Orion Nebula and the Heart Nebula

[Snoani]

I've been out of action for about 6 weeks after the motherboard on my HEQ5 blew.  However, with a new board now fitted (with much appreciation to FLO) and a Rowan upgrade also installed, I have taken advantage of a few hours of clear skies this week to test both on some classic targets.  

This is the first opportunity that I have had to take a proper image of the Orion Nebula since upgrading my equipment earlier this year.  I am happy with the detail but the colour is off in comparison with others that I have see.  That being said, it provides me with a good benchmark to try again before the end of the winter.  

15 x 3 min light frames with 18 x 1 min lights.

Having seen numerous posts about the Heart Nebula I thought that I would give it a go myself, and all in all I am very happy.  It is a bit grainy, which I am struggling to control during processing, but then I am currently using a DSLR and hope that this will improved when I upgrade to a cooled camera in the spring.  

50 x 5 min light frames

While I still have a lot of room for improvement, I am happy with the progress I am making but welcome constructive feedback.  

 

[johngm]

I would personally be proud of those images, well captured. 👍 I noticed with the heart nebula, you used 5 min exposures, unfortunately, iv'e noticed  when using my Canon 100D, when i go above 3 mins the noise levels become a lot worse. I also try and keep my ISO to between 400 or 800. Do you Dither ? i also find this helps greatly. I have a large dither every 3rd frame, also, i find when dithering, it eliminates the need for dark frames, so although your captures take longer, you save time taking darks. 

John

[johngm]

Forgot to Add, dark frames are not matched on a DSLR. Your camera sensor may start off 21c at the start of an imaging run, but at the end, could be 29c, so darks dont really help, especially when using long exposures

[Snoani]

23 minutes ago, johngm said:

I would personally be proud of those images, well captured. 👍 I noticed with the heart nebula, you used 5 min exposures, unfortunately, iv'e noticed  when using my Canon 100D, when i go above 3 mins the noise levels become a lot worse. I also try and keep my ISO to between 400 or 800. Do you Dither ? i also find this helps greatly. I have a large dither every 3rd frame, also, i find when dithering, it eliminates the need for dark frames, so although your captures take longer, you save time taking darks. 

John

Thank you for your input.  

I forgot to mention that the Heart Nebula was taken using the Optolong L-Extreme filter, so the longer exposure time was to compensate for that, but I think that it has also produced a better image because of it.  While I dithered and used darks on Orion, the Heart Nebula was dithered only, this was because there was a 8 degree different between my lights and darks I took and so I felt it better to just not use them.  I haven't made the full step of dithering only yet as I have read that there is an advantage of dithering and darks.  

I have only just started dithering properly.  I had dithering set previously but didn't set a distance so I think I was originally dithering by about 1/2 a pixel.  Now it is dithering properly, I have noticed a huge difference in the quality of the stacked image and no longer experience the walking noise that I was battling before.  It has made a massive difference.  

 

 

[johngm]

1 minute ago, Snoani said:

Thank you for your input.  

I forgot to mention that the Heart Nebula was taken using the Optolong L-Extreme filter, so the longer exposure time was to compensate for that, but I think that it has also produced a better image because of it.  While I dithered and used darks on Orion, the Heart Nebula was dithered only, this was because there was a 8 degree different between my lights and darks I took and so I felt it better to just not use them.  I haven't made the full step of dithering only yet as I have read that there is an advantage of dithering and darks.  

I have only just started dithering properly.  I had dithering set previously but didn't set a distance so I think I was originally dithering by about 1/2 a pixel.  Now it is dithering properly, I have noticed a huge difference in the quality of the stacked image and no longer experience the walking noise that I was battling before.  It has made a massive difference.  

 

 

Yes, Dithering has helped me greatly, especially more so with the DSLR. Its a fantastic aid to imaging.

[Nicola Hannah Butterfield]

1 hour ago, Snoani said:

This is the first opportunity that I have had to take a proper image of the Orion Nebula since upgrading my equipment earlier this year.  I am happy with the detail but the colour is off in comparison with others that I have see.  That being said, it provides me with a good benchmark to try again before the end of the winter.  

15 x 3 min light frames with 18 x 1 min lights.

 

Colour is always a perceptual thing as none of us see exactly the same colours even viewing the same object.

 

 

Edited November 19, 2020 by Nicola Hannah Butterfield
spelling

[AstroNtinos]

Magnificent images! I like how the orion nebula is with colors and details. The heart nebula is also amazing well done.

[Snoani]

On 19/11/2020 at 21:24, Nicola Hannah Butterfield said:

Colour is always a perceptual thing as none of us see exactly the same colours even viewing the same object.

That is very true.  To be honest I am red/green colour blind which puts me at a slight disadvantage when it comes to processing, however, it is a challenge am happy with if I can produce worthy images of the cosmos.  

 

10 hours ago, AstroNtinos said:

Magnificent images! I like how the orion nebula is with colors and details. The heart nebula is also amazing well done.

Thank you very much, your comments are most appreciated.  While I have identified room for improvement (I am my own worst critic) I feel that these two images are a huge step forwards in my astrophotography journey.  

 

I look forward to the next period of clear skies.  

[Snoani]

As the Heart Nebula was taken using the L-Extreme I've also been experimenting creating a pseudo HOO image by following this tutorial.    I'm not sure if the colour should look like this because I was expecting it to be more of a mixture of red and blue, but it still gives quite a pleasing image.