Heart of the Heart Nebula NB Hubble Palette - MN190 + 460EX

[Gina]

After a long long time without any imaging the sky was clear for an hour or so last night and I managed to capture some narrow band of the Heart of the Heart Nebula (Melotte 15).  Started the imaging run before 9pm and left the equipment running overnight.  The moon came up and started causing problems before an hour was up then the mist came in a bit later.  Even early on the transparency wasn't very good and FWHM of 3 to 4 was best I could get with the MN190 and 460EX so I went for binning 2x2  - using 5m Ha subs and 10m OIII and SII.  On examining the subs I was able to use just 4 of each colour.

Here is the result of stacking in DSS, aligned in RegiStar and stretched and further processed for the Hubble Palette in Ps.

For those with a slow internet connection, here's a JPEG image.

[dave_galera]

Hi Gina,

Now that is my kind of image!!! Absolutely brilliant and I just love the colours, soooo moody.

WelL done, one small comment, I wonder if it would look better without the magenta stars?

Dave

[andyo]

Great shot Gina I like the colour and contrast in this really nice

[Gina]

Thank you both

Here's some star reduction.

[Daniel-K]

stunning Gina i love the colours well done you should be pleased

[andyman]

Fantastic gina beautifull colours

[Jessun]

Your finest image to date Gina! Despite the lack of integration time, this one is a stunner!! Colours I'd bite an arm off for! Excellent processing!

I don't mind magenta stars at all - they fit well in a Hubble edit I think, but the last edition looks more controlled overall!

BRAVO!

/Jesper

[Martin-Devon]

It's a lovely capture Gina, under tricky conditions too - you've achieved a really nice colour palette here that really suits this image perfectly.

Martin

[StuartJPP]

Very good Gina.

[Mark72]

nicely done Gina,  great result.

So now some more panes to capture the entire object?

Mark

[Gina]

Thank you very much everyone - much appreciated   I guess I could make a mosaic, Mark - if we were to get some clear nights.  Have to say the MN190 is a really superb scope and works well with the Atik 460EX binned 2x2.  With better transparency I know I can use unbinned subs - I have done before.  But binning with the 460EX still gives a reasonable resolution for monitor display

[PNJ]

Very pleasing to the eye, well done

Paul J

[symesie04]

Great work Gina, really nice image. Its amazing how far your imaging has come along since i first joined the forum.

[fwm891]

Well done Gina - we've been a bit short on clear skies down this way lately!

[Gina]

Thank you all   I much appreciate your comments    You're right Francis, clear skies have been few and far between lately

[laser_jock99]

Nice image- sometimes it's worth carrying on even in adverse conditions.

[Philk_80]

Wow - that is one fab picture - all credit to you

[lensman57]

My O My, I love them. Absolutely stunning.

A.G

[rfdesigner]

Woh!..   I've been away a month or three and suddenly you've moved up a league.. or two!

lovely image, you must be very pleased.

Derek

[Freddie]

Nice work there Gina. The FWHM figure of 3-4 was pretty bad though. I'm usually 2+/- 0.5 on a 5 sec exposure. Conditions were obviously not on your side that night.

[Chris]

Superbly done Gina, the heart neb is definately worth imaging close up!

[Gina]

Thank you everyone - much appreciated

Have to admit with the conditions and so few subs I was agreeably surprised at how well the result came out with some fiddling

[Gina]

A clear sky last night for a change - been ages!   But the humidity was horrendous - after a couple of hours everything was dripping with dew   I ran the dew heater on the MN190 at the full 12v and that stopped misting up for several hours but I think the dew won in the end around 3am - guiding failed and that was the end of any decent subs.  I've only had a quick look at the data from last night but will be sorting it out and processing this morning.  As usual I left it to run unattended from 11pm and went to bed.

[Gina]

Here are the stacked and stretched images from the last imaging run.  12 x 5m of Ha, 9 x 10m of OIII and 8 x 10m SII.  Apart from loosing everything in the early hours, I rejected a few subs due to star trailing.  There is still something causing star diffraction spikes I have to investigate.  This is only data from the one night's run, I haven't as yet taken all the data from the two nights but I will do and compare the results.

   

[Gina]

A remarkably rare event last night - several hours of clear sky and without impossibly heavy dew   I set up to have another go at this and apart from a glitch in the middle when it hit the meridian, lost tracking and I had to restart, I got pretty much a full night's worth (at least from 9pm when the clouds went away). 

Here is the result of 16 x 5m Ha plus 13 x 10m OIII and SII stacked in DSS, aligned with RegiStar and processed in Ps for Hubble palette.  This is a slightly different coverage from the earlier runs but as last night's data was far better I have used that only and I think this is just about as well as I can do.  I now plan to make this part of a mosaic of the whole Heart - when the weather permits.