Tak Epsilon first light- Iris Nebula

[Icesheet]

*Updated version below*

 

First light for the Tak Epsilon 130D. With three clear nights forecast, I intended on collecting 10+ hours, but in typical western Norway fashion that turned into just under 5 hours on only one clear night. In a way this sort of justified my decision to move to a fast reflector as I don’t think I would have gone this deep with the refractors I previously used. Collimation was a challenge but it looks ok and hopefully it holds for a while now (will post a separate thread on that). 
 

As always with these targets, I find it hard to balance controlling the core, bringing out the dust and not pushing it too far in general. Might have pushed a little too much here. Some feedback appreciated!

Tak Epsilon 130d

Zwo ASI2600MC

295x60s

 

Edited Monday at 08:31 by Icesheet

[CraigT82]

That’s beautiful.   Justified indeed! 

[Icesheet]

41 minutes ago, CraigT82 said:

That’s beautiful.   Justified indeed! 

Thanks!

[geeklee]

Very nice first light @Icesheet 🥳

1 hour ago, Icesheet said:

Some feedback appreciated!

Stars are a touch blown out and the background might have a very slight blue cast (but I can't be 100% sure without seeing readout in PI).  Very minor things, only mention them as you asked  

Are you on Gain 100 for those 60s subs?  In my effort to reduce sub count, I utilise Gain 0 on the 2600MC with my Epsilon 130D - usually taking 120s shots.  Bright stars still have some overexposed cores but it's not too bad overall.  I see plenty still using gain 100 though so 🤷‍♂️

I'm still keenly waiting to get some proper time this season with my Epsilon.

Super image.

[TiffsAndAstro]

fantastic image

[Icesheet]

3 hours ago, geeklee said:

Very nice first light @Icesheet 🥳

Stars are a touch blown out and the background might have a very slight blue cast (but I can't be 100% sure without seeing readout in PI).  Very minor things, only mention them as you asked  

Are you on Gain 100 for those 60s subs?  In my effort to reduce sub count, I utilise Gain 0 on the 2600MC with my Epsilon 130D - usually taking 120s shots.  Bright stars still have some overexposed cores but it's not too bad overall.  I see plenty still using gain 100 though so 🤷‍♂️

I'm still keenly waiting to get some proper time this season with my Epsilon.

Super image.

Thanks for the feedback. I really had difficulty processing the stars. Tried stretching them separately and together with the nebulosity. In the end up I took the stars from an auto stretch, not ideal 😣 I'm at Gain 100, so maybe 60s exposures are too long and I'm saturating brighter stars. I'll have a test at Gain 0 to see if that improves things. You are spot on about the slightly blue cast. That was a partly conscious decision to make the background cooler as I felt the dust was almost too red/ brown, so I pulled it down a bit. Didn't want to leave an obvious blue cast right enough so I'll see if I can get that balance better. Good spot!

 

Hope you get out with it soon, and looking forward to seeing some images with it!

Edited September 9 by Icesheet

[geeklee]

44 minutes ago, Icesheet said:

I'm at Gain 100, so maybe 60s exposures are too long and I'm saturating brighter stars. I'll have a test at Gain 0 to see if that improves things.

I think you're probably good at 60s, with just the brighter star cores starting to saturate.  In the image above, the star stretch looks beyond just the bright stars so perhaps a challenge in the separation and processing?

If you want to see a small raw stack of something with 120s subs, let me know - happy to PM you something 👍  Likewise, I'm happy to take a look at the Iris stack stars or just a raw FITS/XISF crop of it.

45 minutes ago, Icesheet said:

That was a partly conscious decision to make the background cooler as I felt the dust was almost too red/ brown, so I pulled it down a bit.

That's a good point and I know what you mean having processed a poorer version of this myself and seeing some similar processing questions.  It's not glaring or gaudy and as a processing choice - all up to you.  It still looks great!

[Icesheet]

1 hour ago, geeklee said:

I think you're probably good at 60s, with just the brighter star cores starting to saturate.  In the image above, the star stretch looks beyond just the bright stars so perhaps a challenge in the separation and processing?

If you want to see a small raw stack of something with 120s subs, let me know - happy to PM you something 👍  Likewise, I'm happy to take a look at the Iris stack stars or just a raw FITS/XISF crop of it.

That's a good point and I know what you mean having processed a poorer version of this myself and seeing some similar processing questions.  It's not glaring or gaudy and as a processing choice - all up to you.  It still looks great!

PM sent 👍

[ONIKKINEN]

Some star cores are a bit blown, but other than that the balance between dark dust and the core looks just about perfect to me. Great image!

[Icesheet]

2 hours ago, ONIKKINEN said:

Some star cores are a bit blown, but other than that the balance between dark dust and the core looks just about perfect to me. Great image!

Thanks! Going to give the stars another try 👍

[old_eyes]

A lovely image. The Iris nebula is great in a wide field. All that dust puts the blue core in context. The Epsilon 130 is a really nice scope. I had the opportunity of using one for a while and it is a fantastic tool for capturing images in inconsistent skies. I wish I had one here in North Wales, but...

[Earthserpent]

How do you find the collimation on the epsilon? Does it hold well?

 

Awesome pic!

[Icesheet]

A re-worked version. Many thanks to @geeklee for some sound advice, particularly on the stars! Probably happier with this version but never completely happy!

 

On 11/09/2024 at 11:03, old_eyes said:

A lovely image. The Iris nebula is great in a wide field. All that dust puts the blue core in context. The Epsilon 130 is a really nice scope. I had the opportunity of using one for a while and it is a fantastic tool for capturing images in inconsistent skies. I wish I had one here in North Wales, but...

Thank you 🙂 So far it really has been a joy to work with. I avoided reflectors for long enough and now I wish I had taken the plunge earlier!

 

On 13/09/2024 at 16:46, Earthserpent said:

How do you find the collimation on the epsilon? Does it hold well?

 

Awesome pic!

Thanks 🙂So far so good but I have only been out a few times with it. The procedure wasn't terrible and while there is maybe some room for improvement I think I'm more likely to make it worse than better so plan to leave it as long as I can. One thing I should mention is rotation might affect collimation. I installed a rotation device and whilst it seems better than the stock focuser I see my filed is slightly worse after framing for a new target.

[Mr Spock]

That's a lovely image 👍The dust shows really well. I like how delicate the centre is - looks very natural.

[geeklee]

3 hours ago, Icesheet said:

Probably happier with this version but never completely happy!

Another excellent version Chris.  That extra red/magenta colour in the Iris has come out really well as a nice contrast that can be so easily missed (you had it in the OP too).  You've got the dust looking great in both versions.