Widefield NGC2264 / IC2169 (Mosaic of Christmas Tree Cluster / Cone Nebula)

[tooth_dr]

I've been working on this the past few days, at the point now where I need to post it for sanity.

It's a 2 panel mosaic of Cone Nebula region, total exposure over both panels Ha=9 hours 30 minutes, OSC=6 hours and 48 minutes, Lum=2 hours 22minues (less than 10 hours each panel)

Presented at 100%.  So many nice details in this area, in particular I love the big curved swathe that runs through NGC2245 in the Ha image.

C+C welcome

Adam

[symmetal]

Another stunner Adam. 🤗 I especially like all the fine detail in the Cone Nebula region. Very 3D like.

Alan

[Laurin Dave]

Excellent image Adam...  

Dave

[simmo39]

As said above, stunning images.

[Stuart1971]

Beautiful, as we come to expect from you now Adam….👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[gorann]

Stunning images Adam! What scope and camera(s) did you use?

[tooth_dr]

Just now, gorann said:

Stunning images Adam! What scope and camera(s) did you use?

Thanks Góran

I use a pair of APM LZOS 105/650 refractors with Riccardi reducers 0.75x, giving a focal length of 487mm at F4.65

Cameras: ZWO 2600MC and QHY 268M

Simple but effective

 

[Adreneline]

Very nice indeed Adam.

Great processing and star control.

I also love the colours, especially the subtle blues. It can be so tempting to blow the blues to distraction but you've achieved a really well balanced image.

Excellent job!

Thanks for sharing.

Adrian

[gorann]

58 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

Thanks Góran

I use a pair of APM LZOS 105/650 refractors with Riccardi reducers 0.75x, giving a focal length of 487mm at F4.65

Cameras: ZWO 2600MC and QHY 268M

Simple but effective

 

Clearly so! A dual-rig is the way to go when nights are short and rarely clear. And of course it should be on a Mesu 200😁

Edited October 5, 2023 by gorann

[gorann]

By the way, when the moon is gone you may want to pick up some Oiii data from this area. There are some interesting SNR remains around:

https://www.astrobin.com/yzuvc3/B/

[geeklee]

Fantastic images Adam.  Lovely colour balance and great depth.  Thanks for sharing the additional crops/Ha too.

[tooth_dr]

22 minutes ago, gorann said:

By the way, when the moon is gone you may want to pick up some Oiii data from this area. There are some interesting SNR remains around:

https://www.astrobin.com/yzuvc3/B/

Thats fascinating.  I'd like some more Lum, but I could always get some Oiii with my NBZ filter

And yes a mesu is obligatory lol

[tooth_dr]

On 05/10/2023 at 10:46, geeklee said:

Fantastic images Adam.  Lovely colour balance and great depth.  Thanks for sharing the additional crops/Ha too.

Thanks Lee, happy with how it turned out and I enjoy the extra crops myself  

On 05/10/2023 at 09:39, Adreneline said:

Very nice indeed Adam.

Great processing and star control.

I also love the colours, especially the subtle blues. It can be so tempting to blow the blues to distraction but you've achieved a really well balanced image.

Excellent job!

Thanks for sharing.

Adrian

Thank you Adrian.  Not sure if it is a bit dark, although I did buy a spyder calibration tool for my home monitor so hopefully it's not far away.

On 05/10/2023 at 08:38, Stuart1971 said:

Beautiful, as we come to expect from you now Adam….👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Thanks Stuart!

On 05/10/2023 at 07:48, simmo39 said:

As said above, stunning images.

Much appreciated Simon

On 05/10/2023 at 05:57, Laurin Dave said:

Excellent image Adam...  

Dave

Cheers Dave  

On 05/10/2023 at 03:16, symmetal said:

Another stunner Adam. 🤗 I especially like all the fine detail in the Cone Nebula region. Very 3D like.

Alan

Thank you Alan, love the detail in the Cone, would love to get a bigger aperture on it.

Edited October 6, 2023 by tooth_dr

[tooth_dr]

Stack of each filer.  Bit of star shape issue in the broadband channels.

[DrMike]

Amazing and beautiful.

[mackiedlm]

Absolutely fantastic Adam, Wonderful processing.

[ollypenrice]

Great stuff on all counts.

Olly

[tomato]

A real class image and I love your rig! Do you have any special measures to control differential flexture between the scopes or are they OK in this respect? Without a top mounted bracing plate my Esprit 150s will part company a lot over the course of a 5 or 6 hour session.

[tooth_dr]

8 minutes ago, tomato said:

A real class image and I love your rig! Do you have any special measures to control differential flexture between the scopes or are they OK in this respect? Without a top mounted bracing plate my Esprit 150s will part company a lot over the course of a 5 or 6 hour session.

Thank you! haven’t noticed any issues, they are not connected at the top but are very well mounted individually.  I’m also operating at a much shorter focal length than the 150, and my scopes are less than 1/2 the weight, which helps against gravity.

[glafnazur]

That's beautiful 👍

[tomato]

 

15 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

Thank you! haven’t noticed any issues, they are not connected at the top but are very well mounted individually.  I’m also operating at a much shorter focal length than the 150, and my scopes are less than 1/2 the weight, which helps against gravity.

Good to hear. I'm sure some of my issues arise from the ADM adjustable saddle I'm using. It is a nice piece of kit but it isn't really up to having a 6" refractor riding on it.

I'm sure  @Tomatobro could fire up the milling machine and make a Cassidy clone, but the bracing plate idea was a whole lot simpler and cheaper.

[tooth_dr]

1 hour ago, tomato said:

 

Good to hear. I'm sure some of my issues arise from the ADM adjustable saddle I'm using. It is a nice piece of kit but it isn't really up to having a 6" refractor riding on it.

I'm sure  @Tomatobro could fire up the milling machine and make a Cassidy clone, but the bracing plate idea was a whole lot simpler and cheaper.

I’m using a JTD adjustable saddle, seems to work very well and was money well spent.  Along with the rotatable 3.5” Feather Touch focusers it’s easy to get the two scopes well aligned. 

[tooth_dr]

Top pick nomination on Astrobin 

https://astrob.in/jq6fcn/0/

[Laurin Dave]

1 hour ago, tooth_dr said:

Top pick nomination on Astrobin 

https://astrob.in/jq6fcn/0/

Well deserved!

[mackiedlm]

11 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

Top pick nomination on Astrobin 

https://astrob.in/jq6fcn/0/

And rightly so!!