Ha imaging to beat the moon - NGC1499, and NGC2024/B33

[SteveL]

Another full moon imaging session, so the Hydrogen Alpha filter came out to play. Neither of these images had enough subs to make them smooth and noise free, but I was fighting my kit all night, so I`m glad I managed to get something to show for the evenings work. The use of flats is HIGHLY recommended, the amount of detail I can now bring out in my images is greatly improved, and I`m not fighting any vignetting gradients anymore.

First up, NGC1499 California Nebula

OTA: NS8GPS @ f/2 (Hyperstar v3)

Guiding: William Optics ZenithStar 66 SD + DSI-C + PHD

RGB Imaging: QHY8 + MaximDL, 8x600s, Astronomik 13nm Ha

Stacked: DeepSkyStacker (3x drizzle)

Post Process: ImagesPlus + PSCS2 + Noel Carboni’s AstroTools

(Click on the image for the larger version)

If you compare the above image with the versionI took a while back with the WilliamOptics ZS 66 SD, the difference is quite obvious.

Second, NGC2024 Flame Nebula and B33 Horsehead Nebula

OTA: NS8GPS @ f/2 (Hyperstar v3)

Guiding: William Optics ZenithStar 66 SD + DSI-C + PHD

RGB Imaging: QHY8 + MaximDL, 12x300s, Astronomik 13nm Ha

Stacked: DeepSkyStacker (3x drizzle)

Post Process: ImagesPlus + PSCS2 + Noel Carboni’s AstroTools

(Click on the image for the larger version)

[CELESCOPE]

A crop of lovely images there Steve, fine detail nicely framed. a very good night for you , the only trouble is i,m laying down on my office desk to look at the Horsehead, lol ,dont worry about AM, he is younger and can stand on his head heheheheheh. just noticed you got some serious detail in those rays , pretty deep eh ,

Cheers

Rog

[MikeD]

Great nights work Steve, nice FOV for the HH.

[markcol]

Great stuff Steve, have you found flats more important because of the Hyperstar fov?

Cheers

Mark

[SteveL]

have you found flats more important because of the Hyperstar fov?

Not specifically the Hyperstar.... I always ended up with a central gradient "dome" in all my images, no matter if it was C8, WO66, or the Hyperstar or the DSI/350D/QHY8. Its just that I started to need to do them to show the finer detail that I knew was in there, but were being removed or reduced when I was trying to redeuce the gradient in post processing.

[barkis]

Simply outstanding.

Ron.

[centroid]

Certainly demonstates the value of a 'flat field' Steve, and a nice set of images too, despite the Moon.

Dave

[trudie]

Beautiful, something to aim for one day (I wish). :D :lol:

Trudie

[legion48]

Absolutley cracking images mate. :-)

[jgs001]

Superb images Steve.

[Sam]

More awe inspiring images! They're great!

[Beyond_Vision]

Lovely images as always Steve. Must get some tips from you with regards to doing flats. I have attempted it using Maxim and get some very wierd results.

Regards

Kevin