RCW32 in Vela, my deepest ever image

[tornado33]

Howdy
I managed to re-image RCW32 in Vela, this time I beat the cloud to it. Total imaging time 1.25 hours! I would have kept going for 2 hours but more cloud from the east coast low down south was approaching, snd wind was increasing. As it was I had to remove my foam dew/light shield as it was catching the increasing wind and buffeting the scope. I started the imaging just after 6pm with just a hind of twilight left.

5x 15 mins ISO 400, offsets, darks and flats all processed in IRIS, the finished off with Photoshop, and as there was still a slight gradient, I used Gradient xterminator to get rid of that. The nebula is so faint that I have to stretch the levels so much even the tiniest gradient stands out like a sore thumb. I estimate the surface brightness of this nebula is about the same as the Horsehead Nebula!

10 inch F5.6 scope (newly coated mirror) off axis hand guided, modded EOS 350D camera, UHCS and UV/IR filters, and MPCC coma corrector.
Scott

[EzyStyles (Eric)]

that is a stunner Scott! you even captured abit of satelite trial.

[gaa_ian (Ian)]

Thats pretty cool for an almost invisable nebula !

[Starcrazzy]

unreal..absolutely awesome...well done...is that the iss trailing through ur shot??

[iceman (Mike)]

It looks like a red trifid!

Beautiful work Scott, but I don't know where you're getting clear skies from!

[tornado33]

Thanks everyone.
Yep a satellite went through one of the images. I was very fortunate with the weather, its now socked in again with rain coming, yet was so clear earlier on in the night.
Scott

[avandonk]

You utter utter b.. overachiever.

Bert

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Terrific!

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Onya Scott, that is a real ripper. Top marks mate

[Octane (Humayun)]

Scott,

Total buttkicking!

Excellent work, mate.

Regards,
Humayun

[Striker (Tony)]

Another nice one Scott.

Your skies must be pretty good where you are Scott.....theire is no way I could take a 15 minute exposure at F6.3 without it being completely washed out....maybe half that if lucky.

Your imaging at F5.6 with a 10" for 15 minutes....impresive when I thought Newcastle would be badly light poluted.

[h0ughy (David)]

Tony,
don't forget that Scott uses filters, our light pollution is just as good as yours

[Striker (Tony)]

Scott is using the same filter I use....UHC-S

I just cant see myself ever being able to image for 15 minutes....not that i cant...more so it would turn out white.

15 minutes for a single exposure is way more then I have ever seen anyone do in light polution.

[h0ughy (David)]

Originally Posted by Striker

Scott is using the same filter I use....UHC-S

I just cant see myself ever being able to image for 15 minutes....not that i cant...more so it would turn out white.

15 minutes for a single exposure is way more then I have ever seen anyone do in light polution.

Must be that magic Star fairy that looks over him then Eh

I will wait with a bottle then capture it, I will send you half Tony

[tornado33]

Thanks all
Yes without the UHCS it would be all but washed out though I have done 15 min images at ISO 200 unfiltered in the past. With the filter in place i find ISO 400 is better as I seem to get banding and a darkish image if I use ISO 200 with the filter.
To give you an idia of how the original images look Ive attached a jpeg of one of the 15 minute ISO 400 subexposures, extracted "as is" with the canon software, still fairly dark with the UHCS filter.
Scott

[Itchy]

Great work as usual Scott. Tuesday night sucked me in too. Great for an hour or so and then clouded in!

Cheers

[PhotonCollector (Paul)]

That's a great image. Good work.