Hunt the DSOs - Ha Widefields

[Knight of Clear Skies]

These shots were taken at the beginning of December but I've only just got around to processing them properly. They were inspired by some of Gina's Ha widefields, I thought I'd try putting a very fast lens in front of my Ha filter and DSLR to see what I could get. The first three shots were taken with a Carl-Zeiss 35mm f2.4 lens wide open.

This is 45 minutes on Orion and Monoceros, showing Barnard's Loop, the Angelfish and the extended nebulosity above the Rosette. Can just make out the Christmas Tree and Cone at this focal length.

Next up is Cygnus, with the NAN, Pelican, Sadr Region and Veil being the most prominent nebulae. The bright region below the NAN is Sh2-119. There is also a tiny Cocoon at lower left with the dust lane running towards it, and a slightly bigger Crescent to the right of the Sadr Region.  This is my favorite of the four image, I'm happy I managed to pick up the filamentary structures at the top. I assume these were formed by supernovae? Also worth noting is the dark river that runs from the tip of Mexico and straight through the Butterfly, and the large dark nebula on the left.

When Cygnus got too low I moved on to Cepheus.

IC1396 is at lower left with the Flying Bat blow it, and NGC7822 is the large nebula on the right. In between are a collection of objects from the Sharpless catalogue, including the Wizard, Cave and Lobster Claw.

Finally, while I was shooting M42 with an ED120 I had a go at the Lobster Claw region with a 135mm lens at f3.5.

This was 3h26m of data. I think that's the Wizard at lower left with the Cave at lower right. I'm less happy with this one, most of the nebulosity is a bit amorphous. In retrospect I wish I'd had a go at the Eridanus Loop instead with the 35mm lens.

Hope you find these interesting, please let me know if there are any nebulae I've missed. Ha with a DSLR isn't an ideal combination but it is possible to get fairly deep into the Sharpless catalogue by choosing a fast lens to compensate.

[happy-kat]

I love these. Is that your moded dlsr?

[Knight of Clear Skies]

2 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

I love these. Is that your moded dlsr?

Thanks. Yes, modded 1100D and 12nm clip-in filter.

[Horwig]

So nice to see DSOs in context

Huw

[laser_jock99]

Good stuff- not all DSO's need a telescope, some are very large indeed.

[laudropb]

Lovely set of widefield images.

[Adamar98]

Great set of images!

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Thanks everyone. The Cygnus image has come out best but these were fun to take, despite them lacking a bit of quality. The Orion image isn't as noisy as it appears, looks like the dead pixel detection was turned off in DSS somehow. I'm not sure if I can fix this in post processing of whether I need to restack.

[Gina]

I love these and happy to see that I inspired them - thank you   I plan to cover Orion and Monoceros as soon as the weather permits.

[Knight of Clear Skies]

@Gina - Just a thought, but have you considered having a go at the Eridanus Loop? It's very rarely imaged but I think your setup would be ideal for it, I think it would all fit in frame with the 28mm lens.

[Gina]

Not heard of that one - thank you for the suggestion   I'll Google it...  I always welcome suggestions for things to image

Later...  Looks possible   I'll have a go after I've captured Barnard's Loop.

[Gina]

I also have an 18mm lens at f3.5 though a zoom so likely to be less optically great.  Here's the FOV with that :-

[Knight of Clear Skies]

There a good finder chart from here that may help with the framing.

Its catalogue designation is SH2-245, it's also sometimes called the Fishhook nebula. The main hook seems to be moderately bright, I think the extensions down from the lower middle are a bit fainter. Checking some Ha all-sky maps I'm pretty confident I could pick it up with my DSLR and 35mm lens, but I'm not sure how well the structure of the filaments would show up.

Good luck if you do decide to have a go at it , it seems to be woefully overlooked - I can find very few images or references to it online. It's thought to be the other side of the supernovae that formed Barnard's Loop, and to be more distant and more tenuous as there was less materiel to sweep up in that direction. 

[Gina]

Should be able to capture that I think.  I got a bit confused due to CdC displaying the map upside down!

[Gina]

Here is the 28mm frame reorientated - I was hoping it might cover both loops but it doesn't.  To do that I'll need the 18mm lens.  But I could do the loops separately.

[Gina]