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The horsey and flame nebula (with a twist)

MikeWilson

By MikeWilson
in Imaging - Deep Sky

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MikeWilson

MikeWilson

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Evening all,

The twist here is a timelapse video of the session and as my first attempt on this object I'm really thrilled with how well it turned out especially considering that I was imaging blind. Only Betelgese was visible (the rest of the constellation was invisible to the naked eye) although PHD did a sterling job keeping the scope on target.

6372498213_0a0902750b_z.jpg

A frame from my latest video by MikeWPhotos, on Flickr

And the time-lapse, here:

Comments, hate, love, however it comes are warmly welcome (especially if they're on the YouTube video page!) as ever is warmly welcome. Any comments that help me improve will win a Jaffa cake.

The encouraging lesson that I've learnt here is not to let even the most miserable seeing put you off imaging. Even if you are in an urban environment, imaging over dozens of nearby street lamps, even if you can't see any stars in the constellation that you're working in - it can be done (even if you do have to align on Jupiter and slew over to the target!).

All the best,

Mike

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MikeWilson

MikeWilson

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Great stuff mike a lovely image one of my favs.

Thanks! Did you see the timelapse in the video?

What flavour Jaffa Cakes are we talking here ??

There's more than one flavour? I thought they only came in one; Jaffa Orange? :)

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jnc71106

jnc71106

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Time lapse video was very good must have taken awhile to put it all together. It's good to see how it's all done

And yep they come in other flavours. Strawberry and my fav Lime

You have a great setup. I'm waiting to get first light with my ikharus still

Jake

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MikeWilson

MikeWilson

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Thanks chaps, I'm glad that you all liked the

.

And I was totally unaware of those different flavours of Jaffa cakes. Lime, Strawberry? Raspberry? If I didn't need to sleep, I'd head out to immediately stock up on the alternative flavours! (which incidentally, I've never seen in UK supermarkets before..?).

All the best,

Mike

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MikeWilson

MikeWilson

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@Tadakun: I shall have to ask my sister in law if she'd kindly bring me back a packet from the states at Christmas, then :)

@RAC: Thank you. It started well but by the end of the time lapse the mist had set in. I hadn't seen mist here since last winter and it reduced visability down to about 30 ft. Not good when you want to see 30ly!

@JonH: Thank you!

@Yfronto: Thanks - and that final image was a surprise. I wasn't expecting anything as the subs looked horrendous.

@Woody: I was using "Universe Sandbox". It's a nice simulation of newtonian physics and covers just plain "balls" through to solar system objects and galaxies. However it doesn't do galaxies too well, there's an "Andromeda vs. Milky Way" collision simulator which seems to show stars at the edges of the galaxies not turning as fast as the center. But we now know (from discoveries into the prescence of dark matter) that stars at the edges spin as fast as stars in the center (like a pirohette rather than trailing behind). Still, it's a fun package.

@RikMcRae: Thanks. I really love the timelapse bit and it made having clouds feel not quite so bad!

@laser_jock99: I imaged a few objects that session but for the horsey and flame I took 8 x 15 minute subs and lost 3 of them completely. I registered the remaining 5 in DSS and dropped the lowest scoring one. All of the frames looked pretty terrible with cloud and fog/mist apparant which is why I was totally shocked at how well the image came out. It's not a great image but it's a great image considering that Altinak was invisible to the naked eye.

Might be worth noting to encourage other prospective imagers that although good seeing and dark skies are highly desirable, it is possible to make do (as we often have to do in the UK!) with less than ideal seeing conditions.

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MikeWilson

MikeWilson

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@SkyJamie: Thanks!

@Spikey: It took about an hour which is as quick as I can get it. I keep looking for ways to speed things up as my astro club meets at a site about an hour away by car so I've got to get setup and pack away times down as short as possible :)

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Luke

Luke

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Nice one, Mike!

I popped out during my imaging session last night to look up and see a whole bunch of mist and cloud.

What struck me was how quiet it was - I was wondering why PHD Guiding wasn't pinging like crazy to let me know it had lost the guide star. Amazingly, it was still guiding, though I couldn't see any stars up there!

There was something in the subs, maybe they are worth stacking then! :)

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