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Horsehead Nebula

Steve

By Steve
in Imaging - Deep Sky

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davy999

davy999

Posted
Posted

Hi Steve

How sad is it that you took an image of PHD showing the good guiding you achieved!

I know, we have all done it.. got excited when it doesnt look like a map of the Himalayas and whip the camera out for a screen pic. :))

The Bubble Nebula subs looked great on screen so hopefully with some off-site processing being done to them you should end up with a cracking image there Steve.

It was a great night, apart from the breeze, heck, even I managed to get some DSO imaging done (after sorting you out first!)

re. Darks..

Do them this evening, cap on camera.. stick it outside in the cold.. set temperature to the same you had during your imaging and run 6-12 subs at the same exposure time as your subs.. easy peasy.. You can pass these on to your buddies for the processing, does make a difference having them done.

See you Friday oh Great Imager

Dave

If you bring the subs along Friday I wouldnt mind having a go at them too.. see if I am 10% towards being as good as the top processors (I think I have a long way to go on that score!!)

p.s. the image was much brighter on the aaisw forum ??

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davy999

davy999

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Evostar 80ED

Baader Steeltrack focuser

HEQ5 PRO mount

Atik 314L+ for imaging

Atik Titan for guiding

Atik OAG off-axis-guider

Atik EFW2 filter wheel

Baader filters

Loads of cables!

Strong coffee!

Microwave curry!

hahaha.. just saw the last 3 entries!

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Steve

Steve

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See you Friday oh Great Imager

:D

If you bring the subs along Friday I wouldnt mind having a go at them too.. see if I am 10% towards being as good as the top processors (I think I have a long way to go on that score!!)

Will do :)

Astronomy Now were impressed enough with your processing to publish your M42 in their current issue :)

p.s. the image was much brighter on the aaisw forum ??

Yesterday I did a quick process on my laptop which has a screen much brighter than the one I use here at work. After viewing it this morning I lightened the image before posting on the AISW forum. I have also updated the original post here on SGL.

I feel sure you experienced imagers will do much better :(

first-horsehead-test.jpg

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Whippy

Whippy

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Thank-you Martin :)

I am pleased with the star shapes, particularly as I am not using a flattener.

You won't need one with the 314 and ED80 Steve, a reducer though helps with exposure time loads, I used a WO FFII to great effect with my ED80 :(.

Tony..

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Steve

Steve

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You won't need one with the 314 and ED80 Steve, a reducer though helps with exposure time loads, I used a WO FFII to great effect with my ED80 :(.

I would have liked to use a flattener/reducer. I had hoped to use a smaller scope, the Megrez-72 or Equinox-80 but both I suspect would need a flattener and the Atik EFW2 with OAG cannot achieve the magic 56mm spacing required by most flattener/reducers (the Atik OAG's strength and convenience comes at a cost, it's larger size requires more distance). For a moment I thought I had a solution with the WO flattener-4 but that has a large diameter that clashes with the helical focus wheel on the OAG. So I went for an ED80 because I figured the Atik 314L+'s Sony 285 sensor would work without a flattener at f7.5. Fortunately the ED80 is proving to be a good match for the 314L+ :)

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Whippy

Whippy

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I would have liked to use a flattener/reducer. I had hoped to use a smaller scope, the Megrez-72 or Equinox-80 but both I suspect would need a flattener and the Atik EFW2 with OAG cannot achieve the magic 56mm spacing required by most flattener/reducers (the Atik OAG's strength and convenience comes at a cost, it's larger size requires more distance). For a moment I thought I had a solution with the WO flattener-4 but that has a large diameter that clashes with the helical focus wheel on the OAG. So I went for an ED80 because I figured the Atik 314L+'s Sony 285 sensor would work without a flattener at f7.5. Fortunately the ED80 is proving to be a good match for the 314L+ :)

Indeed mate, having seen how tight space-wise at the back end of the ED80 was at Kelling I'm not surprised there's no space for a flattener/reducer there. Like pretty much everything kit-wise, there's pros and cons with any setup. I always used a side by side bar so I never had the issues you've got but getting the balance right on the three axes was occasionally an issue especially if I was imaging around the Zenith.

I always had the least problems with the ED80 and Atik, it just worked and when I get back into DSO imaging I can see having pretty much the same again!

Tony..

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Steve

Steve

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SteveL has offered to process the files for me so I think I'll frame his :D

It'll give me something to aim for, perhaps we'll get a Greg Parker / Noel Carboni thing going (kidding).

And here it is (jpeg'd for upload) :(

It is certainly smoother than mine with more tonal detail :)

I see he has inverted the image so I guess my Horsehead must have been facing the wrong way :)

Am now wishing I had spent less time on the Bubble and more on the Horsehead as there are a lot of subtle tones in this nebula that I feel would become more apparent if I had more subs.

post-18597-133877671961_thumb.jpg

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Steve

Steve

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Why did you mak 9min subs? Most people make 5, 10 or 15 mins. ;) Try to make 15 mins, could be better for the SNR.

Prior to the Horsehead I was making 3-min luminance subs of the Bubble nebula (which proved nowhere near enough). When I switched to the Horsehead and Ha I figured a 3x increase would be good for starters. It is good to hear I was unconventional :rolleyes:

I do need longer subs, I'll do better next time.

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