East Vale Neb and North America Neb With Unmodded DSLR

[wesdon1]

Hi all, here are my latest processed ( badly! LOL ) East vale and North America Nebs. The NAN in particular demonstrates ( atleast to my eyes! ) just how difficult it is to capture HA signal with an unmodded DSLR camera! That being said, my total integration for both objects was very limited due to the extremely short nights and also the sky glow is a nightmare in mid June! We don't get truly dark skies at this time of year! So maybe when I manage to capture 5,6 even 10 hours of total integration, I might get much better signal and resulting final image? Regardless I still enjoyed imaging both nebs for the very first time, and look forward to many more attempts in future, hopefully with a dedicated DSO cooled astro camera! 

*Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro Mount

*Canon EOS Rebel T1i

*ZWO ASI 1200MM Mini

*ALTAIR ASTRO 66/400ED refractor

*OPTOLONG L-PRO Filter

*PHD2 Guiding via LENOVO LAPTOP

NAN - 131 x 59sec subs                           

EVN - 119 x 59sec subs

Darks, Flats, Bias for both - 20 of each

I know both images leave a heck of a lot to be desired, but I'm still happy with my progress! In time, I will acquire 2" Filters ( help with vignetting ) and will improve my post processing skills, and every other aspect of my astrophotography start to finish, so the future looks bright! 

Clear Skies!

Wes.

 

[Elp]

Quite decent results with the lpro. I did the veil last time with an lextreme, and ha and o3 rich targets just appear out of nowhere because it filters out all the unwanted light pollution, maybe worth considering an lenhance and upward as the lpro is a general LP filter but the enhance and upward are colour narrowband filters. Idas do some good ones too but I don't have any.

Regarding skyglow, if you're not using Siril to pre process it's recommended (as it's free), doing a background extraction usually sorts out LP glow at the literal touch of a button, totally transformed my image processing with little effort.

Edited June 18, 2023 by Elp

[wesdon1]

11 minutes ago, Elp said:

Quite decent results with the lpro. I did the veil last time with an lextreme, and ha and o3 rich targets just appear out of nowhere because it filters out all the unwanted light pollution, maybe worth considering an lenhance and upward as the lpro is a general LP filter but the enhance and upward are colour narrowband filters. Idas do some good ones too but I don't have any.

Regarding skyglow, if you're not using Siril to pre process it's recommended (as it's free), doing a background extraction usually sorts out LP glow at the literal touch of a button, totally transformed my image processing with little effort.

@Elp It's funny you should mention the background extraction in SIRIL Elp because I'm actually currently watching a full series of SIRIL tutorials about how to use SIRIL start to finish! It's an incredibly powerful processing application and the fact it's free is a blessing when you consider how expensive our hobby cane get! 

Yes the L-PRO is a great LP Filter, and again its funny you mentioned the L-ENHANCE and L-EXTREME filters because I'm actually pricing some second hand ones up as we speak!? Are you psychic or something mate!? LOL. 

Jokes aside, I really can't wait to get the aforementioned filters because they will really help me block out a lot of LP and sky glow! Thanks so much for your advice and tips Elp!

Wes