NGC2264: Cone & Christmas tree (HST)

[Uranium235]

Saturday night turned out to be a clear one, so I wasnt going to waste the opportunity of getting a badly needed photon fix. Conditions were far from ideal, there was a fair bit of star twinkling going on and M42 wasnt naked eye visible (could barely make out the sword!) - so I knew I was up against it from the start.

I decided to finally add some SII to the cone nebula which I caputred at SGL7 last year, and there is a surprising amount of SII there to be had (far more than OIII, which barely registered). But firstly, I topped up the Ha with another 10 subs - but its still not enough as there is still a bit of noise present in the corners, acutally the whole lot would do with more (as always!). But while the CCD was busy I fired up the 1000d to continuously snap away with 10min subs, I had 18 by the end of the session but not enough to make a decent stand-alone result after processing. It may require some blending of Ha to make it passable, which would be nice because there are a couple of interesting features in and around the area that are not picked up with NB imaging.

I might just stay in Orion for my next project (assuming its clear before - or at SGL8), M78 has caught my eye and I'd like to have a nibble at it before it disappears.

NGC2264: Cone nebula + Christmas tree nebula

Ha_L (47x450), SII/Ha/OIII (14x450 each)

ED80 (0.85x), Atik 314L+, CG5-GT (2012), NEQ6 (2013)

Setpoint: -15

Thanks for looking

[Gina]

Lovely shot

[laser_jock99]

Great image- can even see the Fox Fur nebula.

[Uranium235]

Thanks

Its looking like it might be clear tonight again! So hopefully I can have a little dig at M78 with both cameras.

[tonedeaf]

very nice...hope to achive that also ...maybe some day in the nearer future (i´m hoping in the next millenia )

the contrast is nice... i love it...

sadly this target is to far south for me atm

[Shibby]

Very nice Rob! Very interesting to see in full NB compared to HaRGB. I know that much of this nebula is very faint but you've revealed a lot here. Did you manage to get out for M78? I finally managed to get the scope out last night but the conditions were pretty awful, I could only see the brightest constellations.

[Uranium235]

Very nice Rob! Very interesting to see in full NB compared to HaRGB. I know that much of this nebula is very faint but you've revealed a lot here. Did you manage to get out for M78? I finally managed to get the scope out last night but the conditions were pretty awful, I could only see the brightest constellations.

Cheers Lewis!

Ahhh M78, I did a little swotting up on it before attempting and then ran away screaming when I saw how much exposure it would require. Olly had a tough time with it at f6.8, and my setup isnt that much faster (f6.38) so it might be a bridge too far - even for a twin shooter + co-op.

Like you, any recent clear sky here has been total gack. If I cant see the sword of orion or M45, then I dont bother setting up. This year so far, I can count the number of good nights on one hand. Im just sitting here watching the weather on tv and it looks like we might need snowshoes for next week! Grim....

[badgerchap]

oo nice, like it