First Image of 2017 Messier 78

[Leveye]

Patience is a virtue they say. I'd have to agree with how little clear nights we've all had this winter season. I've waited and waited. Sure there have been a few odd suckerholes and I've been gazing a few night for a few brief minutes but a truly clear night perfect for imaging right up till morning? Few and far between this new year. 

I saw an opportunity a few days ago and left the mount outside covered as the snow fell here for only the second time here in 7 years. Being prepared and having patience finally paid off. I'd like to thank whomever runs clear sky charts. I love that site. Right on the money once again. Much better than our local meteorologists sorry....;-)

This DSO has been on my list for quite sometime and even this time I thought the Moon would once again interfere with the session so I started pretty late in the evening just as M78 was high and clear of my new trimmed treeline. I let it roll till about 2 a.m. and did pretty good. I only had to toss 5 out of 35. Glad to report my mount actually works better in the cold. The entire rig actually. Camera especially. Perfect temps and no dew or frost at all.

This is 30-300 second lights, 25 darks and no flats this time around in DSS @ ISO 800 with the Hutech modded spectrum enhanced T5i and my C8 and reducer @f 6.3 or just about. The correct/best spacing for the reducer/corrector still remains a mystery with me. I've tried all the suggestions, no spacers, 85mm, 105mm and 110mm and nothing yet gives me nice tight stars in the corners. Let me know what you use for spacing. I'd like to know. I'm going to try using my FF at this point no joke. This was at 105mm spacing and cropped some.

After DSS just some tweeking in Camera RAW and converted to a Jpeg for posting. Let me know what you think of the final processing and outcome. Hope this year is a fantastic one for us all.

 

Here it is on Astrobin

[ollypenrice]

Spooky, just as it should be. Could the black point come in just a tad?

Olly

[Leveye]

10 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

Spooky, just as it should be. Could the black point come in just a tad?

Olly

I did try it that way and felt that it covered up a bit too much of the dusty details. So many ways one can go here. Appreciate the honesty Olly!

[wimvb]

Very nice image. I agree with Olly on the black point. Flats would have resulted in a (for lack of a better word) flat background, which would have made it possible to move the black point in, and get more contrast in the target.

Thanks for sharing,

[Leveye]

18 hours ago, wimvb said:

Very nice image. I agree with Olly on the black point. Flats would have resulted in a (for lack of a better word) flat background, which would have made it possible to move the black point in, and get more contrast in the target.

Thanks for sharing,

Many thanks for the honest and helpful comment. Much appreciated!