Horsehead and NGC 2023

[MartinB]

Thanks very much everyone for the great feed back. The last thing I did in the process was give the histogram an extra shove to pull out the fainter stuff. In the cold light of day I think it wasn't necessary so I've gone back a step with the pic below

BTW, forgot to mention, I was working at around F7 with a Celestron 0.63 reducer.

Dennis, I did use a luminence from the blue channel for NGC 2023 but didn't bother for the mono, I'm sure it would have worked ok though.

Martin

this picture is just fantastic, I am now thinking of taking pic my self

I have a Meade Lx90 8" ACF do you think I could get picutres like this ? have you any more pics to show us

well done,

Doug.

Doug, Rob was saying earlier that there is nothing wrong with the Meade optics and that's certainly my view. It delivers very tight stars. There is no reason you shouldn't be able to get pictures like this with that scope of yours. With conventional guiding you would need very good seeing to get a similar resolution. I was using active optics which uses a tilting mirror to provide guide corrections. It makes corrections extremely rapidly and can, to some extent get around the blurring created by atmospheric distortions.

The key with an 8" SCT is understanding the problems of imaging at long focal length and the foibles of SCTs. If your scope is fork mounted you may find it difficult to get the tracking down to the necessary smoothness, you will also need a wedge. The stock SCT focuser isn't designed for the precision focusing required so it is best to fit an SCT crayford. Auto guiding is a must and an off axis guider of some sort is the best way to go in my view.

[Whippy]

That's superb Martin, the re-process really gives that 'horse rising out of the mist in front of a curtain' vibe whereas the orginal looks a little sharper although I'd be dead chuffed with either version if it was mine! .

Tony..

[Tim]

Alnitak as a guide star!!! hehehe. great planning and execution Martin, its a beautiful image, really beautiful, the 1200 sec subs really make a difference to the areas that usually show up just as dark areas dont they.

[Beyond_Vision]

Wow that is spectacular Martin. I love the framing and the detail is just superb

Regards

Kevin

[Ibbo!]

Very smooth esp with the ha

lovely image

Steve

[Coolhandjo]

Very very nice Martin! The detail is immense. 20 minute sub frames have done this image justice! I think that maybe the dissapointment you mention in the colour could possibly be too much Ha and not enough Lum. I noticed that the Lum gives images a sharpness that Ha sometimes doesnt have - especially at 7nm. Having said that if you didnt mention it in your post it woudlnt be there! Simply doesnt show up in this image as the region is pretty full of wavelengths at Ha (600nm+), so all the detail fills the colour nicely! As for the Meade optics, I ahve an LX200 and you have inspired me to image the Horse at f6.3! BTW the detail under the horse is the most detail;ed I have ever seen previously!

[MartinB]

Thanks again for the comments. I was getting a background brightness of around 750 ADU, the moon was probably contributing about 200 of this. I aim for a minimum of 500 which more or less takes read noise out of the equation with my camera. With the moon around I would probably have been ok with 15mins.

[ollypenrice]

Up there with the big hitters, Martin. I have seen the HH done in the same scope here a couple of times but no-one has come up with such a tight or delicately detailed result. Delicious. Congratulations.

Olly

[brantuk]

Brilliant pics wtg!

[Deneb]

thats .. well.. I can't put no words to it really apart from it's the most detailed horsehead i've seen.

Nadeem.

[robindurant]

Just sen this pic. Wonderful detail, the best I have seen.

Robin

[Catanonia]

Martin,

Dude these are amazing images, so close and so detailed. Loving the colour image of the head, fantastic image and jealous you can get so close to it..

Great advert to AO that I was looking into as well.

Just seems so 3D that image. HUGE pat on the back.

[MishMich]

I think both versions are great, but prefer the second. Good lesson - sometimes less is more?

M

[Johnboy2011]

Wow

[RikM]

Magic image Martin.

Rik

[prokyon]

Excellent! I love colours and details!

Cheers

Werner