IC1396 - Elephants Trunk Nebula HST palette

[GordonH]

Hi All

I finally managed to get the SII data last night to go with the Ha and OIII that I took last week. This was taken over 3 nights on 7th, 9th and 15th July using my Takahashi BRC-250 with a Starlight Xpress H9 on a Paramount ME autoguided with dithering using a Starlight Xpress M8C to guide. It is made up of 24x10 minutes Ha, 27x10 minutes OIII and 28x10 minutes SII. No calibration has been used at all so no darks, flats or bias frames. I have used the HST palette so SII=Red, Ha=Green and OIII=Blue. The previous stages of this image can be seen on my website http://www.imagingtheheavens.co.uk

I'm glad I got the data last night because it is absolutely hammering it down today

Thanks for looking

Best wishes

Gordon

[Aza]

Nice job Gordon, I like it!

[Tim]

The third colour has also give the trunk a more 3D feel, dont you think? Lots of the finer details in the clouds come through in this palette, it's really growing on me.

How come you dont do the calibration frames Gordon?

Tim

[Aza]

I think the calibration frames are just not needed.

If the optics are clean, there is no need for flats with these smaller chips.

[GordonH]

The third colour has also give the trunk a more 3D feel, dont you think? Lots of the finer details in the clouds come through in this palette, it's really growing on me.

How come you dont do the calibration frames Gordon?

Tim

Hi Tim

Thanks for the comments, regarding the callibration I think AZA has hit the nail on the head, I do take great care when loading my filters and connecting the imaging train and use a air gun at an angle to clear any visible dust specs, and with a chip as small as the H9 flat frames aren't really necessary I have found. Even with the H9 being as good as it is at handling dark current there are still a few hot pixels per subframe at 10 minutes exposure time but when you combine dithered subframes and median combining the hot pixels all disappear so I have found that with the H9 dark frames just aren't necessary unlike the H36 which uses a Kodak chip and dark frames are a must. At some point I will delve into flat field frames more so for the H36, it is just that I have found very little extra time before and after imaging sessions to do flats due to other commitments such as walking the dogs, housework, etc. Next year I may invest in a light box so that I can do them at any time

Best wishes

Gordon

[ncjunk]

Very good image, there is definitely a sense of depth to it that I like.

Neil c

[minimalist]

Very nicely done Gordon, I'm starting to really like these Hubble palette images.

Daniel

[GordonH]

Hi

I have tweaked this image slightly as after looking at it several times I felt the greens were a bit "in your face", I'd be interested to know what people think

Thanks for looking

Best wishes

Gordon

[Aza]

That is a good improvement Gordon.

The magenta has been toned down nicely too, resulting in better stars.

The area center top looks really nice, very smokey looking

[minimalist]

I'm with Arran, definite improvement, especially to the detail in dark areas and the stars. Even better than before.

Daniel

[Imahumanbeing]

SUPERB Gordon, absolutely FANTASTIC picture!

All the best

Jamie