Heart and Soul Nebulae.. it's been a while...

[James]

Caveat: It's very much a work in progress... but then aren't they all? 

It's been a while (about 2 years in fact) since I did much deep sky imaging having been time-lapsing and DSLR wide field imaging... but I dusted off the trusty HEQ5, put away the lenses, well sort of - I've been using a Borg 55FL f/3.6 for some photography but have put an ASI1600mm-cooled on the back of that to give it a spin. As a Mac user its always been a tad tricky to get software that works with newer cameras but Nebulosity seems to do the job... but recently I've been using The SkyX both for mount control and imaging/guiding. (I'm waiting for OzDave's EQMac (http://eqmac.hulse.id.au) to get fixed  )

The field of view is about right to get both the Heart and the Soul Nebulae in so I put in an Ha filter and have put together 12x 5minute subs. Looking at the picture I can see why the Soul Nebula (IC1848) on the left is sometimes called the Foetus Nebula...

It's been a bit of an experiment on the gain front - but I've used The SkyX's 'default' 200 setting, it's possibly too much, the combination of scope and camera seems to rip the light out of the sky but perhaps as the cost of too much noise, I'll need to try other settings. I've had to hammer the noise in processing so, naturally, I'll be getting many more subs and will get onto OIII just as soon as the moon is out the way again... given our weather though I guess I'll be completing this image in about 2019...

What I really need to do is sort out getting an image on here to look how it looks on my screen whilst processing... any tips welcome!!

Any criticism is welcome  I know the field is not entirely flat and there's a little tilt I've yet to sort.... I don't want to be told that I need more colour in the image ...

Details:

12x 5min exposures in Ha (Baader 7nm Ha)

Scope: Borg 55FL f/3.6 Mount:  Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro

Camera: ASI1600mm-Cool

Captured and guided through The SkyX Pro, processed in PixInsight (thank you Harry for your videos...)

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Uplooker]

Very well done James, regardless of your own criticisms. You should be proud of that image, especially after such a long break.

onwards and upwards ?

[Scott]

bit jealous James. It's a 9 or 12 pane mosaic just to image the soul with my kit . Lucky beggar

 

[James]

Its swings and roundabouts Scott... If I try for a galaxy or two it's a tiny blodge in the middle of the screen   Even the Rosette looks small... Markarians Chain only takes up some of the field... although that might be cool actually

We need two scopes for imaging...

 

[Uranium235]

Looks good James

The only thing I can pick out really is a small loss of local contrast on Melotte 15, its nothing that a small layer mask cant sort out.

[PatrickGilliland]

I like it - for an early run out and a long break it's a solid return.  Nice work.

Paddy 

[ecuador]

3 hours ago, James said:

I don't want to be told that I need more colour in the image ...

 

Eh, what do you mean more color? It already is too red!

Nice one, favorite target...

[AndyUK]

That's a lovely field for this pair, James - As Scott noted, for many it would take many nights to cover all this... and the fact that this is just 1 hour's worth of data is really quite phenomenal

[swag72]

This is a great FOV and a most pleasing image - Good to see you back James  Don't leave it so long next time

[johnrt]

Smashing! 5 minute subs seem a little long, I thought the whole point of these new CMOS chips was that your could take lots of very short exposures, rather than the more traditional method of 10/15 longer subs?

[Gina]

Great image James

[theo]

That's lovely. The ASI camera seems to have done a great job of capturing those photons!

Pete

[Scott]

3 hours ago, johnrt said:

Smashing! 5 minute subs seem a little long, I thought the whole point of these new CMOS chips was that your could take lots of very short exposures, rather than the more traditional method of 10/15 longer subs?

Theory's great John but at the end of the day, the proof is in the puddin' and this is a very tasty pud. 1 hr imaging time! How short can we truly expect? 

 

[Gina]

Longest exposure I go for is 2m.  I do use very high gain though to get suitable ADU values and maximise S/N ratio.  Higher gain gives lower read noise.

[James]

4 hours ago, johnrt said:

Smashing! 5 minute subs seem a little long, I thought the whole point of these new CMOS chips was that your could take lots of very short exposures, rather than the more traditional method of 10/15 longer subs?

I'm struggling to shift mentally from trying to get 15 min subs to shorter ones ... 5 mins seemed a good compromise... 

Next target I'll try ramping up the gain and going for hundreds of short subs  I'd better clear some space on my hard drive...

James

[Allinthehead]

Great image. looks like the borg and Asi1600 are a nice combo. I think you might be in or around the sweet spot of exposure time for the camera at 5mins.

[harry page]

Hi

well that is very nice indeed

A bit of LHE in pixinsight may give it a bit more contrast

Harry

[James]

I'll give that a go when I get new data... or when I do a reprocess if it's not clear in the next few days  

[GuillaumeC]

Hi James
Your image is cool, bravo.
I just bought the Borg 55 fl 3.6 (Version 2019) and I also have the ZWO ASI 1600 and filter wheel ZWO.
How did you mount your ZWO 1600 on the Borg?
Because I can not get the Backfocus (60mm)
Thank you and good day
Guillaume