Something new for me : Widefield NGC 7000

[Catanonia]

Some of you may have seen my threads with problems with my new WO66 I got as a birthday present back in May this year.

Just could not get to grips with it, focusing, setting up with the QHY9 etc etc

I even posted it up for sale.

Well eventually I took the time with it in daylight, to work out the focus point, it was much more inward than I thought and how many posts on the web said.

I really wanted to get some nice widefield shots, and leave the ED120 for galaxies and smaller targets.

Well I managed to get it working and last night bagged about 3.5 hours of the North American and Pelican Nebula's whilst dodging the clouds. Had a few guiding problems and egg shaped stars near the edges.

Taken with the WO66 and QHY9 + 2inch filter wheels. Guided OAG with a QHY5 / PHD.

Processed in MaximDL and PS.

Combinations are

Ha 8nm = 1:40 in 10min subs

RGB = 45 mins each in 5 min subs.

I combined the Ha and Red to give a luminance channel.

I have seen many shots of this area and they all tend to be massively red, missing out the star colours and structure.

So the aim of this was to keep the beautiful star colours as well as show the structure of the nebula. Hopefully I have managed this.

A full size image can be found here

http://extraview.dnsalias.com/temp/NGC 7000 Large.jpg

Here is the classic NGC7000 missing all of the star colours (with the Ha filter and worked)

Hopefully you like it

[themos]

The nebula outline is great but I find the saturated colours a bit on the wild side.

[Catanonia]

The nebula outline is great but I find the saturated colours a bit on the wild side.

mmm, worked the image and saved it back to my server and so has been replaced in the original post, added a bit more Ha / red into it and hopefully reduced the saturation a bit.

The star colours I haven't touched, these are direct from the RGB stack, quite please managed to get them to come out so well.

[Shibby]

Amazing detail and contrast! You have clearly got to grips with your kit now!

I'm not sure (and this is nit-picking) but the dark outlines on some of the smaller stars suggest the star layer selection wasn't feathered enough maybe? (if you used this method). But I love how you've maintained the star colours over the image, top stuff.

[themos]

I wonder if it would look better in the HST palette, green for Ha, what do you think?

[Catanonia]

I wonder if it would look better in the HST palette, green for Ha, what do you think?

never tried HST, might give it a go and see what happens.

[ollypenrice]

Whenever you use Ha in the Luminance channel you will run the risk of blue haloes and these will be much wider than any RGB star data you replace from the RGB image so they will remain. You also reduce the red to a light pink.

Personally I would apply Ha to red in blend mode lighten, not at 100% but starting at about 30% and adding in successive iterations to taste. Each time you do this the red channel will dominate but you can pull it back down in Curves to keep roughly the original balance. Your star colour will be slightly affected but you won't have haloes so you can replace the RGB star layer with care. I always find this difficult, I must say.

The ZS66 needs a flattener reducer for any kind of large chip. WO did a dedicated one which isn't bad. You need to respect the 56mm chip distance. Look at a telegraph pole in an EP to see the field curvature of the standard scope; off axis it looks like a capital C or D. But as you have shown it can do the biz, especially in narrowband where it is very capable.

Olly

[Catanonia]

Olly, was the approximate method I was using, still new to it combining Ha to Red.

Good info on the flattener, can see on the uncropped versions (not posted) the problems here with such a large chip size.

Over all, I am impressed with the WO66.

Can you post a link to the type of flattener i would need please.

[ollypenrice]

I don't know if it is still listed, the dedicated flattener for the 66, but I got mine from Ian King. He should be able to help.

The key thing about adding Ha to red is to use Blend Mode Lighten, not Normal. This makes all the diference.

Olly

[msinclairinork]

WOW! you must be happy with that!

Michael

[Fay]

I always use the dedicated 0.85 focal reducer for the WO 66. They are not made now, I am thinking, but I am sure you will find one, from Ian King or one of the other dealers.