Elephant's Trunk nebula (vdB 142), H alpha...

[Hallingskies]

From last night, a quick and dirty stack in Astroart of 24 x 600s subs through a Baader 7mm Ha filter, equipment as per signature...

Was going to do the flats today but other stuff was going on.  Sll and Olll to be collected, but this doesn't seem too bad to be going on with. 

[Rodd]

That is a GREAT image!  Yes...definitely.  the stars look natural.  This target is so star rich that sometimes they get in the way.  But you have managed to portray a lot of them, but in a way that looks natural--lots of different sizes and not all just bright dots.  I would very much like to be able to view this at full resolution--but alas, you downsized it f0or posting.  Not necessary--you have a very good image here--it could easily--it would easily stand up to full resolution, I am sure!

Rodd

[MartinB]

Sometimes the quick and dirty stacks end up being the best especially when you have data as good as yours!  This already ticks all the boxes for  me.  

[Hallingskies]

46 minutes ago, Rodd said:

That is a GREAT image!  Yes...definitely.  the stars look natural.  This target is so star rich that sometimes they get in the way.  But you have managed to portray a lot of them, but in a way that looks natural--lots of different sizes and not all just bright dots.  I would very much like to be able to view this at full resolution--but alas, you downsized it f0or posting.  Not necessary--you have a very good image here--it could easily--it would easily stand up to full resolution, I am sure!

Rodd

Thanks Rodd, praise indeed as I’m a big fan of your work.  You are right, it’s a 50% JPEG reduction for posting purposes.  The data looks smooth on the original and I have not attempted any star size reduction as yet, which may remove a lot of the distracting pin-points.  Last night was one of those evenings where the guiding ran well.  I haven’t tweaked my HEQ6 in ten years but if the atmospheric is steady then I can usually get +/- 1 arcsecs per pixel, which is plenty good enough for my camera/scope combo.  Hoping to repeat the trick at other wavelengths if the clouds let me.

 

25 minutes ago, MartinB said:

Sometimes the quick and dirty stacks end up being the best especially when you have data as good as yours!  This already ticks all the boxes for  me.  

I think you are right.  I was surprised how well this went with so little effort, though I don’t often get data this clean.   It’s too easy to overcook things sometimes, though.