IC1396 The Elephant Trunk Nebula

[peter shah]

Great night last night Managed to get just enough for this one. I let it pass the meridian with less than an inch to spare before fouling the mount. I was going to do a meridian flip and carry on but the haze came in so I parked the scope and called it a night. I think the noise levels are acceptable and will probably shelve this data and move onto something else. 
I used very loose G2V exposure weights for the RGB, Exposure times were 5x600in Red 5x420 in Green 5x560 in Blue and 2x1800 in Ha
Thanks for looking

[souls33k3r]

That's simply breathtaking Peter. Well done

[peter shah]

3 hours ago, souls33k3r said:

That's simply breathtaking Peter. Well done

You are very kind Ahmed, It was almost a perfect night last night

[souls33k3r]

40 minutes ago, peter shah said:

You are very kind Ahmed, It was almost a perfect night last night

Can only speak the truth brother. It was indeed. My guiding with SCT using a 130mm FL scope was making me jump up and down in excitement.

But your image is a proof what a good weather and perfect processing can produce. You truly are a master of this art sir

[Skyline]

Very blood red Peter. I love it.

[ollypenrice]

That's great Peter, with your signature mastery of colour. Exquisite little details in the top of the Trunk as well.

Olly

[kirkster501]

I love it.

[RichLD]

Brilliant! ?

[peter shah]

Thank you taking the time to comment.. Recent windows updates have rendered the calibration part of Maxim useless. It runs through the motions without change to the frames. However I seem to be getting a cleaner image when stacking and calibrating in Deep Sky Stacker over what i used to get with Maxim.

[Demonperformer]

Excellent details in the close up. Great result.

[Rodd]

Amazing what can be done with so few exposures.  Was this with an epsilon? I don't recall what you use but I think that's it.  Very 3d-ish

Rodd

[swag72]

Fantastic Peter...... a very inspirational image indeed ????

[peter shah]

6 hours ago, Rodd said:

Amazing what can be done with so few exposures.  Was this with an epsilon? I don't recall what you use but I think that's it.  Very 3d-ish

Rodd

This was done with my AG12  Newtonian...  at F3.8 its a bit of a photon hoover ? 

plus Ive modified my processing slightly instead of using the standard curve then levels to adjust the black point. I use the standard curve then use a second modified curve that allows me to control the black point and inch away the fainter detail. It seems to work quite well. The standard curve really helps retain star colour. 

[coatesg]

Super shot Peter - great colour and lovely detail - the reflection/emission inside the globule at the end of the trunk is especially lovely.

[peter shah]

On 18/09/2018 at 20:33, ollypenrice said:

That's great Peter, with your signature mastery of colour. Exquisite little details in the top of the Trunk as well.

Olly

Thank you Olly  ....you are too kind. To be honest the G2V calculation takes away a lot of the pain.

[morimarty]

Thats a cracking image Peter. You dont often see IC1396 completed with RGB star colour Excellent.

[Guest]

One of my favourite objects - you've produced an excellent image of it - and in particular, as Olly pointed out, the detail in the upper "trunk" is outstanding.

David