Horsehead and Flame Nebulae - Orion's Belt

[MikeODay]

First image with new camera - Nikon D5300 (unmodified).

Thanks for looking ...

[red dwalf]

very Nice, i take it you used a newt scope with those diffraction spikes, looks great

[tingting44]

very nice!

how did you pick up so much Ha with a non modded DSLR?

[Gina]

Amazing

[MikeODay]

Thank you all for your kind comments.

Yes it's a Skywatcher Quattro 10" f4 Newtonian. The rings around the star were confusing for a while but I think I have thought of the reason ... The image is slightly cropped to improve the composition. Originally Alnitak was in the centre of the image and I think the rings might be the repeated reflections of the secondary mirror - if I'm right then it looks like I might have finally nailed collimation .

Not sure about the Ha. I've only had the scope since Easter and I'm still try to understand what is normal or expected. The camera is new as well (this was the first night with it); a Nikon D5300 and I have not comparred the IR pass spectrum with my old D300. I did use a Baader UHC-S Nebula filter so that would have helped a little.

.........

19 x 2min ISO400 UHC-S filter

12 bit NEF - long exposure NR on

Nikon D5300 (unmodified)

Skywatcher Quattro 10" f4

Skywatcher AZ-EQ mount

Orion guide scope and autoguider

Baader mk3 coma corrector

PHD2 guiding

DXO Optics Pro - raw conversion

Nebulosity - stacking

[MikeODay]

Reprocessed to try to keep some colour in the stars and to redo the colour balance ...