Horsehead Nebula One Year On

[Gerry Casa Christiana]

Hello all

The horse head was first captured by me a COMPLETE newbie last winter (not much has changed  )I thought I would put a comparison between last year and this weeks photo. All the equipment is the same I’m using a skywatcher 150pds with Canon 550d which last year was not modified. A job I did myself last year. Last year I had no guiding so I was limited to 2 or 3 minute subs. All on a Eq6. Since then I’m always tinkering to get things a little better. Still not perfect but good fun trying to iron out the problems. So here they are. Don’t laugh at the first one Olly!

 

[iwols]

superb what an improvement ,ide be happy with the first one,how much do you put down to your processing though?

[bobro]

Super improvement! Can you say what subs were taken for the latest image?

[Squeek86]

I'm embarking on this journey myself and if I could capture any image like you have done id be amazed!!

 

Both images look fantastic keep up the good work!!

[MarsG76]

That's a massive improvement... MASSIVE!!! Well done , keep it up.

[Gerry Casa Christiana]

On ‎22‎/‎01‎/‎2018 at 11:11, bobro said:

Super improvement! Can you say what subs were taken for the latest image?

Hello yes of course. I used 360 sec subs with 30 flats and bias. It's about 2 hours.  Glad you like it! 

On ‎22‎/‎01‎/‎2018 at 10:42, iwols said:

superb what an improvement ,ide be happy with the first one,how much do you put down to your processing though?

The processing has improved a lot BUT i don't use expensive software. I've tried pixinsight but I find it quite complicated so I just use Cs2 . But no matter how much processing I do I can never do the same with the first image. It's in my opinion the modification to the camera that's made the biggest difference. Longer exposures and guiding. 

Glad you like it  

Gerry

[Gerry Casa Christiana]

On 22/01/2018 at 13:18, Squeek86 said:

I'm embarking on this journey myself and if I could capture any image like you have done id be amazed!!

 

Both images look fantastic keep up the good work!!

Thanks a lot. Glad you like them. What's great here is the advice that is given by what I would call experts in the field of astronomy and it's worth asking the questions on here and most times they are usually right. We want to see the pictures you produce!

Thanks

Gerry

[Pete Presland]

Looking a lot better, not that the 1st image isn't a fine image as well. The camera mod has certainly allowed a lot more of the "red stuff" to be shown, congratulations on an excellent image!

[Ampthill]

Great image !. Was it guided?.

 

[Gerry Casa Christiana]

51 minutes ago, Ampthill said:

Great image !. Was it guided?.

 

The first image from last year wasn't guided but yes the second image was guided. Nothing special just a miniguider with a zwo 120mm. In fact guiding on the night was pretty awful! Glad you like it  

Gerry 

 

[Gerry Casa Christiana]

59 minutes ago, Pete Presland said:

Looking a lot better, not that the 1st image isn't a fine image as well. The camera mod has certainly allowed a lot more of the "red stuff" to be shown, congratulations on an excellent image!

Many thanks Pete. As I said it's not perfect by any means I just thought it would be nice to show before and after mod pictures plus I've learnt a little. I do mean little too! There's a lot to learn!  Glad you like it. 

Cheers

Gerry

 

[carastro]

Great improvement, Modding, improved processing skills and also you can see the lack of calibration frames in the first one (brighter middle of the image), they have also made a lot of difference. 

Quote

The processing has improved a lot BUT i don't use expensive software. I've tried pixinsight but I find it quite complicated so I just use Cs2 . But no matter how much processing I do I can never do the same with the first image. It's in my opinion the modification to the camera that's made the biggest difference. Longer exposures and guiding. 

Agree with all that too.  

Well done.  

Carole

[Gerry Casa Christiana]

44 minutes ago, carastro said:

Great improvement, Modding, improved processing skills and also you can see the lack of calibration frames in the first one (brighter middle of the image), they have also made a lot of difference. 

Agree with all that too.  

Well done.  

Carole

Thanks Carole

Yes your right about calibration frames in the first picture I used lots of darks but I hadn't arrived to the point of using flats and bias  I don't actually use darks anymore I find that subtracting the bias from the flats works very well. I'm not sure my camera has much dark current. Maybe more needed in the summer but so far no. Also they take up so much time! Especially when your doing 6 min subs or longer.

Glad you like it. 

Gerry 

[sloz1664]

It's amazing how much you learn over one year. Great to see the two comparisons and how the detail has improved.

Steve