IC1396 4x2 deg & Elephants Trunk crop from Full frame

[Psychobilly]

First Clear(ish) night for ages and first light for the "un-modded" Canon 350D

These are the first "roughs"

Firstly a widefield image (approx 4x2 degrees) of IC1396 resized to 800 wide,

And then a Close-up of the Elephants Trunk Region from the full frame version upsampled to 800 wide...

Both from same Data

Canon 350D (un-modded) on Skywatcher Equinoxe-66 Pro , William Optics FF III and Hutech Idas P2 Filter

Lights 22x240s @ ISO800 , 5 Darks, 10 Bias DSS, CS3

Just glad to get soem new data to play with

Billy...

[Tim]

Nice Billy, very nice. If you throw some flats into that equation you should be able to pull out a whole lot more of the nebulosity, and you'll have more contrast to play with as well.

TJ

[Psychobilly]

Hi TJ,

Flats are the next thing for me to look at. I have been using synthetic ones using either GradientXTerminator or Pinxinsight but they arent really ideal for these extended Nebulae. I am waiting for a sample of some material which might make a very good lightbox as I think reall flats are the way to go.

Billy...

[Tim]

I used to really struggle with them, understanding them that is, but this page really helped;

hmmm, excuse me, I'm struggling to find the link. At any rate, you will find it in the astro lounge, under "How flat is flat?" posted around a week ago I think.

You can get useable flats at any time I think, as long as certain factors are in place, ie, the focus and focal length, and temperatures, although in practice I notice very little difference in noise between my dslr when it is sub-zero outside, and now when it is 18+ at night.

The link tells you what settings to use to get best results. Remember to have any filters in place that you have used for the image too.

I took a few flats for a library, at the two focal lengths that I use, and with the two cameras that I use. Now I just add them into the mix. Its not the perfect way, but it really seems to help with the processing, I can say that much (See my two processed of M31 on UKA for proof of that!!)

Cheers

TJ

[Psychobilly]

It's really laziness on my part coupole with the fact that the D200 even with darks would have amp-glow artifacts in the fall off reigons which meant that I would end up cropping out the worst of the "vignetting" to get rid of the glow - the 350D looks like i will be able to use the full frame meaning that flats become even more important.

Got some latest generation "white" EL film on the way and driver electronics for it so thats what I am planning on making my lightbox with

Billy...