NGC 6992 - East Veil with the AG12

[Grinde]

How's going people?

Long time since last post due to bright Swedish summer nights, gear-tuning and automation fiddling, but now I'm up & running again.

I'm starting off the dark season with one of my favorite targets inside the cygnus loop, NGC 6992, east veil nebula.

The subs where acquired during three moonlit nights, all subs unguided.

(shooting other targets too, so subs are shot when the target is in the highest position in the sky, thanks to ACP automation)

I've only used two filters for this image, Ha & O3 (both 5nm). I mixed the color close to Ha/O3/O3 as R/G/B , with slight different weights in G & B, to reach a more blue tone rather than cyan. Both Ha & O3 was used as luminance-data.

I also created a "natural" star-color mix of the layers, with Ha / Ha+O3 / O3 as R/G/B and adjusted filterweights until I had a natural mix of yellow & blue (go Sweden!) stars, which was later applied as color-data with a star-mask on top of the image.

The Subs (unguided):

Ha : 19 x 600s / 190 minutes

O3 : 12 x 600s / 120 minutes

Total time: 310 minutes / 5.2 hours

The Scope:
Orion Optics AG12
Aperture: 12"
Focal lenght: 1140mm
Focal ratio: f/3.8
Imaging scale: 0.98" / pixel together with my QSI 583

The Mount:
10 Micron GM 2000 HPS
All subs unguided

The Camera:
QSI 583 wsg (with 8-position filterwheel upgrade)
Filters: Astrodon
 

Click image for full resolution:

It's been so much fun to see this object in the high resolution my setup produces, so many faint formations of nebulosity I've never seen before.

I also recommend to have a peek at the following link, it's crazy how different the same object can look, imaged through different wavelengths:

Click here to see the difference between the Ha & O3 at my homepage, with a "mouse-over" function that switches between the two

Thanks a lot for watching

Best Regards

Jonas Grinde

http://www.grinderphoto.se

[Welrod50]

That is quite literally spectacular!  Unguided too....excellent!  How on earth have you managed to resolve this so well - it's almost like a near earth object!

More please

[Grinde]

That is quite literally spectacular! Unguided too....excellent! How on earth have you managed to resolve this so well - it's almost like a near earth object!

More please

Thanks mate!

I'm surprised myself by all the faint stuff showing, even though I havent got 'that' much data, & the subs weren't that long either. I'd say there's no substitute for good tracking, that's where the resolution comes from. Seeing in the range of 3"-3.5", nothing spectacular there.

And yes, more is on the way :-)

[Fay]

Unguided. Wow! really lovely, great processing

Fay

[perfrej]

Neither Grinde nor I have guided since we got our GM2000 mounts No need....

[morimarty]

Fantastic imaging and processing!

[ollypenrice]

I've commented eleswhere but this is fantastic. Sharp but delicate, softly processed because the data is inherently tack sharp. This is very obvious. You're still a young man, Jonas. I think you should settle down and do the whole Cygnus loop!!! DOn't take too long or I won't live to see it! 

A GM2000 represents about a year's income for me. I guide!

Olly

[PhotoGav]

Stunning - you seem to have mastered your set-up!

[pietervdv]

Jonas,

That is a very detailed and deep image. When I look at the full size image I can't help but notice your stars are not 100% round.

Perhaps your primary mirror is pinched and needs to breathe a bit more in the cell?

But great image in any case.

Pieter

[Ewan]

Stunning wow !

The image is so smooth it really gives that 'fluffy' appearance, colour is very pleasing as are the stars.

I can see what Pieter is asking as well, the stars do seem to have a very slight pintched outward travelling effect on the mid left side, any idea what causes this ?

That kit certainly delivers some amaing data, well done.

[sabin_fota]

great image, great mount

congrat!