My first attempt at the Horsehead Nebula ...

[SlimPaling]

I am pretty new to all of this ... but after a lifetime of waiting for the opportunity I have finally managed to make my own image of the Horsehead nebula after first seeing it in a book 60+ yrs ago!!!

At long last I have managed to gather a decent set of kit and I am hoping that it can do more. I am reasonably happy with the results but I feel that there is a real need for some improvement . I am seeking advice here .... I have seen many versions of the Horsehead which look MUCH better than mine but were done on very similar equipment to mine.

Late on Sunday night I took 3 x 200 sec subs with each of the LRGB filters. These were calibrated with darks, flats and bias frames in MaximDL. Then all aligned in Registar before stacking in Maxim and then finally processed in Photoshop.

I was pretty careful to get my CCD to correct focus (using the V-curve system in Maxim) before I started my imaging session. I have an electronic Optec Focus Lynx system added to my focuser and I have set it to use "temperature compensation" .... the only thing that I know of that I have NOT done, so far, is set the focus offsets for each filter.

So how can I improve my images???

I know that this area of the sky does not really come up very high in the sky for me here in Nottinghamshire ... and there is often quite a bit of light pollution as I look south towards Nottingham. Am I just going to have to live with the effects of this? The sky wasn't perfect on Sunday here but at least there were no clouds for a change !

Do I need to increase the duration of each image (I did 200sec subs) and take more of them ???

Should I sort out the filter focusing offsets ???

Is it possible that I am "over stretching" my combined LRGB files giving me too much background noise???

Any suggestions of how to improve my results would be really welcome :-)))

Mike

[JemC]

For your 1st attempt i would say you have done well,

there is a green tint to your image though, there is a simple to use plug in for photoshop, available here http://www.deepskycolors.com/archive/2010/04/26/hasta-La-Vista-Green.html that should help with the green tint,
i find it to be quite a handy little plug in,

pretty sure others will be along and pass on their knowledge\wisdom in this area

[iwols]

1 hour ago, SlimPaling said:

I am pretty new to all of this ... but after a lifetime of waiting for the opportunity I have finally managed to make my own image of the Horsehead nebula after first seeing it in a book 60+ yrs ago!!!

At long last I have managed to gather a decent set of kit and I am hoping that it can do more. I am reasonably happy with the results but I feel that there is a real need for some improvement . I am seeking advice here .... I have seen many versions of the Horsehead which look MUCH better than mine but were done on very similar equipment to mine.

Late on Sunday night I took 3 x 200 sec subs with each of the LRGB filters. These were calibrated with darks, flats and bias frames in MaximDL. Then all aligned in Registar before stacking in Maxim and then finally processed in Photoshop.

I was pretty careful to get my CCD to correct focus (using the V-curve system in Maxim) before I started my imaging session. I have an electronic Optec Focus Lynx system added to my focuser and I have set it to use "temperature compensation" .... the only thing that I know of that I have NOT done, so far, is set the focus offsets for each filter.

So how can I improve my images???

I know that this area of the sky does not really come up very high in the sky for me here in Nottinghamshire ... and there is often quite a bit of light pollution as I look south towards Nottingham. Am I just going to have to live with the effects of this? The sky wasn't perfect on Sunday here but at least there were no clouds for a change !

Do I need to increase the duration of each image (I did 200sec subs) and take more of them ???

Should I sort out the filter focusing offsets ???

Is it possible that I am "over stretching" my combined LRGB files giving me too much background noise???

Any suggestions of how to improve my results would be really welcome :-)))

Mike

excellent stuff this is my ambition too,time weather permitting

[DaveS]

Very good for a first attempt, I've got this on my hit list for December, before I move on to the Rosette.

Agree about the green tinge, but I also see you've managed to keep Alnitak split, a real test.

[sloz1664]

It was my lifelong ambition to image the HH and I achieved it also and a much better image than I produced.

 Agree with JenC on removing the green with Hasta-La-Vista-Green.

Steve

 

[SlimPaling]

Many thanks for the suggestions to try "Hasta-La-Vista-Green" .... I have downloaded it and it works great!!!

This will now be a permanent part of my of my processing :-)

Mike

[wimvb]

Great image. Tip for improvement: more subs. If you compare with other images of this target, find out how long the total integration time (= nr of subs x sub exposure time) was. The best images invariably have integration times measured in (tens of) hours. More subs gets the noise down, making it easier to process the image.

[SlimPaling]

10 minutes ago, wimvb said:

Great image. Tip for improvement: more subs. If you compare with other images of this target, find out how long the total integration time (= nr of subs x sub exposure time) was. The best images invariably have integration times measured in (tens of) hours. More subs gets the noise down, making it easier to process the image.

Hi Wim

Great recommendation for me !!!

I suspected that this might be my biggest problem ..... I will try to add more subs as soon as the weather allows :-)

Mike

PS: Where are you in Sweden? ... my wife has family near Orebro

[wimvb]

I live near Stockholm, but have a small cottage (= my dark site) not far from Örebro.