California Nebula wide field and close up

[gorann]

On Thursday night I had my third session with the triple rig: a Samyang 135mm f/2, a Canon 300mm f/4 and an ES 5" apo (@ 750 mm FL f/5.9), each equipped with a Canon 60D set at ISO1600 (60Da on the 5" refractor). Temperature was around -4°C, so almost no noise in the DSLRs, but about half of the subs had to be thrown out due to clouds and after I went to bed after the meridian flip (00.30), I lost guiding at some point and for some reason my laptop had shut down when I woke up at 7. In any case, I got a fair amount of data with the Samyang (192 x 1 min = 3.2 hours at f/2). I only got 18 x 8 min of usable frames with the 5" refractor, but the subs were rather good. The canon 300 mm was possibly poorly focused. In any case it did not produce results that I like to post.

So here are results of the 135 mm wide field and 752 mm close up.

I used the refractor for framing after the flip but the 135 mm had for some reason moved a bit allowing me to make a mosaic (with the central part of the image with data from both before and after the flip). That accidental move brought in quite a bit of dark nebulosity and a little nebula called The Northern Trifid Nebula (NGC1579).

I am quite unsure about what shade of red to use on the California. I see everything from bright orange to magenta on the web. I have gone for something in between. Yes, I know, I should add some Ha to this object....

Comments and suggestions most welcome!

Cheers

Göran

[Victor Boesen]

Amazing as always

[gorann]

1 hour ago, Victor Boesen said:

Amazing as always

Thanks a lot Victor!?

[MarsG76]

Great image.... and setup.

When you described going to sleep after the meridian flip than losing frames and guiding due to clouds, I though I was reading my own report... I guess were all plagued by similar dilemmas....

[gorann]

14 minutes ago, MarsG76 said:

Great image.... and setup.

When you described going to sleep after the meridian flip than losing frames and guiding due to clouds, I though I was reading my own report... I guess were all plagued by similar dilemmas....

Thanks, and yes as soon you turn your back on the stuff just to exercise your human right of a few hours of sleep the sky decides to live its own life.... but for the computer to turn off I can only blame Bill Gates

[MarsG76]

2 hours ago, gorann said:

Thanks, and yes as soon you turn your back on the stuff just to exercise your human right of a few hours of sleep the sky decides to live its own life.... but for the computer to turn off I can only blame Bill Gates

See as a work around, I setup a VNC on my iPad to monitor the guiding on my bedside table, but unless I'm really tired, it just stops me from falling asleep... and the guiding is solid... the moment you does off... clouds, or guide star drifts etc... can't win.

[gorann]

After looking more at the Californias on the web, I think I may have been holding back a bit on the brightness, so here is a bit more dramatic version of the close up image.

Please tell me if it is over the top. I find it really difficult to settle on a suitable brightness and colour on this nebula