Plenty to enjoy in the Flaming star (IC405) and Tadpoles (IC410) region

[geeklee]

I've been chipping away at this since mid December 2021 so not too long but long enough for frustration to creep in waiting to get more decent OIII and SII!  After leaving around 4h of mainly Ha (but also a little OIII and SII) on the cutting room floor I was left with ~10h Ha, 3h OIII and 2.5hr SII.  The SII was fairly strong and was crucial to add structure to the Flaming star region and also the stronger background nebulosity.

The palette is a trade off against losing the familiar, strong reflection area in the Flaming star.  I'm OK with that for now 🙂

I was surprised by the detail in the spider and fly (top left) and there's a nice "double antennae" piece of nebulosity just to the right, and up from these two.

I tried to focus on bringing as much of faint nebulosity out as possible, with some structure and looking natural... I got close I hope.  Please click through and zoom in, as always I try and process these for 1:1 viewing.

This was shot with the Redcat 51 and 294MM Pro.  Captured with Voyager, pre-processed in APP and processed in PixInsight. 

Thanks for looking.

A few more technical details (dates captured, filters etc can be found on my Astrobin - link in sig below)

Edited January 14, 2022 by geeklee

[astro mick]

This is really good,so much detail in there,quite amazing.

Mick.

[geeklee]

9 hours ago, astro mick said:

This is really good,so much detail in there,quite amazing

Thanks Mick. I'm always surprised by the detail the RedCat's 250mm can show even with the bigger 4.6um pixels in bin2 mode of the 294MM (just like the 460EX). Loads of Ha helped and as mentioned, the Flaming star benefitted from that SII. 

EDIT: throwing out the bad subs (high FWHM, haze etc) helped too I'm sure. 

Edited January 15, 2022 by geeklee

[scotty38]

Very nice image plus I see a 294MM in my future too!

[geeklee]

1 hour ago, scotty38 said:

Very nice image plus I see a 294MM in my future too!

I can't say my narrowband flats look typical but it seems a known "feature" of the 294MM and calibrates OK.  If you'd like any example subs / flats for the 294MM just drop me a PM. 

[The Lazy Astronomer]

3 hours ago, geeklee said:

I can't say my narrowband flats look typical but it seems a known "feature" of the 294MM and calibrates OK.  If you'd like any example subs / flats for the 294MM just drop me a PM. 

On a related note, how do you take your flats? I could not get Oiii to work with the led panel I use (Ha and Sii produce the "interesting" flats you've alluded to above, but calibrate perfectly). Had to resort to daylight flats for Oiii, but maybe there's a trick I've missed? 

[geeklee]

3 hours ago, The Lazy Astronomer said:

how do you take your flats?

Tablet with sheets of paper.  My OIII looks totally different to my Ha and SII, but still not a typical uniform flat.  I've double checked some calibrated stacks and they look flat.  I've stretched them to absurd levels and can't see a pattern that matches the flat.  I'll keep an eye on the OIII though - thanks for the heads up.

Although not worth much saying this, my flats are Ha (15.5s), OIII (12.5s), SII (22s).  These are with the Baader Ultra Narrowband filters.

4 hours ago, The Lazy Astronomer said:

I could not get Oiii to work with the led panel I use

Wouldn't calibrate a light or would look all wrong... or both?

[clarkpm4242]

@geeklee gives a wonderful overall perspective on the region.  Feels very 3D.   

Cheers, Paul.

[The Lazy Astronomer]

20 hours ago, geeklee said:

Wouldn't calibrate a light or would look all wrong... or both?

Wouldn't calibrate properly. It had a very bright central region which then overcorrected the lights, I've just tried looking to see if I still had it, but it appears I deleted it.

Here's the Oiii master flat using natural light (i.e. the one that works) with just an STF in Pixinsight:

To some extent you can still see a brighter circle in the centre, but with the LED panel is was much more pronounced. This is with an Astronomik 6nm filter.

 For reference, the Ha flat taken with the light panel looks like this (as does Sii) and both calibrate their respective lights perfectly (again, just an STF in PI):

[geeklee]

3 hours ago, The Lazy Astronomer said:

To some extent you can still see a brighter circle in the centre, but with the LED panel is was much more pronounced. This is with an Astronomik 6nm filter.

 For reference, the Ha flat taken with the light panel looks like this (as does Sii) and both calibrate their respective lights perfectly (again, just an STF in PI):

There is something about that OIII that, like you say, feels like the centre is slightly brighter but overall it looks uniform.  I'm definitely going to keep an eye on my OIII.

My narrowband filters are 31mm.  Out of interest, what size are yours? 

Here are my Ha, OIII and SII master flats:

Thanks for sharing!

[The Lazy Astronomer]

Mine are 1.25". It's interesting that you see the pattern on your Oiii, albeit fainter than Ha or Oiii, but there nonetheless - maybe due to your narrower filter passband? Also interesting that your flats are completely different to mine. I think l just assumed all 294MM's produced the same pattern, but l guess each one must be unique (I sort of like that ☺).

[geeklee]

8 hours ago, The Lazy Astronomer said:

It's interesting that you see the pattern on your Oiii, albeit fainter than Ha or Oiii, but there nonetheless - maybe due to your narrower filter passband?

Good point, I hadn't noticed until I caught your reply on my phone and could see it on the small screen.  Looking on my monitor I can see it now.  Nice spot 👍

If I get a proper chance to use the camera on my Samyang I'll check the flats with the Astronomik 1.25" MaxFR 6nm filters.