A late Rigel and the Witches Head Nebula

[peter shah]

The Witches Head Nebula, I'm not entirely sure I like this process. I was imaging late in the season and quite low down in the muck..I found this one of the trickiest images  to Process .I thought I'd post it anyway. I may revisit it next season..  
Imaged with the 105 f1.4 Sigma lens and ASI2600MC. 120s exposures a total of nearly 4 and a half hours. Processed with Pixinsight and Photoshop.
Thanks for looking
Peter Shah

[Mark at Beaufort]

A lovely image as always Peter. Really like it.

[peter shah]

9 minutes ago, Mark at Beaufort said:

A lovely image as always Peter. Really like it.

Thank you Mark

[vineyard]

Stunning - can't believe you got that w a DSLR lens! 👏🏾

[carastro]

Simply stunning Peter.

Envy envy. 

Carole 

[peter shah]

43 minutes ago, vineyard said:

Stunning - can't believe you got that w a DSLR lens! 👏🏾

Yes...Its a nice lens....I did have to do some work on the stars. As I pushed it down  further it was causing the aberrations to show significantly....that's what made it tricky. I am going to stop it down a little more see if will help with it.

33 minutes ago, carastro said:

Simply stunning Peter.

Envy envy. 

Carole 

Thank you Carole....its a very busy area. That little OSC camera is proving to be a bit special.

[DaveS]

That's really rather fine Peter, As you say, a busy area!

[simmo39]

Wow, that is so impressive!

[Clarkey]

That's a great image. Not sure why, but it is probably my favourite from the last few months. Maybe I am missing gas clouds during galaxy season!

Excellent.

[peter shah]

thank you everyone for the comments

[Rustang]

Beautiful 

[Tan Zhi Qi]

This is crazily awesome!! 

[peter shah]

On 01/05/2021 at 13:03, Tan Zhi Qi said:

This is crazily awesome!! 

 

On 30/04/2021 at 22:06, Rustang said:

Beautiful 

Thank you 

[kirkster501]

Hi Peter, great image.  How do you connect the ASI to the Sigma 105 (Canon type? ) and change the aperture/focus?

[peter shah]

1 hour ago, kirkster501 said:

Hi Peter, great image.  How do you connect the ASI to the Sigma 105 (Canon type? ) and change the aperture/focus?

The Sigma is a Canon fit and its fitted with an Astromechanics lens focusing system  which is Ascom compatible. It gives complete focus and aperture control.

[ollypenrice]

I think that's gorgeous. A wonderful blend of dusty signal, reflection and Ha.  I've never attempted this in a field wide enough to include Rigel (what a cop-out!) and if I were you I'd be thinking of ways to pin down that almighty star in as natural a way as possible. I know it's a fundamental problem but the rest is incredible, especially the variety of colours in the dust.

That's my favourite image of the year so far.

Olly

[shropshire lad]

Very impressive ..... was the original image cropped much?

 

[emyliano2000]

Very beautiful indeed, I love it! 

Emil

[peter shah]

38 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

I think that's gorgeous. A wonderful blend of dusty signal, reflection and Ha.  I've never attempted this in a field wide enough to include Rigel (what a cop-out!) and if I were you I'd be thinking of ways to pin down that almighty star in as natural a way as possible. I know it's a fundamental problem but the rest is incredible, especially the variety of colours in the dust.

That's my favourite image of the year so far.

Olly

Thank you Olly, Yes Rigel was a problem especially having pushed the stack so far. The aggressive stretch really added to halo artefacts around it and various other stars I had to repair them as it really made the field very ugly. I'm thinking this is where camera lenses struggle with their multi elements when compared to a good Apo or Reflector.  I think I might spend some time doing a separate process on the two bright stars and see if I can convincingly reduce their presence.

 

34 minutes ago, shropshire lad said:

Very impressive ..... was the original image cropped much?

 

Thank you.....No the crop was only a few pixels on this one taking up the dither I've set into the mount. I've attached the full frame of the raw stack just shown with a auto screen stretch in PI. (the final image was rotated 108 degrees)

 

36 minutes ago, emyliano2000 said:

Very beautiful indeed, I love it! 

Emil

Thanks Emil

[rickwayne]

I really like the 3D effect. Bravo!

[kirkster501]

I quite like Rigel in this pic and think you should leave it alone.  Rigel is kinda bright, right, and that is reflected in this picture whilst retaining control of it.

[kirkster501]

13 hours ago, peter shah said:

The Sigma is a Canon fit and its fitted with an Astromechanics lens focusing system  which is Ascom compatible. It gives complete focus and aperture control.

Thanks.  So do you focus with that Astromechnics thingy then and not an external belt mod?  What F stop was the Sigma 105 at on this please?

[peter shah]

4 minutes ago, kirkster501 said:

Thanks.  So do you focus with that Astromechnics thingy then and not an external belt mod?  What F stop was the Sigma 105 at on this please?

Yes its all controlled internally with the canon protocol via the Ascom driver....no belts at all. The lens is native f/1.4 but I set it to F2.8. I have recently set it to 3.2, I want to see if it helps with what little chromatic aberration is in the lens. I am hoping it will make controlling the stars a little easier when pushing the process.....if not I will just put it back to 2.8.

[Magnum]

Great image Peter,

[Hals]

Simply spectacular!