Ic 2118

[casstony]

Another half-done image from last night. Looks promising if I get a good night for more exposure time though.
1.5 hours with the Sharpstar and IDAS-D2 filter.

The Witchead reflection nebula is a cloud of gas/dust illuminated by nearby Rigel, which is just outside the frame.

[raymo]

I'm getting tired of complimenting you; just take my compliments on future images as read.
raymo

[casstony]

thanks Raymo. I'm slack in that regard - be handy to have a 'like' button in lieu of writing comments.

[Anth10 (Anthony M)]

Excellent image- love the colour you managed to draw out as well as a very well defined witch head. That’s a beauty.

Anth

[Mickoid (Michael)]

Nice result Tony. This dim sucker is on my to do list over the Summer season. I've had a few goes at it but never got anything as good as yours. I even tried it last night, though it was not a serious attempt, just an experiment to see if it was gettable from the location I was at. I have a filter similar to the one you're using, so I might try it out on the Witch and see what difference it makes. I like the colours you've managed with this shot too. Good stuff!

[Sunfish (Ray)]

Very well defined and a lot of colour. Good to see lots of different nebula possible here. I think that one is in my field of view right now and worth a look.

[casstony]

Thanks guys. The modified camera brings out more red and brown than my previous attempts with a stock camera. There's a lot of Ha in the area and I even toned the red down a little.

It might be best to use no filter for this object Mick; I use the IDAS D2 by default as my d5600 is full spectrum and I don't have a UV/IR blocking filter.

The weather forecast looks poor so I won't get a chance to finish this for a while.

[LostInSp_ce]

Excellent start Tony we can already see where this one is heading. Look forward to seeing the end result.

[Ant0nio (Tony)]

Another great shot Tony. This one is on my to do list when the Sky Rover 70sa turns up.
Cheers,
Tony

[casstony]

Some more time and a little different processing got me a cleaner image of the Witch. It's hard to decide what's best with these fainter objects though.

[LostInSp_ce]

I actually still prefer the softer look of the original. I know AP is all about SNR but sometimes a little noise isn't always a bad thing.

[casstony]

You could be right - hard to know where to stop sometimes

[Saturnine (Jeff)]

Both versions look fine to me but if I had to choose, I think the re- pro is the better of the 2 . Great effort on a faint nebula, especially for 1.5 hrs.

[RyanJones]

I love this object Tony and you’ve captured it beautifully. My choice would also be the first for the same reason that it looks more natural to me. This is one of my one day targets, maybe if I dust off my old refractor as it won’t fit in the FOV of any of my other OTAs. Great work Tony. Keep them coming.

[casstony]

Thanks Jeff and Ryan. It's a warm but clear night so i'll be experimenting with the 150ED and hopefully have something interesting for show and tell tomorrow.