3rd Night, 3rd Target.. My take on the Horse Head Nebula

[topgearuk]

I'm now fully addicted! Tonight was my 3rd night out and the clouds stayed away. Also had my Orion guider turn up, this has been a real step learning curve, but enjoyable, over the last couple of weeks..

Managed 10 x 500 sec subs, only 2 darks as the laptop went flat and 10 x Bias

If I want to add more frames, when I do another night, do I restack the whole lot, or just the new frames? If I take different length exposures do these have to be stacked separately? I’m using DSS.

[bogdog]

nice capture

not sure about dss so will leave it up to others who know more about it to advise

[baggywrinkle]

Nice image, well done.

[lensman57]

I'm now fully addicted! Tonight was my 3rd night out and the clouds stayed away. Also had my Orion guider turn up, this has been a real step learning curve, but enjoyable, over the last couple of weeks..

Managed 10 x 500 sec subs, only 2 darks as the laptop went flat and 10 x Bias

If I want to add more frames, when I do another night, do I restack the whole lot, or just the new frames? If I take different length exposures do these have to be stacked separately? I’m using DSS.

Hi,

First well done, it is quite a nice image of the HH. If you do another set exposures of the same length you can throw the whole lot in and DSS will sort them out. Pick the best frame and right click it and mark it as reference, all other subs will be aligned to this one. If you have different length of exposures the best way is to stack each set seprately and then combine them in PS, although you can click the group tab at the left hand bottom of the main interface and drop  the second set into a new group with associated calibration frames and DSS will give  you a stack.

Regards,

A.G

[topgearuk]

Thanks guys..

And Thanks A.G, I will give that a try next time there's a break in the weather.

[lensman57]

Thanks guys..

And Thanks A.G, I will give that a try next time there's a break in the weather.

You are welcome.

Clear skies,

A.G

[Christopher Davenport]

Very nice image sir ... very tempted to crack open my Eos and remove that filter!

I use Astrotortilla to get myself aligned to capture more data of the same subject.

It needs to be at the same location and at the same rotation, sounds easy doesn't it 

Good stuff keep up the good work.

[sologuitarist61]

Excellent - I can never get enough of the Horse!

[topgearuk]

@ Christopher, Thanks.. I've not heard about Astrotortilla, I'll be sure to check it out..

@ Richard, Thanks, I never ever thought I'd be able to get a reasonable picture of the horse head, specially after 6 months ago popping in to an  Astronomy shop, seeking advice on what I needed to buy and explaining to the shop owner what I'd like to get in to and was told that it was a very difficult object to capture, and the impression I got was, I’d be wasting my time unless I spend some serious money and have endless amounts of time. I almost gave up my dreams of taking astrophotography there and then!

P.s I checked out your blog, superb models you have built and made very interesting reading, I haven't built a plastic kit in years, but would really like to give it another go sometime, my main hobby is anything that flies RC and has been for 30 or so years, including working with it.