IC 1396

[MartinB]

I've been wanting to image this huge nebula in Cepheus for a long time.  Obviously The Elephant's Trunk is the star of the show but it is only a small part of IC 1396.  It is an ideal target for my widefield set up.

Getting any imaging done in the UK since early summer has been a major uphill struggle for most of us.  I can't remember such a prolonged absence of a fully clear night.  So the data gathering for this image has been ongoing since June.  Things were made worse by issues of high cloud and user error leading to a total of nearly 9 hours worth of rejected subs!  Finally I thought I might have enough data to cobble something together.

Camera: ZWO ASI 1600 pro with a Canon 200mm lens at F2.8

Baader  NB filters Ha - 65 x5mins, OIII - 44x5mins and SII - 40x5mins

My first time using the PI weighted batch processing script with the weighting set to nebula and using default settings.  It took about 3 hours to churn through the data but it was all so easy!  The rest of the processing was my usual combination of PI and PS.  

[geeklee]

Lovely wider view of this target Martin.  The surrounding, outer dust looks great.  Great perseverance through summer too.... and having to throw away 9 hours of subs!

[MartinB]

Thank you Lee.

[callisto]

Nice image Martin

 

Mark

[MartinB]

Thanks Mark.

[tooth_dr]

Lovely widefield view, colours look nice and subtle, my preferred processing style.

What model of ZWO camera was this with Martin?

 

Adam.   

[MartinB]

Thanks Adam.  Oops I omitted the 1600 bit!  I've edited my post now.  

I'm glad you like the process style.  I always fret over how far to go with things like saturation and invariably ask my wife!

[tooth_dr]

1 minute ago, MartinB said:

Thanks Adam.  Oops I omitted the 1600 bit!  I've edited my post now.  

I'm glad you like the process style.  I always fret over how far to go with things like saturation and invariably ask my wife!

😂 

The 1600 has really proven itself. A real game changer in AP 

[Laurin Dave]

Very nice Martin, really like the fov, the colours and the way you've brought out the dust..

Dave

[MartinB]

  

10 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

😂 

The 1600 has really proven itself. A real game changer in AP 

 

I have been extremely impressed.  What has surprised me the most was that I haven't felt the loss of bit depth compared with a 16 bit CCD.  The camera managed to pull out some incredibly faint OIII in Simeis 147 and the images respond very well to stretching.  I haven't noticed any microlensing problems, maybe I've not looked hard enough.  I really wouldn't want anyone to point them out to me if they are there!!  My QSI 532 has quite severe microlensing spikes. 

 

[MartinB]

Thanks Laurin, I really appreciate the feedback.

[Laurin Dave]

1 hour ago, MartinB said:

  

 

I have been extremely impressed.  What has surprised me the most was that I haven't felt the loss of bit depth compared with a 16 bit CCD.  The camera managed to pull out some incredibly faint OIII in Simeis 147 and the images respond very well to stretching.  I haven't noticed any microlensing problems, maybe I've not looked hard enough.  I really wouldn't want anyone to point them out to me if they are there!!  My QSI 532 has quite severe microlensing spikes. 

 

My empirical experience suggests that the microlensing gets worse as the scope gets slower (or maybe bigger..  ) my f4.8 gt71 is least affected then my f5.5 Esprit100 then my F7 Esprit150..  never seen them with my Samyang 135 at f2.8..  I find the camera very good on narrow band with high numbers of subs giving very smooth backgrounds ..  

Dave 

[MartinB]

13 hours ago, Laurin Dave said:

My empirical experience suggests that the microlensing gets worse as the scope gets slower (or maybe bigger..  ) my f4.8 gt71 is least affected then my f5.5 Esprit100 then my F7 Esprit150..  never seen them with my Samyang 135 at f2.8..  I find the camera very good on narrow band with high numbers of subs giving very smooth backgrounds ..  

Dave 

That's interesting.  I think the camera is going to stay attached to my 200mm F2.8 lens unless I swap to 135mm F2 so thnk I am safe!

[Stuf1978]

Stunning, I love it. Great work

[MartinB]

Thanks Stuf 🙂

[AstroNtinos]

This is sure an amazing picture. Very breathtaking nebula. Well done

[MartinB]

4 hours ago, AstroNtinos said:

This is sure an amazing picture. Very breathtaking nebula. Well done

Thanks AstroNtinos

[ollypenrice]

Really good, Martin. You'd never know this was a camera lens image, so tight are the stars.

Olly

[astro mick]

Nice one Martin.

Mick.

[gorann]

I fully agree with everyone above - an outstanding image Martin with great star control for being a telephoto lens, which makes me curious. Which one of the Canon 200mm is it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_EF_200mm_lens

[kirkster501]

Masterful.  A wonderful image, you can get lost in it....

[MartinB]

Thank you everyone.  

4 hours ago, gorann said:

I fully agree with everyone above - an outstanding image Martin with great star control for being a telephoto lens, which makes me curious. Which one of the Canon 200mm is it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_EF_200mm_lens

Yes, this is the lens Goran.  The nice thing for me was that much of the data was captured using a SW EQM 35 mount which I bought last year to save the bother of dragging out a larger mount.  Once I had Eqmod sussed it performed very nicely with the lightweight set up.