Barnard 150 - Sea Horse Nebula

[Xiga]

I was really hoping to get more data for this, but the weather just hasn't been playing nicely. We did actually have an amazingly full clear night last week (and with no moon about either) but as luck would have it i was sick at the time and could barely lift my head off the pillow nevermind lift the gear downstairs! In any case, it now sets below the roof of our house too early in the evening to get much in the way of data, so i'll have to wait to next year now to get some more RGB (especially the Red) plus some Ha to help give the edge of the Bat more definition. Until then, i decided to just go ahead and process what i have for now.

The Lum was captured over 2 nights in late Sep with no moon about. The RGB was captured over 2 nights in early Nov, with a fairly bright moon about (although low down). In all honesty I really didn't think i'd be able to make a presentable image with just 30 mins of Red data, but i'm happy enough with how it came out, all things considered. 

SW 80ed; Qhy268m; HEQ5-Pro

Lum: 125x120s (4 hr 10); G: 20 x 180s (1 hr); B: 20 x 180s (1 hr); R: 10 x 180s (0.5 hr). Total: 6 hr 40

Stacked in APP and processed in PS. 

Starless processing (using StarXTerminator) used to bring out the dust, and NoiseXTerminator used for NR. 

C&C welcome, and thanks for looking 🙂

[Rodd]

This is top notch. Very very nice. How the heck can you do this with only 6 hours total. Dark nebula for me requires 25+ hours. 

[simmo39]

V nice! as always.

[Xiga]

6 hours ago, Rodd said:

This is top notch. Very very nice. How the heck can you do this with only 6 hours total. Dark nebula for me requires 25+ hours. 

Cheers Rodd. It's all down to the software doing it's magic. StarXT to boost the dust, and then NoiseXT to bring it back from the precipice. I'm finding that I can usually make do with about 8 hrs of data, split as 5 for Lum and 1 each for R G B. I fell short of that here, which honestly made the processing very difficult, but luckily NoiseXT helped to hide all 1000 sins! 

3 hours ago, simmo39 said:

V nice! as always.

Thanks Simmo 🙂

[Rodd]

Noisext vs tgv denoise  how do they differ?

 

Edited November 27, 2022 by Rodd

[Xiga]

9 minutes ago, Rodd said:

Noisext vs tgv denoise  how do they differ?

 

Not sure Rodd, i don't really use Pixinsight (apart from doing PhotometricColourCalibration). But i'd be willing to bet the farm (if i had one!) that NXT would beat it, or any other NR software out there. 

[tooth_dr]

Absolutely wonderful Ciarán. When you said you only had 30mins of red I thought you must be mad, but it just shows you - an ED80 - the most humble of scopes - produces data that in the right hands matches anything out there even at 10x the price. 

Edited November 27, 2022 by tooth_dr

[Xiga]

6 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

Absolutely wonderful Ciarán. When you said you only had 30mins of red I thought you must be mad, but it just shows you - an ED80 - the most humble of scopes - produces data that in the right hands matches anything out there even at 10x the price. 

Thanks Adam. I thought I was mad too tbh lol. I probably still am in fairness 🤪. It wasn't until I was about 75% of the way through the processing that I realised it was going to come together ok. 

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Lovely image.

Can anyone else see the man taking his fanged python for a walk?

[tomato]

First class image with modest integration. The RC add-ons are a real step change in processing IMHO. So easy to use but they give outstanding results.

[Xiga]

8 hours ago, Knight of Clear Skies said:

Lovely image.

Can anyone else see the man taking his fanged python for a walk?

I do now. And now i can't unsee it! 😅

[Xiga]

7 hours ago, tomato said:

First class image with modest integration. The RC add-ons are a real step change in processing IMHO. So easy to use but they give outstanding results.

Thanks mate. You're right about the RC-Astro add ons. There's absolutely no way i could have turned this data set into anything even half-way decent where it not for NoiseXT.