North America Nebula Wall region in Bi-Colour Narrowband

[AstroAdam]

Hi Everyone!

It's been a while since I posted any of my images, but I've been working hard to improve my technique over the last year, and combined with the move from DSLR (Canon 1100D) to CCD (Atik 314L - not the plus one  ), I've been waiting until I got it all sorted and I was starting to be happy with the results.

So here's my first ever bi-colour Ha/Oiii image - The wall region on the North America Nebula in Cygnus. 

Details as follows:-

• Camera – Atik 314L Mono
• Exposure – Ha – 2hr 20mins, OIII – 3hr 15min
• Filters – Astronomik 12nm Ha Filter, Baader 8nm OIII filter
• Telescope – Ikharos ED70 f/6
• Mount  – Skywatcher HEQ5 with Rowan Belt Mod
• Guidescope – Off-axis
• Guidecam – SX Lodestar
• Guide Software – PHD2
• Capture Software – APT
• Stacking and Initial Processing – MaximDL
• Post-Processing – Photoshop CC and Lightroom CC.

For more detail, feel free to take a look at the post about it on my website:-

https://www.astrosite.co.uk/north-america-nebula-in-cygnus-bi-colour-narrowband-13-10-18-14-10-18/ 

With this image, I stacked and combine using Maxim, then re-combined the Ha with the Bi-Colour image as a luminance layer to bring out the detail and reduce the noise.  

Hope you like it :-)

Cheers,

Adam

[Allinthehead]

That's a great first. Well done. I love that gold hue around the wall.

[john2y]

Beautiful picture, just one question, I've noticed that the stars in the bottom left corner are trailing a bit, does your setup fit nicely? This usually occurs when the sensor isn't perpendicular (the error might be really small) to the lens. I used to have this when I shoot with dslr and the canon adapter had a little space so the camera wiggled a bit and I had to use tape underneath to stop the wiggling which solved the problem. 

[peter shah]

beautiful..... I quite like the colour you have manged to get out of this data

[AstroAdam]

On 18/10/2018 at 19:43, john2y said:

Beautiful picture, just one question, I've noticed that the stars in the bottom left corner are trailing a bit, does your setup fit nicely? This usually occurs when the sensor isn't perpendicular (the error might be really small) to the lens. I used to have this when I shoot with dslr and the canon adapter had a little space so the camera wiggled a bit and I had to use tape underneath to stop the wiggling which solved the problem. 

Yes - I noticed this one too, but it wasn't enough to bother me that much.  Would of course prefer to eliminate it.  I do have a flattener for this scope, but unfortunately it's not compatible with my current imaging train.  This little ED70 doesn't have the flattest field ever, but its strange that it appears to be more pronounced in one corner....  I'll have a play next time I use it (recently been imaging with my 102ED more...).

[AstroAdam]

2 hours ago, peter shah said:

beautiful..... I quite like the colour you have manged to get out of this data

Thanks Peter.  It takes a bit of playing with the proportions in which you mix the OIII and Ha into the various channels.  Also, re-merging the Ha as an additional luminance layer gives it more 'pop' and really boosts the detail in the fainter parts of the nebula.