A space flower and a black hole?

[emyliano2000]

Hello guys! I found a bit more time to edit another photo from the backlog.

This is something that I've been wanting to capture for quite some time and during a few clear nights in the summer months I got enough data to make a SHO image.

Sh2-101, at least in the field seen from Earth, is in close proximity to microquasar Cygnus X-1, site of one of the first suspected black holes. The companion star of Cygnus X-1 is a spectral class O9.7 Iab supergiant with a mass of 21 solar masses and 20 times the radius of the Sun. The period of the binary system is 5.8 days and the pair is separated by 0.2 astronomical units. The black hole has a mass of 15 solar masses and a Schwarzschild radius of 45 km. A bowshock is created by a jet of energetic particles from the black hole as they interact with the interstellar medium. It can be seen as an arc to the right of the Sh2-101. (Wikipedia)

The Tulip (SH2-101) and the Cygnus X-1Bow Shock in SHO with cloured stars from a HOO stack.

I shot a bit more Oiii than I usually do, to make sure I will have the Bow Shock in the mage.

For this one I used the new StarXTerminator plugin by Russel Croman for photoshop and I'm very, very impressed, I find the results much better and faster than starnet in pixinsight.

Eq6-R

AstroTech 106LE with upgraded Moonlite focuser

TSFlat 2" field flattener

ASI294MM Pro Cmos camera, cooled at - 15°C

8x1.25" ZWO USB filterwheel

Chroma 3nm 1.25" Ha, Oiii and Sii filters

Qhyccd QHY5L-IIM guide camera

70/400 Celestron guidescope

Qhyccd Polemaster

 

Date: 09.06 to 18.07.2021

Location: Bushey Herts, UK, bortle 7

Ha: 80x300sec Bin 2x2, Gain 200 Offset 10

Oiii: 80x300sec Bin 2x2, Gain 200 Offset 10

Sii: 50x300sec Bin 2x2, Gain 200 Offset 10

Total integration time 17 hours and 30 min

 

I hope you like it.

 

Emil

 

 

Edited September 26, 2021 by emyliano2000

[David Smith]

Spectacular!

[qisback]

Beautiful picture

[teoria_del_big_bang]

That is so good, everything looks just right, colour, star shape and size, brightness all just spot on 🙂 

Steve

[The Lazy Astronomer]

Wow that bowshock is really showing up nicely.

Coincidentally, I'm also shooting this target currently (about 8hrs so far) and with quite similar equipment (same camera, slightly shorter focal length, and 6nm filters). If l can get something even 1/10th as good as this, I'll be well pleased!

Question though: I note you've used gain 200 and offset 10 for the capture, do you find you get better results in NB with these settings over the default 120 gain, offset 30?

[emyliano2000]

34 minutes ago, The Lazy Astronomer said:

Question though: I note you've used gain 200 and offset 10 for the capture, do you find you get better results in NB with these settings over the default 120 gain, offset 30?

Thank you all for the kind words. 

Since I've been shooting with a dslr I used a higher ISO for narrowband. When I got an ASI294MC dedicated OSC camera I've done the same thing, I increased the gain a bit, I think it was somebody who recommended 200. With the ASI294MM, I copied the settings used with the OSC and they seem to work very well. I never tried the unity gain on narrowband targets to compare them and I don't feel like I need to. 

Here's my astrobin gallery, you can find narrowband images shot with both the OSC and mono. https://www.astrobin.com/users/emyliano2000/

Emil