Horsehead Nebula

[alan4908]

I've wanted to image the Horsehead Nebula from my obsey for quite a time but nearby trees have blocked my view.  Determined that I would accomplish this in 2018, after a bit of tree pruning in late 2017, I managed to get a theoretical c1 hour per night visibility, albeit at quite a low elevation of c25 degrees. Not ideal, but better than nothing.

Since I wasn't quite sure how much of an hour I'd get due to weather and moonlight conditions, I decided to reduce my Ha subs from my normal 1800s to 600s. Since some of the stars in my FoV are quite bright, I also cut my LRGB sub duration from 600s to 300s.

The target has once again disappeared from my view for another year, however, I did manage to capture a usable c6 hours of subs and it only took me three months 

The image is an LRGB with a Ha blend into the Lum and Red channels.

Alan 

 

LIGHTS: L:14, R:11, G:8, B:9 x 300s, Ha:14 x 600s, DARKS:30, BIAS:100, FLATS:40 all at -20C.

 

[Demonperformer]

Three months well-spent, I would say. 

[tomato]

Nice one, lovely detail on the actual beast!

[PhotoGav]

Ouch, painfully slow data acquisition process, but the result is lovely! Is this with the Esprit 150 and is it pretty much the full frame? Love the field of view!

[ollypenrice]

What a success! NGC2023 is absolutely gorgeous, too.

Olly

[alan4908]

14 hours ago, Demonperformer said:

Three months well-spent, I would say. 

Yes - I do like the fact that automated imaging allows me to accomplish things that a manual approach would make impractical. 

14 hours ago, tomato said:

Nice one, lovely detail on the actual beast!

Thanks !

14 hours ago, PhotoGav said:

Ouch, painfully slow data acquisition process, but the result is lovely! Is this with the Esprit 150 and is it pretty much the full frame? Love the field of view!

Thanks for the comment Gav. Yes, this is with my Esprit 150 and is an almost full frame. 

12 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

What a success! NGC2023 is absolutely gorgeous, too.

Olly

Thanks Olly - yes, it responded well to Pixinsight's HDRComposition, which exposed quite a bit of detail.

Alan

[Barry-Wilson]

Couldn't agree more - your time has been well invested.  Delightful Horsey!

[alan4908]

9 hours ago, Barry-Wilson said:

Couldn't agree more - your time has been well invested.  Delightful Horsey!

Many thanks Barry 

Alan

[Allinthehead]

Wonderful Horsehead

[alan4908]

14 hours ago, Allinthehead said:

Wonderful Horsehead

Thanks Richard.

Alan