Heart Nebula bicolor HaHOO

[Rodd]

I couldn't resist snapping a few subs late a few nights ago just before dawn just to see what I could expect.  I was hooked.  Not sure if I will go with the HaSHP palette, leave as Mono, maybe a bicolor, or wait till the Moon fades and pursue a HaLRGB.  Allot of options.  I thought that the faint emissions and dark structures to the right and below of the fish head would be more pronounced after integration of 29 subs, but they really are not.  This makes me feel that I should have pushed the FOV to the left to capture more of the aorta.  Oh well.

FSQ 106 with .6x reducer and ASI 1600

Ha 29 5min subs

 

[gonzostar]

Wow thats a fantastic image. Thanks for sharing

Dean

[Allinthehead]

Framing is perfect for me Rodd. I think it looks great for only 29 subs.

[Rodd]

19 minutes ago, gonzostar said:

Wow thats a fantastic image. Thanks for sharing

Dean

Thanks Dean.  Thanks for looking!

Rodd

[Rodd]

17 minutes ago, Allinthehead said:

Framing is perfect for me Rodd. I think it looks great for only 29 subs.

Thanks Richard.  I find with brighter targets (M16/m17, Veil, this one) that 5min subs really sart to look filled out at around 2 hours.  I remember with M16 I couldn't really see much of a difference  between 25 5 min subs and 65 subs.  With dimmer targets (Sh2-119) the opposite is true.  I suppose I could add anther couple of hours and see what it does.  Couldn't hurt I suppose, though conditions were very good last night and adding subs of less quality wouldn't make sense either.

Rodd

[Davey-T]

Looking good Rodd, I remember when you were tearing your hair out processing your first Heart Nebula 

Dave

[Grimbles]

Looks fantastic to me, I do always like this target in B/W but you have some great data to blend as you see fit.  Now we have a little astro dark makes me want to set up my DSO rig again, but stil afew weeks of planets yet.

Martin

[newbie alert]

Brilliant structure and clarity..superb

[Rodd]

Just now, Grimbles said:

Looks fantastic to me, I do always like this target in B/W but you have some great data to blend as you see fit.  Now we have a little astro dark makes me want to set up my DSO rig again, but stil afew weeks of planets yet.

Martin

Thanks Martin.  Planets and The Moon (and solar but I have yet to attempt this) are really cool to me.  I have had some success with the Moon, but I find planets are really hard to make look good.  Even Jupiter never really comes out great.  I have never tried Winjupos for derotation, though and that could be important.  My seeing is never great either when I am trying for planets.  Mars right now is so Red and huge.  If I had another mount I would definitely pursue it!

Rodd.  

[Rodd]

Just now, newbie alert said:

Brilliant structure and clarity..superb

Thanks Newbie Alert!

Rodd

[Rodd]

5 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

Looking good Rodd, I remember when you were tearing your hair out processing your first Heart Nebula 

Dave

Thanks Dave--I remember that all to clearly!  Thanks to the help I have received form the folks on SGL, I have improved considerably.  6 hours in on a cross country road trip! (Here in the U.S. it takes 5-7 days to drive across the country--so 6 hours in is still pretty early!)

Rodd

[Rodd]

I collected some OIII--but clouds moved in early.  This is a bicolor with only 14 5min OIII subs.  While not finished, I am pleased with the limited blue/green data.  Without more data its difficult to achieve a blalance, hence the very bright reds and pale blues.   A bit dark too.  2 versions--one with dark structures slightly enhanced (and a wee bit of star control).  In typical fashion I am torn.  Don't like the white areas, but they elude my skills at saturation

 

[Barry-Wilson]

Top work Rodd ??.

As I noted on ABin - I think these 300s subs have been IMHO the best quality data from your ASI1600/FSQ106 to date.

[Rodd]

47 minutes ago, Barry-Wilson said:

Top work Rodd ??.

As I noted on ABin - I think these 300s subs have been IMHO the best quality data from your ASI1600/FSQ106 to date.

Thanks Barry.  I agree--the targets are fairly bright.  I shot NGC 7822 last night waiting for the Heart to rise, and the subs are not as striking.  I got 37 5min Ha subs and the end result was not  quite what I expected.  I only got 30 for Gamma Cygni and that is far superior.   Maybe its time I start playing with gain as well as exposure time...….don't really know the principles though.  I hate to extend exposure times beyond 5min, as that makes it hard to get allot of subs needed to overcome the 12 bit issue.  Even with 5min, 3hours is only 36 subs. .  Oh well, I suppose the journey is the point/

Rodd

[PhotoGav]

Rodd, that’s a lovely bi-colour of this great target. It’s beautifully sharp, but not overly so and the colours are strong but subtle. It has an ethereal 3D depth to it too. Good work!

[gorann]

The bicolour image har a lot of quality. So much details and 3D depth. Keep them coming!

[wimvb]

Fantastic image, Rodd. A lot of detail and depth in there.

16 hours ago, Rodd said:

Maybe its time I start playing with gain as well as exposure time...….don't really know the principles though.  I hate to extend exposure times beyond 5min, as that makes it hard to get allot of subs needed to overcome the 12 bit issue.  Even with 5min, 3hours is only 36 subs. .  Oh well, I suppose the journey is the point/

Rodd

I also found gain of these CMOS cameras a bit of a challenge. In principle, it should be as easy as ISO in DSLR; the higher you set it, the shorter your subs need to be exposed. But with all this decreasing read noise and dynamic range, it suddenly becomes very complicated. I would love to get into the action again to test, but astrodarkness is still almost a month away up here. And right about that time we will move to a new house. (But fortunately with dark skies.) My point journey is still on hold. ?

[Rodd]

5 hours ago, PhotoGav said:

Rodd, that’s a lovely bi-colour of this great target. It’s beautifully sharp, but not overly so and the colours are strong but subtle. It has an ethereal 3D depth to it too. Good work!

Thanks Gav.

Rodd

[Rodd]

2 hours ago, gorann said:

The bicolour image har a lot of quality. So much details and 3D depth. Keep them coming!

Thanks Goran.  

Rodd

[tooth_dr]

As much as I love your monochrome version, the addition of oiii has taken it to the next level. 

[Rodd]

35 minutes ago, wimvb said:

Fantastic image, Rodd. A lot of detail and depth in there.

I also found gain of these CMOS cameras a bit of a challenge. In principle, it should be as easy as ISO in DSLR; the higher you set it, the shorter your subs need to be exposed. But with all this decreasing read noise and dynamic range, it suddenly becomes very complicated. I would love to get into the action again to test, but astrodarkness is still almost a month away up here. And right about that time we will move to a new house. (But fortunately with dark skies.) My point journey is still on hold. ?

Thanks Wim.   I wonder what the difference in darkness is between a bright Moon astrodarkness and a no moon nautical darkness.  It should be fairly close---You may be able to shoot Ha (3um).

Rodd

[Rodd]

8 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

As much as I love your monochrome version, the addition of oiii has taken it to the next level. 

Thanks Doc.....I was surprised I was able to use only 14 subs....it was a bit of work.

Rodd 

[wimvb]

1 hour ago, Rodd said:

Thanks Wim.   I wonder what the difference in darkness is between a bright Moon astrodarkness and a no moon nautical darkness.  It should be fairly close---You may be able to shoot Ha (3um).

Rodd

At the summer solstice, the difference is quite substantial. The sun sets, but there's always the faint glow of the sun on the northern horizon. It's only about 7 degrees below the horizon then. Now we're nearing August, it gets darker for up to an hour, but still not enough. Last week, I could just make out four stars to the south: the summer triangle and Sadr (with some effort). During real astrodarkness, even with a full Moon, the sky is a lot darker.

Besides I only have a 12 nm Ha filter; not enough for deep Ha hunting.

[Rodd]

13 minutes ago, wimvb said:

At the summer solstice, the difference is quite substantial. The sun sets, but there's always the faint glow of the sun on the northern horizon. It's only about 7 degrees below the horizon then. Now we're nearing August, it gets darker for up to an hour, but still not enough. Last week, I could just make out four stars to the south: the summer triangle and Sadr (with some effort). During real astrodarkness, even with a full Moon, the sky is a lot darker.

Besides I only have a 12 nm Ha filter; not enough for deep Ha hunting.

Wow.....there's always solar (a very keen interest of mine, but alas, an expensive one to do right).  Planetary and lunar could work though, right?  Those targets should be bright enough.  The Moon is awesome--the planets I find difficult to do well.  I almost never want to make the switch from deep sky to lunar--a big switch.  But if it was for a few months, I would definitely feel more at ease doing it.

Rodd