A little help please!

[samir_ansari]

Hi everybody, last night I tried taking a photo of the Elephant and Trunk Nebula (IC 1396) but instead ended up with this:

This 5 minute sub was taken with a C100ED, unmodded 450D and Astronomik CLS filter. I really was expecting to see even just a little bit of nebulosity but I got zilch. Did I not expose for long enough, or did I just miss the target alltogether? I also tried a 15 minute exposure of the same region with my 12nm Ha filter and still had nothing.

[ncjunk]

Just for your information this is the output from Astrometry.net:

Astrometry.net (Finished job alpha-201109-34799009)

looks like its got IC1396 ...somewhere..so I think you missed the Triffid and got that instead. Although I think IC1396 is quite faint.

[samir_ansari]

Ah ha! maybe I muddled up my exposure names

I did try The Elephant and Trunk nebula later that night however still I would've imagined to see something with a 5 minute sub?

[ncjunk]

That can´t be right...there is a heck of a distance between that and the triffid nebula....

IC1396 is between Cepheus and Cygnus..

ok I´m confused

ok just seen your latest message, that makes sense.

[steppenwolf]

I can confirm that this is IC1396, that little curve of stars at the top right is a final visual cue too. I too am surprised that you didn't get a bit more nebulosity although this is not a bright object.

[samir_ansari]

Ok I've editted the first post to define the correct target we are talking about here!

Last night the moon was practically full but I thought this wouldn't be so much of an issue with a CLS filter. Maybe it's also partly to do with my focus being slightly off?

[Shibby]

I, for one, can see it

See the little red curve, bottom right? That is the top of the Elephant's Trunk. It's very faint, but once you stack a few subs it'll start to come out.

[samir_ansari]

Oh Shibby, you're just being nice

I may try this again tonight with a 10 minute exposure, the main issue for me is that I'm imaging from central London - my poor old CLS is trying it's hardest but you just can't get around this level of light pollution without going narrowband

[ncjunk]

Central London?????? And...?

Rather you than me, that must be one heck of a lot of light pollution.

Still your pointing is bang on. ;-D

[rocketandroll]

I fear with a target like this (a really faint nebula) you simply have to use a modded camera.

I don't recall the exact figures but you will loose something like 80%+ of the light from the nebula itself due to the filter.

you might start to get something once you get up to 12 - 15mins exposures.. but getting the filter removed may be easier :-)

Ben

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[Coco]

You want to be shooting HA whilst the Moons up... This looks like moister illuminated by the Moon.. I can just see some Nebulosity ...just

Sensor could do with a clean

[Stephen]

You want to be shooting HA whilst the Moons up... This looks like moister illuminated by the Moon.. I can just see some Nebulosity ...just

Sensor could do with a clean

Forgive my ignorance, does Ha cut through moon glow then?

[Shibby]

Samir, I hadn't noticed your camera was unmodded. This nebulae is a very faint emission nebula, so I'm surpirsed you picked it up at all with a single sub. (I *can* see it by the way!) As Ben says, your internal filter will be knocking out a good 80% of the light emitted from IC1396.

If I were you, I'd stick to reflection nebulae and clusters for now; there are plenty of great ones out there.

[samir_ansari]

I just had another play with this using the trial version of AstroArt and got this result:

Is this nebulosity or just fortunately shaped noise?