NGC 2174, the Monkey Head Nebula in H-alpha

[woland]

Hello,

Recently the weather was kind to me which is quite unusual during this time of the year. However this allowed me to take this photo of the Monkey Head Nebula in H-alpha (I don't have any other filters yet to make bicolor or HST images). The nebula is located in Orion:

Information and setup:

8x1800 s (the longes I've ever taken), 04-10-2013.

TS Apo 65Q, Atik 314 L+, HEQ5, Baader H-alpha filter.

Astrometry.net annotations and other technical stuff

Thanks for looking and hope you enjoy!

Tomek

[swag72]

Looks good. 30 minute exposures are, I believe, the way forward. You can pick up masses of data in 30 minute subs.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice image. I spotted that nebula last year. It is very faint.

[woland]

Hi. Thanks

Indeed you can especially with a faster scope (unlike mine). The only problem is getting the mount and guiding to behave, because some stacking methods can get rid of an ocasional sat trail. I don't think I would be able to achieve such long exposures on HEQ5 with any longer focal lengths - this one's 420 mm.

[Martin-Devon]

This is one of my favourite targets and you have a very nice version there. Since this sits between Gemini & Orion, both of which are still quite low/late in the sky at the moment so you've done well to pick this one up already.

Martin

[Mark72]

Nice work, well done. Long exposures paid-off well

Mark

[woland]

Thank you for the nice comments

Several days ago I decided to buy the OIII and SII filters and yesterday I had a chance to take some photos with the OIII filter. Unfortunately due to the weather I was able to shoot just a couple of 1800 s subs which showed almost no oxygen...

Anyway I decided to take them and create a bicolorish image: 

Stars were created with the help of eXcalibrator and some photoshop work.

Hope you enjoy

Tomek