First look at Elephant's Trunk Nebula (IC 1396) in Ha

[Adam1234]

Hi all, thought I'd share my first bit of data on the Elephant's Trunk Nebula taken last night in Ha.

It's only about 1.4 hours worth of data (17 x 300s, calibrated with darks, flats, flat darks). I was hoping for more, but it was about 11pm by time I got imaging as I was faffing around for ages trying to get focus and framing correct (I'd focused using Polaris after PA, framed my target, took a test image and discovered my focus was off - perhaps Polaris not a good star to focus with? - focused again using Deneb and had to frame target again which was easier 2nd time around). Just before 1am the clouds rolled in and cut my night short ☹️

Taken with SW ED80 DS Pro on SW EQ-6R Pro with 0.85x ff/fr, ASI1600mm Pro, captured using APT. Stacked in Siril and bit of processing in Photoshop.

Just got to wait for some more clear skies to gather some more Ha data, then some Oiii and Sii.

 

Adam

[mackiedlm]

That looks nice and clean data. Weather seems awful everywhere right now 😕.  But that looks like a good start.

[Adam1234]

2 hours ago, mackiedlm said:

That looks nice and clean data. Weather seems awful everywhere right now 😕.  But that looks like a good start.

Thanks! Can't wait to complete the image.

Let's hope the weather starts getting better soon! I don't know if it's just me but the weather (astronomy wise) seems to have been awful all summer. Lots of clear days but as soon as it gets dark it gets cloudy.

[mackiedlm]

32 minutes ago, Adam1234 said:

Thanks! Can't wait to complete the image.

Let's hope the weather starts getting better soon! I don't know if it's just me but the weather (astronomy wise) seems to have been awful all summer. Lots of clear days but as soon as it gets dark it gets cloudy.

Definitely not just you!! I'm out in the west of Ireland and since April I've had 3 clear nights. Add to that no astro-dark for nearly 6 weeks and I'm about ready to throw in the towel!!