Iris Nebula - Not going to attempt dark nebula in the back garden again

[Grant93]

Hello everyone.

Life and weather as usual have been getting in the way of my astrophotography as usual. With the shorter nights this makes useable nights even fewer and far between also But hey ho, still got a night in. First time leaving it outside from dusk until dawn also, so got all 5 hours in one night . However this is a reminder to myself not to try dark nebula from a bortle 5 again. The iris itself is showing quite nice, but not the surrounding dark dust.

Had to choose a target which also didnt reach meridian during the night, so I wouldn't have to wake up to do any flips🥴, I've not set it up to be that automated just yet, plus I wouldnt trust any automated flips without myself there anyway, terrible cable management.

100 subs at 3 minutes each (5 hours) Dithered every 3 frames.

40 Flats

40 Bias

800d on the HEQ5

Stacked and processed in siril

Both cropped and uncropped image.

[rnobleeddy]

Friday was my first attempt at a dark nebula, from Bortle 5 too. Should have gone for one final galaxy for the year! 

 

Over-processed and the color isn't right, but the data isn't there to create anything I'm happy with!

 

 

Edited May 2, 2022 by rnobleeddy

[Keltoi]

was this using the Z61 or the Samyang 135?

[Ratlet]

Man I love these.  Dark nebula are the best.  It's like negative space in a sign.  You don't see it really rather the absence of something else.

Great images.

[Elp]

@Grant93 I feel your pain, been wanting to do this one for months on end and have finally started it, about seven hours in with mono setup and not any better than yours really. Probably best left for a dark site if it's possible.

Edited May 2, 2022 by Elp

[carastro]

I wonder whether the surrounding dust can be brought out with more advanced processing techniques.   I managed to get the Iris from Bortle 4 which is not a lot different.  
 

What is your processing software.   Any chance of posting up a stacked and unprocessed Tiff?  Or failing that a tiff of your result?   I would like to have a try. 
 

Carole

 

l see you use Siril.   I am not familiar with that.   I use photoshop. 
 

 

Edited May 2, 2022 by carastro

[Grant93]

5 hours ago, rnobleeddy said:

Friday was my first attempt at a dark nebula, from Bortle 5 too. Should have gone for one final galaxy for the year! 

 

Over-processed and the color isn't right, but the data isn't there to create anything I'm happy with!

Thats excellent you can tell theres a lot more of the dark nebula in that than mine.

5 hours ago, Keltoi said:

was this using the Z61 or the Samyang 135?

ZS61, Sorry forgot to put that!

4 hours ago, Elp said:

@Grant93 I feel your pain, been wanting to do this one for months on end and have finally started it, about seven hours in with mono setup and not any better than yours really. Probably best left for a dark site if it's possible.

Cant wait to see your attempt . But yes the difference is shocking when you see them imaged from dark sites.

4 hours ago, carastro said:

I wonder whether the surrounding dust can be brought out with more advanced processing techniques.   I managed to get the Iris from Bortle 4 which is not a lot different.  
 

What is your processing software.   Any chance of posting up a stacked and unprocessed Tiff?  Or failing that a tiff of your result?   I would like to have a try. 
 

Carole

 

l see you use Siril.   I am not familiar with that.   I use photoshop.

Hopefully a .fit file is sufficient, Siril converts and stacks FITs files. But please do share your attempt at processing, I'm interested to see what I'm missing . And anyone else reading this, please have a go .

result.fit

[Elp]

@Grant93 here's an example of mine with a Z61, it's only around 90 mins of luminance in the thread but even with another 2 hours of luminance and 45 mins each of r, g, b it doesn't really look any different from this:

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/391082-starizona-apex-065-x-ed-short-or-altair-06x-focal-reducer-flattener/

I'm yet to add another 1 hour of r and b to it which I took the other night but I'm not really hopeful of any improvement atm.

Edited May 2, 2022 by Elp

[Clarkey]

HI,

 

I had a quick go with the stack and I could not get a huge amount more than you. I had to stretch it to within an inch of it's life and add a load of denoise. (I should add that I normally use mono so pure OSC data is a bit of a novelty). There is the data there and I think if you add another night of integration time you will probably get a better result. 5 hours with a small scope if not that much data in my opinion. Personally, I rarely image less than 8 hours on a single target - often double that unless using the F4 scope.

 

[alacant]

Hi

800d, so best to apply banding-reduction to the sequence before registration. 

Maybe go easier with the processing? Just keep adding frames so you'll be able to bring more detail. The more time you give it, the more you'll be able to push it.

The rusty brown stuff is beginning to show:

 

Edited May 2, 2022 by alacant

[carastro]

I am unable to open or convert a Fits file.  I will try taking your original image as a copy and paste but not ideal. 

Carole 

Edited May 2, 2022 by carastro

[carastro]

No sorry, I had to give up in the absence of a Tif file.

Carole 

Edited May 2, 2022 by carastro

[ONIKKINEN]

5 hours ago, Grant93 said:

 I'm interested to see what I'm missing . And anyone else reading this, please have a go .

result.fit 277.14 MB · 6 downloads

Did a quick process and got something that looks similar to yours so i dont think you missed anything:

I feel like i want to stretch it more, but things get noisy quite fast with more stretching so this one probably needs more time under the stars to show up more of the dark dust. Dark nebula processing is quite tricky so i could be missing something too of course 😃.

[Elp]

55 minutes ago, carastro said:

No sorry, I had to give up in the absence of a Tif file.

Carole 

If you download and install Fits Liberator this will open Fits files and you can save as Tif for PS editing.

[lukebl]

On 01/05/2022 at 16:22, Grant93 said:

Had to choose a target which also didnt reach meridian during the night, so I wouldn't have to wake up to do any flips

It’s worth noting that you can go well beyond the meridian without needing a flip. In fact, I have never bothered with the hassle of doing a flip. I often image a subject until it’s, say, 2 or even 3 hours beyond the meridian and it’s usually fine.

Recently I’ve been choosing objects which transit at about midnight UT, and stop imaging (automatically, as I’m not naturally a night owl!) at around 3. This’ll give me potentially 4-5 hours of capturing time at this time of year.

[alacant]

10 hours ago, carastro said:

I am unable to open or convert a Fits file

result.tif