Here's some blurb stolen from Wikipedia: Alnitak (Zeta Orionis), the bright star in the picture, which is the leftmost star in Orion's belt, is a multiple star. The primary star is a hot blue supergiant with an absolute magnitude of -6.0 and is the brightest class O star in the night sky with a visual magnitude of +2.0. It has two bluish 4th magnitude companions. The Horsehead Nebula (top right of pic) is a dark nebula. The nebula is part of the much larger Orion Molecular Cloud Complex. It is approximately 1500 light years from Earth. The red or pinkish glow originates from hydrogen gas predominantly behind the nebula, ionized by the nearby bright star Sigma Orionis. Magnetic fields channel the gases leaving the nebula into streams, showing as streaks in the background glow. A glowing strip of hydrogen gas marks the edge of the massive cloud, and the densities of nearby stars are noticeably different on either side. The heavy concentrations of dust in the Horsehead Nebula region and neighbouring Orion Nebula are localized, resulting in alternating sections of nearly complete opacity and transparency. The darkness of the Horsehead is caused mostly by thick dust blocking the light of stars behind it. The Flame Nebula (NGC 2024, just below Alnitak in the pic), is an emission nebula. It is about 900 to 1,500 light-years away. Alnitak shines energetic ultraviolet light into the Flame and this knocks electrons away from the great clouds of hydrogen gas that reside there. Much of the glow results when the electrons and ionized hydrogen recombine. Additional dark gas and dust lies in front of the bright part of the nebula and this is what causes the dark network that appears in the center of the glowing gas. At the center of the Flame Nebula is a cluster of newly formed stars, an estimated population of 800 stars. Several of the other stars in the pic show reflection nebulae where starlight is reflected off inert dust and gas, illuminating it. Cheers, Stuart
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6th December 2015 Equipment: NexStar 8SE Time: 01:00 - 03:45 During the imaging of Barnard33 through the OIII filter using the 80mm refractor, I setup the 8SE on the single arm alt-az mount for observing. Orion Nebula looked great and bright through just the eyepiece but when using the UHC filter it was detailed and awesome. The shape of the nebula was clearly visible, the fishes mouth and the mustache shaped extends were very distinctly brighter than the reminder of the nebula. There was a lot of the nebulosity visible starting to take on the shape of the "flame" as photographed except it was more rounded. The four stars in the trapezium were bright and distinct. The second object I was looking for to observe was the globular cluster 47Toucana. When I located, it was not in the database of the NexStar 8SE hand controller (atleast not as 47Toucana), it looked dimmer that I was expecting. I spend a bit of time looking at the globular through both the 40mm eye piece and the 11mm Nagler... Both showed a dim image of the globular. Through the 11mm I did see some granulation and irregularly speckled stars extending out from the core. I did a "identify object" scan on the hand controller and it come up as NGC362 and the next nearest object was NGC265 in the list. Looking up the objects NGC362 is magnitude 8 and 47Toucana NGC104 is magnitude 5.8. Both of these objects should be a lot brighter in the eyepiece than the object I was observing and struggling, just barely resolving stars around the globular. That point brings me to the next nearest object, NGC265. In StarWalk it's shown to be magnitude 12.5 and when squinting and de focussing my vision on the shown picture it definitely resembles the shape, brighter/denser core and speckled stars at the outer edges. It also makes a lot more sense for it to be so dim in the FOV when looking at it through a telescope with a maximum resolving power of magnitude 14.5. So I think I was actually looking at NGC265, and not 47Tucana or NGC362. The reason why the catalog on the NS8 hand controller shown NGC362 as a first choice if because the object was manually found after locating the constellation Toucana, the three objects are close together, the NS8 has very little objects in this part of the sky in the database and the star alignment might have been a few degrees off. The reason I didn't look up the data and thought the NGC362 was the Globular cluster 47Toucana is because I didn't want to turn on the iPhone or the iPad and destroy my night adapted vision...REMINDER: GET RED FILM FOR IPHONE AND IPAD. 47Toucana needs to be looked for and observed another night.... So does NGC362 for that matter and compare to NGC265 to confirm the above theory. The next object I wanted to find and observe for the first time was the Horsehead nebula. Reading others observation about the Horsehead, some claim to have spotted it in 4" refractors from dark skies, I though that I might have a chance from my semi dark location. I located Alnitak and looked for any hint of the Horsehead or Flame nebulae with no luck, than I spend a few minutes looking for the nebulae using UHC and OIII filters with no luck. I rushed a bit using the UHC and OIII since it's commonly documented that a h-beta filter is the best filter to spot it. Through the h-beta filter Alnitak was still quite bright but the background was a lot darker, but I still couldn't spot either the Flame or the Horsehead nebulae. I've spend a fair bit of time looking for it through both the 40mm and 11mm eyepieces but at the end before I gave up I still couldn't spot any of them. When I brought my head up and looked at the sky toward Orion's Belt, it was quite obvious that my sight was quite dark adapted since the sky was glowing, it was almost milky bright... I put not seeing the Horsehead nebula down to the sky glow being much too bright for it to come through. The hunt will need to continue another night. The last object I observed was The Carina Nebula. As previously the Carina nebula is a sight to behold, it is definitely my favorite nebula to observe along with the Orion Nebula. It looks stunning through the UHC filter and 11mm eyepiece, the detail in the brightest arm was visible clearly, although not as defined as the last time I looked at it, but close. Through the 40mm eyepiece and the f6.3 focal reducer, there was a lot of the nebula visible in the FOV. Not only the brightest arm, but also the other two features that starts to make the "storm trooper face" shape. This is another object that I always spend a considerable time observing through various magnifications. Both the Orion and Carina nebulae have a slight blue-gray color look to them through the UHC filter which gives it a almost painted appearance. Tonight I was not going to get stopped by dew like last time I was observing so I ran a RCA loom from the CGEM and through a gender changer connected the 8SE dew heater strap, seems to have done the trick since there was no dewing of the optics. The seeing was quite still tonight but as dark adaption revealed, the sky glow was quite bright. Toward the end of the observing session some thin cloud patches were coming and going, not interfering with the imaging. Tonight was definitely a great night of observing. MG -
I've been sitting on this data for quite a while (it's from Jan 2017). I've had a few goes at trying to process it, but always junked the results - mostly because of Alnitak! I've bitten the bullet and just posting it here to try and draw a line under this lot (and I've not done much else recently - illness and summer light nights...). Flare and scattered light in the field hasn't helped me and there's a bit of fringing with the brightness of the star. I have since cleaned the objective on the FLT110 as it was filthy, and I may have struggled with transparency, but I'm not sure what else I could do here to bring out more detail or contrast into the image with Alnitak sitting in the field - it just feels a little "soft" . It also throws the colour balance off a bit - I think this is an Ok version, but the Flame is perhaps a little on the red side. Details are: ST2000XM + FLT110 (with FR at f5.6). LRGB : 29x5m, 25x5m, 17x5min, 15x5min (RGB 2x bin) Captured Jan 2017 C&C welcome...
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From the album: Widefield DSO
53 x 2m subs Canon 450D all filters removed, Sigma 120-300m f/2.8 OS + 1.4 teleconverter for 420mm f/4. Astronomik CLS-CCD filter. Processed in PixInsight with darks. Finish off in PS Elements. -
Greetings Astronomers, The work on imaging my next object has begun, and as always and common to us all, I have to juggle imaging between clouds and moon phases. This is 3 hours of halpha data of 900s and 500s subs captured the night before full moon and on the full moon night through a 7nm Baader Halpha filter using a modded Canon 40D DSLR. I'm hoping to spend a night imaging 30 minute subs (when the moon shrinks to last quarter or smaller) to try to capture some of the dimmest nebulosity as well as spend perhaps another night imaging 15 minute subs through a Baader 7nm OIII filter to see what difference adding OIII signal to the final color image will make. Before the moon was first quarter I've acquired 3 hours of usable RGB data across 2 mornings of 300 second subs. After stacking I realized that I need more RGB subs for enough SNR to stretch the data, so my plan is to perhaps spend another night of exposing 300 second subs but through a unmodded DSLR, once complete, I'll stack and process the RGB frames and add the narrowband data to it for a full color image. Sorry for the drawn out ramble... clear skies, MG
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Following on from the 'free' widefield picture - https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/286774-free-rider-wo-star-71-and-horsehead/#comment-3142262 - here is the image through my Esprit 120. This is 8 hours in total. Last night we had a 'half-moon', more or less, and it was not too far away from the Horse. The Ha subs in both the Esprit and the WO looked about the same as they had done when there was no moon about. SGP does an Autostretch of downloaded subs. The 'black point' of the moonless and half-moon shots were only about 100 ADU apart, which I thought was pretty good. Rather foolishly I wasted time last night trying to get some LRGB. A 5 min Lum sub, autostretched by SGP, had an ADU in the high 8,000s (and looked pretty horrible)! Looks like I will have to wait for the disappearance of Moony McMoonface before taking on the LRGB acquisition. So this is: Skywatcher Esprit 120 Astrodon 3nm Ha - 24 x 20 minute subs = 8 hours QSI 690 I've tried not to go too 'extreme' with the processing:
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Re-processed to try to bring increase the brightness of the various nebulae and increase the contrast a little without futher blowing out the stars and adding too much noise ... orignial: Orion's Belt - centred on "Alnitak", is a 1.7 magnitude triple star 740 light years from Earth and appears at one end of the belt. The Flame nebula ( cat: NGC 2024 or Sharpless 2-277 ) ( lower centre left of the image) glows yellow-pink due to the ionising radiation that comes from Alnitak. Seen from Earth, the Flame nebula is behind Alnitak and around 80 light years further away from Earth. The Horsehead nebula ( cat: Barnard 33 ) ( centre right of the image ) is a dark dust and gas cloud that is only visible from Earth due to the backlight illumination and silhouetting caused by the bright pink glow from the ionised hydrogen gas in the emission nebula IC 434. The bright blue reflection nebula below and to the left of the Horsehead is NGC 2023. Details: Combination of two sessions over a year apart. Skywatcher Quattro 10" f4 Newtonian. Skywatcher AZ Eq6 GT Mount Orion 80mm f5 guide scope and auto guider - PHD2. Baader MPCC Mark 3 Coma Corrector, no filter. Nikon D5300 (unmodified). 14bit NEF, Long Exp. NR on. 18 Dec 2015. 21 x 20 sec ISO 800. 165 x 30 sec ISO 800. 13 x 60 sec ISO 800 . Baader UHC-S , 12bit NEF, Long Exp. NR on. 5 Oct 2014. 19 x 2min ISO400 Pixinsight Links:. https://500px.com/mikeoday http://photo.net/photos/MikeODay
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The Horsehead Nebula (B33) The Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33) is one of the best known nebulae in the night sky but few astronomers have actually observed it through a telescope. The reason for this strange state of affairs is that the nebula is very dim as it is, in essence, just a pillar of dark dust and gas – in fact we can only see it because of the curtain of relatively bright Hydrogen Alpha (Ha) emissions (IC 434) behind it. This weekend several observers have seen it for the first time through a combination of excellent conditions - especially last night (25th/26th November) - and pure dogged determination to observe it. My hat is off to these intrepid observers who have persevered to achieve that goal. I on the other hand turned to the ‘Dark Side’ to achieve the same goal capturing my data over 2 nights, the first killed part way through by mist and cloud and the second (last night) working very well until a miscalculation in my image scheduling meant that the observatory closed down when it failed to maintain its guide star while imaging through a tree – Doh! Barnard 33 is a dark nebula situated in the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex in the constellation of Orion. Situated underneath the mag +1.74 ‘Belt Star’, Alnitak, this nebula is very well named as in images, its shape representing a horse’s head is clearly identifiable. For me it actually looks closer to a sea horse in appearance but the shape of a horse it most certainly is! Image Stats Mount: Mesu 200 Telescope: Sky-Watcher Esprit 150 Flattener: Sky-Watcher Esprit specific Camera: QSI 683 WSG-8 Filter: Astrodon 3nm Ha Subframes: 15 x 1800 sec Ha Integration: 7.5 hours Control: CCD Commander Capture: MaxIM DL Calibration and Stacking: PixInsight Post-Processing: PhotoShop PS3 I have deliberately taken a 'high key' approach to processing this data to release some of the additional detail often lost in the foreground region below the Horsehead Nebula itself. The Horsehead Nebula - B33
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From the album: The next step.
I like the flame nebula and the horsehead appearing was a bonus as well. approx 16 x 1min exposures canon 300D, 200p EQ5 - DSS.© Aenima
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Hi again! Last time I imaged IC5070 for approx 3 hours, then as Orion rose up I decide to use up the last of the clear skies imaging B33/NGC2024. 15 x 600s at ISO1600 with Canon 1000d, ED80 FFx0.85, darks and bias. Looking any advise on detail etc, how does guiding look, focus, etc. I'd like to try to progress so feedback welcome. It is still noisy, so definitely need more subs. I've also lost the plot somewhere with it somewhere during processing as there is artefacts all over the show! Thanks in advance Adam.
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Now i dont know if i'd call this cheating - but i did a monochrome version of this because it just feels so much easier to bring out the little detail in this image without creating too much background noise in the colour version . I think i like this more than the colour version edited with PI LE, CS5 Unmodified Canon 50D, Sigma 50-500mm APO F/4.5-6.3, SW EQ5, 30 x 120s ISO 800 Sorry but cant remember what focal length this was taken at! taken in a very light polluted aberdeen
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Orion's Belt - centered on "Alnitak", a 1.7 magnitute triple star at one end of the belt. Includes the Flame Nebula (NGC2024) and IC434 which contains the Horsehead Nebula. Links: 500px.com/mikeoday photo.net/photos/MikeODay Details: Skywatcher Quattro 10" f4 Newtonian. Skywatcher AZ Eq6 GT Mount Orion 80mm f5 guide scope and auto guider - PHD2. Baader MPCC Mark 3 Coma Corrector, UHC-S 'nebula' filter. Nikon D5300 (unmodified). Field of view (deg) ~ 1.35 x 0.90. UHC-S - 19 x 2min ISO400 (12bit NEF, Long Exp. NR on). taken 5 October 14 reprocessed with Pixinsight and Photoshop 6 Sept 15 -
From the album: Deep Sky Objects
The Horsehead Nebula in Orion. I have always wnted to image this but unfortunately I ran out of time to collect any colour data and I did not get much luminosity as it went behind some trees. So I have tried to get the best I can out of 5, 3 minute frames. A target for another day I think. -
Hello to all, this is my first color image using my STF-8300M and Baader LRGB filters. In addition, this is my first image processed in PixInsight. Please provide feedback on it; I don't mind constructive and respectful critique. Astrobin:
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I struggled to try to significantly reduce the quite apparent noise without losing too much detail in the clouds. In the end I decided to keep the detail ( and the noise ). Details: Orion's Belt - centred on "Alnitak". A 1.7 magnitute tripple star at one end of the belt. Includes the Flame Nebula (NGC2024) and IC434 which contains the Horsehead Nebula. RA 16h 41m 42s, Dec -48deg 48' 46". Approx. 3800 light years away. Skywatcher Quattro 10" f4 Newtonian. Skywatcher AZ Eq6 GT Mount (on concrete pier). Orion 80mm f5 guide scope and auto guider - PHD2. Baader MPCC Mark 3 Coma Corrector, no filter. Nikon D5300 (unmodified). Field of view (deg) ~ 1.35 x 0.90. 300 subs in total. 63 x 10 sec ISO100. 38 x 20 sec ISO200 . 21 X 20 sec ISO800. 165 x 30 sec ISO800. 13 x 60 sec ISO800. (14bit NEF, Long Exp. NR on). Pixinsight and photoshop. 18th December 2015. source: http://photo.net/photos/MikeODay https://500px.com/mikeoday
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From the album: DSO, Nebula, Galaxies, Comets etc
The Horsehead Nebula 02.01.2017 Atik 314L and Skywatcher Equinox 80 ED H-alpha 10 x 300 seconds and 15 x 600 seconds with some dark and bias frames Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker and processed in PhotoShop CS2© vicky050373
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I've been (im)patiently awaiting the darker winter nights returning so I could see what my new equipment could achieve in terms of astrophotography. Last weekend saw a clear night where I could take a short trip to a dark location and image a few objects. Below are a few of the images obtained. All were taken with a Canon 650D DSLR on a SW 80ED refractor. Due to this being my first real chance in really dark skies to try out the kit I wanted to image several objects to assess the capabilities rather than concentrate on getting lots of subs on just one target object. The end results are from a stack of about a handful of unguided exposures, each of 2 minutes or less. I'm quite pleased with what could be achieved in such a short period of time with these brighter winter favourites - they are certainly miles better than I've ever managed before with previously owned more modest equipment. Hope you like them too -
Cracking night, last night (15-Dec-2017) although with temperatures a bit below freezing and gusty winds. Having discovered that the spacing for my QHY8L on the Hyperstar was incorrect by 3mm despite using the Starizona-supplied spacer, I'm now using the excellent Baader Universal Filter Cell to give me nearer to the correct spacing. Still not quite there yet, though. To check it all out I went for a number of targets for a relatively short time. Here's my go at the Horsehead. Hyperstar 9.25" with Baader UFC and IDAS P2 filter Avalon M-Uno guided and dithered with Nebulosity 20 x 60 seconds Processed in PI (shhh... I'm still learning) Haven't really got the hang of noise reduction, (and seems my bias or darks aren't handling a bad column) but really the answer is more data, and I suppose this isn't too bad for just 20 minutes... Advice more than welcome.
