Not the best Veil Nebula you've ever seen...

[GlassWalker]

Veil Nebula, Hubble palette, nowhere near enough data with too short a lens, too short exposures, cloud and moon getting in the way.

Well, it was clear-ish, so I had to have a quick go as I'm not motivated enough to get more data of the nearby bits of Cygnus. I wanted to try something I hadn't before... of course, it wasn't really clear enough. Ha wasn't too bad, but clouds kept passing, and the moon rose to join in also. It never really got that dark, so no point doing longer exposures and I settled on 30s for all of SII, Ha, OIII. Just to make things worse, when I put the kit out to cool down earlier, I left the wrong lens on, which was much shorter than I was intending to use (50mm instead of 135mm). Rather than wait for the right one to settle, I went ahead anyway. Above is 100% crop normalised to 450D output.

So, this is definitely on my "to do again" list once I get a guided mount and some more focal length behind it.

30s Subs:

67 Ha

43 of 49 OIII, rest manually rejected due to excess cloud

19 of 51 SII, rest manually rejected due to excess cloud

Normally I find PixInsight does a good job of ignoring partial cloud. It was so bad tonight I had to manually cull the worst ones as it failed to sort them and ended up integrating them too!

[Martin-Devon]

One big bonus of using narrowband filters is that you can image perfectly OK even in strong moonlight (and in presence of light pollution) - so there is no reason at all to limit your subs to just 30 seconds. You'll probably need to guide, especially is you go over 2 minutes or thereabouts - but longer subs will definitely add a huge amount of more detail & data. You have the beginnings of a really nice image here so I'd encourage you to go back & do longer guided narrowband subs.

[GlassWalker]

I currently have Astronomik 12nm filters, which aren't the narrowest but more tolerant of fast optics (I use f/2). Conditions really didn't make longer exposures useful as I had already hit the local noise floor. I'd just get a brighter background so no net gain. Going guided is on the to do list once I get a mount for it... but that wont help if the sky isn't clear enough.

[Gina]

I think that's the best image of the Cygnus Loop I've seen yet Good one! That's something I've got my heart set on when conditions permit.

[morimarty]

I have to agree with Martin, If you can get a good guiding set up you will have the ability to capture some stunning wide field images. your image of the veil nebula is already showing lots of potential.

[GlassWalker]

As soon as I get that mount upgrade, and find a few more clear nights, I definitely will revisit this! Actually, I think I'd have another go with a longer lens even without the guided mount and see what happens.

Until then, I just had to think did I get the name wrong after Gina's post? I thought this was the Veil, or is that just a part of it? Is Cygnus loop used for the whole thing?

[Gina]

As soon as I get that mount upgrade, and find a few more clear nights, I definitely will revisit this! Actually, I think I'd have another go with a longer lens even without the guided mount and see what happens.

Until then, I just had to think did I get the name wrong after Gina's post? I thought this was the Veil, or is that just a part of it? Is Cygnus loop used for the whole thing?

Yes, the whole is called the Cygnus Loop, the object on the left of your image is the Veil and the one on the right is the Witch's Broom, as I understand it.

[GlassWalker]

Fresh data! A first pass process of this.

OIII as blue: Canon 600D, EF 135mm f/2L, Astronomik OIII filter, 21x 2m.

Ha as red: modified 450D, EF 135mm f/2L, Astronomik Ha filter, 18x 2m.

Green channel from above blended. I haven't tried mixing in the SII yet...

[Bob Andersson]

Hi GlassWalker,

Coming along very nicely. I think you'll see a huge improvement in depth as soon as you can up the exposure time by a factor of two or three with the new mount. Fingers crossed for a few clear nights here in the UK now that the Moon is on its way out but, continuing the dismal pattern of the year, the forecast isn't that great over the next few days. But hey, being a glass half full man, a least the Perseids will be over by the time the weather cooperates!

Bob.

[GlassWalker]

If the skies are anything like last night, I'm not sure longer exposures would help much as I'm still able to hit the noise floor. I'd need narrower filters, which might restrict my usage of fast optics also as I think I'm already pushing it at f/2. My hopes for the new mount is more for longer exposures at longer focal lengths so I can hopefully pick more more resolution, if not depth.

I really should attack that huge lump of metal called the EQ6 and finish setting it up if I'm ever going to use it...

[Gina]

Wow!! That's magnificent I'm hoping to have a go at the whole Cygnus Loop when I get an OIII clip filter and get round to modding my second 1100D. It's too big with the scope (well I think it is).