Elephants Trunk in Ha

[cloudbuster]

am astro imaging from my better half's back garden in light polluted south bristol tonight. everything was going fine....sorted out my allignment problems, focused the CCD camera on cappela, then slewed to ic1396-the elephants trunk nebula. got it in the frame lovely. all that was left to do was guide....which for the life of me, i just couldnt get right. eventually i settled guiding on a red star), and just hoped it would give me pinpoint guiding but it was a less than ideal target. i've for the most part loved this synguider, but its time to get a QHY5!

12x 600sec lights Ha

30x4.5 sec flats

bias frames to be done tomorrow

thanks for looking, thoughts comments welcome

cheers

[x6gas]

Nice work - and the guiding looks fine to me...

My images are a little soft the last few sessions - I think high cloud. Yours look similar and I wonder if its the same thing...?

[cloudbuster]

thanks x6gas

yes, there were banks of high cloud that just kept rolling in! i was imaging from my girlfriends backyard, and just had to keep popping out every 15 mins or so, to see if the synguider was still guiding ok, otherwise i could of just left it to run.

ive included a pic of my setup, planted firmly in the mud....no thanks to our little bechon frice pups (Loo brushes lol). back to the pic: far from perfect, but im thinking that im at last getting there (still far from perfect lol). the forecast looks ok midweek so i'll bash-on with s2 and o111.

cheers

bob

[sologuitarist61]

Great image

[cloudbuster]

My imaging rig was up and running (setup & taking the first images) by 6:05 pm tonight...still really cant believe it. At this rate i might have both s2 & o111 images done by morning, to add to the ha i did of the elephant trunk nebula above!

[stellawolf]

Super image well done

[andyo]

Yes nice image guiding looks good to me.Dont know about the synguider but I use a qhy5 and they are great cameras for guiding

[cloudbuster]

thanks stellawolf.

some might say that i composed the trunk a little oddly, but my plan is to produce a hubble pallet, and after seeing other images, i noticed the features to the left of the trunk, and decided to use these to kind of balance the shot. that being said, i wish id of gone for a straight vertical of the collumm (portrait format), but didnt want to risk fiddling with my kit again.

well, its only 8:10pm and already ive got 2 hours of s2 in the bag....cor blige!

[cloudbuster]

Yes nice image guiding looks good to me.Dont know about the synguider but I use a qhy5 and they are great cameras for guiding

thanks andy....will get one after xmas....despite what george osborne has done to me finances today! whoops....mentioned polotics....smacked wrist!

[x6gas]

well, its only 8:10pm and already ive got 2 hours of s2 in the bag....cor blige!

Cool - you should have enough for a nice bi-colour HST image!

[x6gas]

...although thinking about it the SII signal might be too weak to synthesize a third channel...