IC1396a A Pair of (Elephants) Trunks

[Laurin Dave]

The middle of September brought with it many clear nights to Berkshire (as usual starting with the full moon) and during it I captured 3hrs per channel RGB, 19hrs Ha, 7.5hrs Oiii and 5hrs Sii  (total 41 hrs) on the Elephants Trunk Nebula (quite a lot of whilst asleep).  Equipment used was my Esprit 150/SX-46 with piggybacked Esprit100/ASI1600mm on a Mesu 200 all controlled through SGPro.  Guiding was by OAG with dithering on the Esprit 150 every 3 or 2 frames depending on whether it was taking RGB (10min subs) or Ha (20 min subs).  Exposures on the ASI1600 were 5mins and about 15% were lost to dithering and autofocus on the Esprit 150.

Processing was done in Pixinsight and Photoshop with the StarNet star removal tool in Pixinsight used to remove the stars from the narrowband images.  Starless and starry narrowband images for each filter were then blended in PS to produce images suitable for combining with the RGB as HaR_OiiiG_OiiiB or on their own as SHO.  Ha was then used as luminance over both.  StarNet was then applied to these images, PS heal brush used to remove artefacts, channels split and combined with lightly stretched and split RGB (Photoshop blend mode lighten) for tight stars.  These new images were then blended with Ha as luminance and the non star removed HaLum_HaR_OiiiG_OiiiB and SHO for the final result.  

The Elephant's Trunk Nebula is a concentration of interstellar gas and dust within the much larger ionized gas region IC 1396 located in the constellation Cepheus about 2,400 light years away from Earth.

Thanks for looking, c and c welcome

Dave

 

Edited October 14, 2019 by Laurin Dave

[alan potts]

Love the top one Dave, I feel it is the best or at least as good as I have seen. The framing and composition is spot on in my books. So many superb captures by people and even me could be so much better with a bit of a crop and thought to the composition. These tick all the right boxes for me. I need to focus my efforts, 2 hours and I have had enough, my short of this for me looked awful, The Canon didn't bring out anything like your shots but then its not Ha etc. I think it was the Sage, Olly that said, when I started I did 3 targets a night, now I do 3 nights on a target, wise words that I should try and follow.

Alan

[PhotoGav]

Just simply - Yes!

[Laurin Dave]

Thanks Alan..  I use SGPro's framing and mosaic tool and plate solving which makes quite easy.  Yes Olly's words are quite correct.. when I started a couple of hours in total was all I did..  now its 30hrs or so .. automation is what makes this possible for me.. and being retired  

Dave

 

[Laurin Dave]

1 minute ago, PhotoGav said:

Just simply - Yes!

Thanks Gav..  

[George 47]

Both images are superb and very evocative. I really like RGB image but the narrow band ain't too shabby either 🙂

[Allinthehead]

A wonderful pair. Processing is top notch.

[tomato]

The previous posters have said it all, they are superb images. I too am hoping to get my integration times comfortably into double figures, thanks to retirement and a dual rig.

[mattjanes100]

These are fantastic, lovely work.

[lux eterna]

On 14/10/2019 at 16:25, Laurin Dave said:

...about 15% were lost to dithering and autofocus on the Esprit 150.

 

Wonderful images, impressive processing (I like top one best). I am curious about the dithering & autofocus issues. I guess the operations may not be completed when the next exposure starts, but why would such a thing happen ? I know nothing about SGPro, but if it has control of all actions - how can it fail ?

Ragnar

[Laurin Dave]

Thank you Ragnar.  With two cameras running on SGPro you need to run two instances of SGPro, they don't talk to each other ie no co-ordinated dither or autofocus (It's on their to-do list) hence the lost subs on the Esprit100. 

Dave