M78 - finally!

[ollypenrice]

Imaged with Paul Kummer. I have never managed what I thought to be a respectable M78, till this one. 100x3 min subs in RASA 8 - ASI2600 OSC, driven remotely by Paul but located at my place. My post processing. This is a crop to exclude Barnard's Loop:

 

The whole thing is like this:

 

Olly

 

[Elp]

Great job. Not an easy target at all, really needs dark skies. My HS attempt lacked the blue hue with only a tiny hint of it in the larger glow from bortle 7.

[Simon Pepper]

Incredible! 

[carastro]

Great result Olly.  Nice detail in the bright areas.  
 

Carole

[gorann]

That is just great! An amazing telescope and I think the RASA has a slow start due to the bad reputation of the hyperstars. When I was brave enough to buy my first one (a used one for about 1200 GBP) three years ago, the first image I got blew me away.

Edited February 19, 2023 by gorann

[Priesters]

Great capture.  Did you use any filters to get this image and if so which one(s) if you don’t mind me asking?

[maw lod qan]

Amazing!

The bright areas shining through the dust cloud makes me think some huge spacecraft will be coming any moment!

[tooth_dr]

Never seen detail like this in M78 before. Really need to stack my multisession data on this target 

[Neil_104]

1 hour ago, maw lod qan said:

The bright areas shining through the dust cloud makes me think some huge spacecraft will be coming any moment!

It really does! Ever seen the film Event Horizon? 😱

Great pic Olly

[SiriusDoggy]

Beautiful!

[ollypenrice]

11 hours ago, Priesters said:

Great capture.  Did you use any filters to get this image and if so which one(s) if you don’t mind me asking?

Only the RGGB filters of the Bayer matrix itself. This was a one shot colour camera, otherwise unfiltered. We have a very dark site.

Olly

[Mr Spock]

That's a beautiful image 👍

[Priesters]

7 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

We have a very dark site.

Clearly so.  I must try and make a visit one day 🙂

[newbie alert]

I was imaging this last night..

Won't look anything like yours thou...

Great work with details I've never seen before,crisp, sharp and just awesome 

[Catanonia]

Totally amazing. All mine with the RASA8 have been nowhere as detailed or crisp. 

The beauty of dark skies compared to my rubbish Bortle 6.

Well done @ollypenrice amazing image buddy

[ollypenrice]

3 hours ago, Catanonia said:

Totally amazing. All mine with the RASA8 have been nowhere as detailed or crisp. 

The beauty of dark skies compared to my rubbish Bortle 6.

Well done @ollypenrice amazing image buddy

Are you using Blur Xterminator? It makes a big difference to resolution of fine detail.

Olly

[Catanonia]

Just now, ollypenrice said:

Are you using Blur Xterminator? It makes a big difference to resolution of fine detail.

Olly

Not yet, only got the trail yesterday

[ollypenrice]

2 minutes ago, Catanonia said:

Not yet, only got the trail yesterday

You're in for a treat...

Olly

[Catanonia]

37 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

You're in for a treat...

Olly

Already had it, see my M51 image

[Magnum]

On 20/02/2023 at 08:28, ollypenrice said:

Only the RGGB filters of the Bayer matrix itself. This was a one shot colour camera, otherwise unfiltered. We have a very dark site.

Olly

I would be tempted to still use a UV/IR block filer Olly, i know its classed as a reflector but the RASAs do contain 4 corrective glass lenses at the rear as well as the Schmidt plate at the front, so thats 5 bits of slightly refractive glass . Ive noticed your blue stars in most of your images this week have a very slight violet fringe and a UV/IR would prevent that.

 hope you dont mind me pointing this out, but is purely meant to be constructive, just my eyes are very sensitive to fringing and CA so i alway notice it no matter how slight.

lee

[Magnum]

Great image by the way Olly.

Ive been trying to image M78 this week from kent but my local LP from the LED motorway lights which illuminate my garden really make it difficult to do faint dust in broadband.

lee

[gorann]

2 hours ago, Magnum said:

I would be tempted to still use a UV/IR block filer Olly, i know its classed as a reflector but the RASAs do contain 4 corrective glass lenses at the rear as well as the Schmidt plate at the front, so thats 5 bits of slightly refractive glass . Ive noticed your blue stars in most of your images this week have a very slight violet fringe and a UV/IR would prevent that.

 hope you dont mind me pointing this out, but is purely meant to be constructive, just my eyes are very sensitive to fringing and CA so i alway notice it no matter how slight.

lee

The camera @ollypenriceis using (ASI2600MC) has a built in UV/IR filter.

[tomato]

9 hours ago, gorann said:

The camera @ollypenriceis using (ASI2600MC) has a built in UV/IR filter.

That’s interesting, can you specify the ZWO version with just an AR window?

How does that work when using the dual band NBZ filter? I thought it would be better just to have an AR window on the camera under those circumstances, hence that is what I specified when purchasing the RisingCam version of the camera.

Also, I have assumed that’s what comes with the QHY version, otherwise I have been imaging with two IR/UV filters in my optical train.

Olly, have you or Paul taken the clear window out of the RASA, or is it still in place?

[ollypenrice]

12 hours ago, Magnum said:

I would be tempted to still use a UV/IR block filer Olly, i know its classed as a reflector but the RASAs do contain 4 corrective glass lenses at the rear as well as the Schmidt plate at the front, so thats 5 bits of slightly refractive glass . Ive noticed your blue stars in most of your images this week have a very slight violet fringe and a UV/IR would prevent that.

 hope you dont mind me pointing this out, but is purely meant to be constructive, just my eyes are very sensitive to fringing and CA so i alway notice it no matter how slight.

lee

I think any violet tinge will be coming from my processing, probably. I tend to hold down the green quite insistently and often have to tweak the blues in my stars as a consequence. I'll pay more attention to this now that you point it out. I hadn't really noticed it. There's certainly little chance that the super-fast elements in the RASA optical path will be fully apochromatic.

Olly

[Magnum]

9 hours ago, gorann said:

The camera @ollypenriceis using (ASI2600MC) has a built in UV/IR filter.

Oh so it does thats interesting, I stand corrected.

Sorry Olly, as my 533MC doesn't have an IR window but just an AR window I had just presumed all ZWO OSC cameras were the same in this regard. strange they would use different window in different models when both the 533 and 2600 both have very similar chips with very similar sensitivity.

I see now the built in one cuts at 400nm while my Baader UV/IR cuts at 420nm.

Lee

Edited February 23, 2023 by Magnum