The Shark Nebula (LDN 1235) with OSC from Bortle 8

[Lee_P]

Yes you read that right, I tried imaging The Shark Nebula from my city-centre back garden using an OSC camera (and no filters). As you might imagine it was a real challenge (perhaps madness to even try!), and I had the mangle the data quite a lot during processing. So it's not a great picture on its own, and there's a lot wrong with it, but I hope it's interesting given the conditions it was taken under. 

Imaging info below, and there are more details on my website.

 

* April to May 2022
* Bristol, UK (Bortle 8 )
* Telescope: Askar FRA400 f/5.6 Quintuplet APO Astrograph
* Camera: ZWO ASI 2600MC-PRO
* Filter: none
* Mount: Orion Sirius EQ-G
* Guide: William Optics 32mm; ZWO ASI 120MM Mini
* Control: ASIAIR Plus, ZWO EAF
* Software: PixInsight, Lightroom
* 600 x 120 seconds

Total integration time: 20 hours

By Lee Pullen

[teoria_del_big_bang]

That is a pretty good image in its own right, but considering it's taken from somewhere that you probably struggle to see the most familiar constellations by eye it is amazing.
I am always amazed how people get great images form Bortle 6 and above.

Steve

[ollypenrice]

Very impressive and much better than I'd have thought possible.

Olly

[gorann]

Yes, that is indeed impressive given your circumstances. I can understand that processing was a challenge, but those IMX571 cameras allow for great deeds.

[carastro]

Agree with all the above comments.  I am also Bortle 8 (SE London) and I get horrible swirling gradients from home and normally leave LRGB to an Astro camp. 

Amazing,

Carole  

[Roy Foreman]

Gives me hope for my bortle 4 skies. Well done.

[Lee_P]

3 hours ago, Roy Foreman said:

Gives me hope for my bortle 4 skies. Well done.

Thanks, your Bortle 4 skies will certainly give you a smoother ride with this target!

[tomato]

Wow, you have achieved another great result on a seemingly “impossible” target from your location. 
 

At this time of year I really enjoy trying to image under adverse conditions, e.g no Astro darkness, moon up, and am finding that with the right setup (RASA8, IMX571c camera), quite reasonable results can be obtained.

With the equipment now available I think the time is right to review the advice about what can and can’t be attempted with respect to local sky conditions.

[Tommohawk]

Looks fantastic - nice job!

[scotty38]

Nice image, I have around 24 hours of OSC data on that target that I must get round to looking at properly 🙂

[Lee_P]

11 hours ago, tomato said:

Wow, you have achieved another great result on a seemingly “impossible” target from your location. 
 

At this time of year I really enjoy trying to image under adverse conditions, e.g no Astro darkness, moon up, and am finding that with the right setup (RASA8, IMX571c camera), quite reasonable results can be obtained.

With the equipment now available I think the time is right to review the advice about what can and can’t be attempted with respect to local sky conditions.

Yes I agree, light pollution certainly makes things tougher, but it's surprising how many targets are actually within reach of city dwellers using modern technology and techniques.

 

9 hours ago, scotty38 said:

Nice image, I have around 24 hours of OSC data on that target that I must get round to looking at properly 🙂

Please post it when you've finished processing, I for one would be interested to see the result!

[Graham Darke]

Very impressive result Lee and well worth all the time you have put into it, both acquisition time and processing. I am Bortle 8 too but I tend to shy away from targets like this. Rethink imminent….

Just out of interest what gain setting do you normally use when shooting such faint targets from a heavily light polluted site? 
 

 

[Lee_P]

47 minutes ago, Graham Darke said:

Very impressive result Lee and well worth all the time you have put into it, both acquisition time and processing. I am Bortle 8 too but I tend to shy away from targets like this. Rethink imminent….

Just out of interest what gain setting do you normally use when shooting such faint targets from a heavily light polluted site? 
 

 

Thanks Graham! Give it a go, I want to encourage more urban astrophotographers to image targets we're often told are impossible under our sky conditions! Mind you, I can definitely see how dark skies are a huge advantage with this target... Anyway, to answer your question, I use the exact same settings for all my targets: gain 100, 120-second subframes. Then as many subs as I can get, aiming for a total integration time in the region of 20 hours.