Veil suggestions

[MattJenko]

Morning All,

I am thinking of a rather big effort (for me anyway) at imaging the Veil over the coming months. Given the time constraints imposed on us poor UK imagers, I don't really fancy doing too much experimentation, so wanted to garner some opinion on how best to image this rather tantalising and vast object. I have to do a mosaic, so ensuring I spend most of my time actually gathering data is key, so would it make sense to go for a straight forward LRGB image, or is there mileage in really going for it and doing a narrowband image. I understand that while there is Sulphur up there, it is mentally faint, so not sure I need to waste hours getting just Sii star fields, but would appreciate some feedback if anyone has had a go at this target before and has some pointers. I am prepared to put the time in if it warrants it, but want to avoid some obvious pitfalls if I can.

Many thanks

Matt

[ChrisLX200]

There is a good SII signal in the Veil - in fact, it's one of the few that differentiates well (structurally) to all three common NB filters. Even where SII mostly overlays the Ha signal the added tonality of the SII gives it more depth. So no, it's far from being a waste of time collecting SII. Having to do a mosaic is a pain, you need to make sure you balance the panes well so they match (same number of subs etc.,) and will stitch together without joins being apparent.

ChrisH

[Astroboy239]

The viel is very big about 3 degrees. I feel it's a h alpha  o3 and sit target. You will have to do a mosaic. The northern and eastern viel if the brighter part of the complex. I don't think is lrgb

[RobertI]

Hi Matt, @Dom543 recently did an interesting capture of the Veil in Ha, Oiii and S which showed reasonable Sulphur without lengthy exposures, may be of interest.....

 

[Knight of Clear Skies]

The Eastern and Western Veil are bright and Pickering's Triangle isn't too bad, but much of the extended nebulosity is very faint and will be tricky to catch in RGB. This is what I got with a 200mm lens at f3.5 last year:

I need to have a go at reprocessing it really, trying to bring out the faint stuff has made the image suffer. Here's a really messy version with heavy star removal applied, but it does show the extent of the nebulosity more clearly:

Hope that's some help.

[ChrisLX200]

I've only ever done parts of the Veil Neb - never attempted the whole thing (I hate mosaics - they are so expensive on imaging time and there are far too few clear nights!). However the Moravian G4-16000 camera has resolved that problem for me, and when/if these clouds (and Moon) decide to do one then I calculate I can get the whole thing onto the sensor even using my 660mm f/l TV NP127is refractor. Looking forward to trying anyway...

Framing Wizard view in SGPro:

ChrisH

[MattJenko]

Cheers all. Not unexpectedly, the advice points to a significant increase in project scope creep (pun intended) and a definite requirement on me to commit to this for the long haul and go for a full Ha, Oiii, Sii attempt. Seeing as I am committed, some RGB stars thrown in might be a welcome cherry on top.

See you in 4 months!

Matt

[Thalestris24]

+1 for a 200mm lens - the whole thing fits in nicely and narrowband is relatively fast (at f4)

Louise