Elephant's Trunk and accidental Squid

[gorann]

This one was not planned. I thought my recently posted image of the Elephant's Trunk was the last one for the season, as I had almost forgotten that I was testing out sensor distances on my Samyang 135 with ASI2600MC piggybacking on my dual RASA8 rig, while aiming the RASAs at the Elephant's trunk (see the previously posted image). I had not realized that the squid was so nearby. If I had known I may have made an effort of framing this image better, but at least I did not accidentally decapitate the squid. To the 17 x 10 min of Samyang data I have added ca 50% RASA8 data to the Elephant's Trunk and 30% to the Squid. All with IDAS NBZ filters and ASI2600MC cameras. Totally probably around 10 hours of data.

Comments most welcome!

Cheers, Göran

[tomato]

Nice!
 

When attempting a bat/squid capture with the RASA I had the SY135/G28300 running on the dual rig and did it the other way round and chopped off half of the Elephant’s trunk region. ☺️
 

[gorann]

16 minutes ago, tomato said:

Nice!
 

When attempting a bat/squid capture with the RASA I had the SY135/G28300 running on the dual rig and did it the other way round and chopped off half of the Elephant’s trunk region. ☺️
 

 

Thanks!

He, he🤣. Maybe that is a good reason to have a piggy back: getting that extra surprise the next morning. A new form of lucky / unlucky imaging!

Edited April 29, 2022 by gorann

[carastro]

You got a decent Squid there.  You must have dark skies.  
 

Carole

Edited April 29, 2022 by carastro

[Adreneline]

I’m amazed the Squid is so clear with just 10 hours of subs; @geeklee and I combined 1600 minutes (over 26 hours) of OIII data last year and it was a real struggle to tease it out of the Bat ( https://www.astrobin.com/ceh9fs/ ). Your combination of Samyang 135, ASI2600MC and IDAS NBZ filter are doing an amazing job when combined with your dark skies.

Thanks for sharing.

Adrian. 

[gorann]

2 hours ago, Adreneline said:

I’m amazed the Squid is so clear with just 10 hours of subs; @geeklee and I combined 1600 minutes (over 26 hours) of OIII data last year and it was a real struggle to tease it out of the Bat ( https://www.astrobin.com/ceh9fs/ ). Your combination of Samyang 135, ASI2600MC and IDAS NBZ filter are doing an amazing job when combined with your dark skies.

Thanks for sharing.

Adrian. 

Thanks Adrian!

This is what the Squid looks like after 6 hours with just the RASA8. I am sure the dark sky here helps a lot for such a faint thing. I really like the complex sky in your AB image.

Edited April 29, 2022 by gorann

[gorann]

2 hours ago, carastro said:

You git a decent Squid there.  You must have dark skies.  
 

Carole

Thanks a lot Carole!

Yes quite dark with an average SQM of 21.5 so Bortle 2-3

[Adreneline]

22 minutes ago, gorann said:

I really like the complex sky in your AB image.

Thank you Göran. I think Cepheus is such a rich area to image and so well placed most of the year from this location.

My skies are not quite as dark as where you are - I'm more Bortle 4-3 - especially after midlnight when all the street lights round here go off!

There are many amazing images from the ASI2600MC revealing a lot of colour and detail. Might have to start saving my pennies!

Adrian

[gorann]

48 minutes ago, Adreneline said:

Thank you Göran. I think Cepheus is such a rich area to image and so well placed most of the year from this location.

My skies are not quite as dark as where you are - I'm more Bortle 4-3 - especially after midlnight when all the street lights round here go off!

There are many amazing images from the ASI2600MC revealing a lot of colour and detail. Might have to start saving my pennies!

Adrian

It is an amazingly good camera. Only problem is that one batch suffered from oil behind the sensor leaking onto the front. I had tha happening to two of mine but It was quickly and apparently permanently fixed ny TS.

[AMcD]

I love the fact that your test image is of an exquisite quality that I can only aspire to 😂

[clarkpm4242]

Gorgeous and fascinating!

I've noted the area for my recently acquired Sigma 105 f1.4 lens.

Thank you Goran.

Paul

[gorann]

22 hours ago, AMcD said:

I love the fact that your test image is of an exquisite quality that I can only aspire to 😂

Thanks! You will get there!

CS

Göran 

[gorann]

2 hours ago, clarkpm4242 said:

Gorgeous and fascinating!

I've noted the area for my recently acquired Sigma 105 f1.4 lens.

Thank you Goran.

Paul

Thanks a lot Paul and good luck with your new lens!

CS Göran 

[Rodd]

Not sure why it happened, but the dark ring around IC1396 is not, I don't think, supposed to be there (based on other imnages I have seen). Could it be a DBE or ABE issue?  Details in teh nebula look good.  I am surprised that I find myself feeling more data would help ( 11" at f2 x 2 is fast and 11 hours should plenty).    I like the RGB palette--never cared for the yellows of the hubble palette for certain nebula (the bat is one).  I am actually feeing that way about most nebulas these days--so much so that I prefer bicolor images over SHO palettes.

[Tom OD]

That came out very well.  The squid is very clear.

Tom

[gorann]

10 hours ago, Tom OD said:

That came out very well.  The squid is very clear.

Tom

Thanks a lot Tom, much appreciated!

[gorann]

14 hours ago, Rodd said:

Not sure why it happened, but the dark ring around IC1396 is not, I don't think, supposed to be there (based on other imnages I have seen). Could it be a DBE or ABE issue?  Details in teh nebula look good.  I am surprised that I find myself feeling more data would help ( 11" at f2 x 2 is fast and 11 hours should plenty).    I like the RGB palette--never cared for the yellows of the hubble palette for certain nebula (the bat is one).  I am actually feeing that way about most nebulas these days--so much so that I prefer bicolor images over SHO palettes.

I was also thinking about this. I did not use DBE but Gradient Xterminator in PS. I decided to leave it as it is since it could be for real especially since I see a lot of structure (dark nebulosity) in the dark area around IC1396. I also found some images suggesting a darker area around the nebula, like this one: https://www.astrobin.com/g59ygw/ and it may be that my strong suppression of the star field (using Star Exterminator) brought out more of the underlying nebulosity and thereby the dark stuff. Also Aladin (DSS2) suggest that there may be a dark area around the nebula (attached image).

Maybe someone knows more and have a comment?

Edited May 4, 2022 by gorann

[Spongey]

54 minutes ago, gorann said:

I was also thinking about this. I did not use DBE but Gradient Xterminator in PS. I decided to leave it as it is since it could be for real especially since I see a lot of structure (dark nebulosity) in the dark area around IC1396. I also found some images suggesting a darker area around the nebula, like this one: https://www.astrobin.com/g59ygw/ and it may be that my strong suppression of the star field (using Star Exterminator) brought out more of the underlying nebulosity and thereby the dark stuff. Also Aladin (DSS2) suggest that there may be a dark area around the nebula (attached image).

Maybe someone knows more and have a comment?

I can't comment on the reality of the dark ring around IC1396 but I can offer another datapoint; my image of this region using the Samyang 135mm and QHY268M (same sensor). There does appear to be a lot of dark dust in this region but I'm not sure the 'dark ring' is that pronounced.

Cheers

 

 

[gorann]

3 hours ago, Spongey said:

I can't comment on the reality of the dark ring around IC1396 but I can offer another datapoint; my image of this region using the Samyang 135mm and QHY268M (same sensor). There does appear to be a lot of dark dust in this region but I'm not sure the 'dark ring' is that pronounced.

Cheers

 

 

It could relate to how much Ha is let through in the background sky, and I turned it up quite a bit.

[Spongey]

33 minutes ago, gorann said:

It could relate to how much Ha is let through in the background sky, and I turned it up quite a bit.

If it is of any use, here is the processed Ha only from the above image:

If you'd like the raw stack to compare with yours, PM me and I can figure out a way to send it to you.

Cheers

[gorann]

3 hours ago, Spongey said:

If it is of any use, here is the processed Ha only from the above image:

If you'd like the raw stack to compare with yours, PM me and I can figure out a way to send it to you.

Cheers

Thanks, but I am not sure how to make a proper comparison as I have dual-band OSC data, so no pure Ha data.

[gorann]

Thanks for all comments! They made me completely rework it. Adjusting the colour curves made the dark ring around the main nebula less apparent:

[Astro_mark_c]

That looks ace, I also have the IDAS NBZ filter for my Redcat 51.  These are two targets I want to attempt when the dark nights return to scotland in September. 

[gorann]

1 hour ago, Astro_mark_c said:

That looks ace, I also have the IDAS NBZ filter for my Redcat 51.  These are two targets I want to attempt when the dark nights return to scotland in September. 

Thanks Mark! Go fo it! I have the same problem - proper astrodarkness is gone so tonight will most likely be my last imaging night.