The Horsehead Nebula 10 hours 30 minutes now with cropped and high res versions
I took about 25 hours of data for this one. My mount developed a spike in the PE which meant about 5 or 6 hours was lost. The rest was from an earlier time and it was too rotated to be used.
Software Bisque sent me a new worm for my PMX mount and coupled with the latest firmware I was able to do a very accurate polar alignment as well as an accurate and working PEC. Guiding with the SBIG STi guider and MMOAG tracking was essentially perfect.
10 hours and 30 minutes of Ha LRGB images. AstroPhysics 140 scope (so sharp and wow what a focuser), PMX mount, FLI Proline 16803, Astrodon filters, SBIG STi and MMOAG guiding, Tak 4 inch flattener at my dark site observatory. I had a few nights of excellent seeing so the star sizes on some of the data were very tight.
My only gripe would be the composition, but, I'm being a stickler.
Good to see some new work from you. I hope to get back into it this year, too.
H
Thanks H. Too low? I was wanting to frame the upper part of the neb as well. It shows up well in the Ha only but not so much in the colour.
I'll be imaging galaxies again shortly. I cleaned my CDK and installed a baffle kit that should improve its performance.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jjjnettie
Super duper!!
Thanks JJJ. Its been a while since I've done an astro image so its nice to get one finished.
That looks excellent Greg - great colours! I'm currently collecting image data for this object as well so this will be helpful to benchmark my processing against.
Thanks Peter. With the improved tracking, the great seeing and the good autoguiding I was getting some really sharp images which was exciting.
Quote:
Originally Posted by David Fitz-Henr
That looks excellent Greg - great colours! I'm currently collecting image data for this object as well so this will be helpful to benchmark my processing against.
I am sure it will be a blockbuster. The main thing with this object is avoiding the stray light or reflections from the bright stars in the scene and just outside of it.
My only gripe would be the composition, but, I'm being a stickler.
Good to see some new work from you. I hope to get back into it this year, too.
H
I found that if I chopped off the top of the image above the bright star you end up with an aspect ratio around 3:2 and it looks very nice. Just my preference of course. The image is stunning regardless!
Beautiful Greg, actually although some don't agree, i prefer images that are not smack bang centered, they look much better a bit off side, so to speak, and yours is spot on, well done indeed.
Looks very good Greg. I should have one myself to match the recent Ha effort soon.
Cheers
Steve
Thanks Steve. I look forward to your image.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MortonH
I found that if I chopped off the top of the image above the bright star you end up with an aspect ratio around 3:2 and it looks very nice. Just my preference of course. The image is stunning regardless!
Yes I should do a crop version. I have a luminance image that shows off the Ha and detail in the top half of the image but in the combination of all the LRGB and Ha it seemed to lose some of that detail. So a crop version makes sense.
Quote:
Originally Posted by leon
Beautiful Greg, actually although some don't agree, i prefer images that are not smack bang centered, they look much better a bit off side, so to speak, and yours is spot on, well done indeed.
Leon
Thanks Leon.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RickS
Good to see you imaging again, Greg. A great result!
Yes its been a while. I hope to do more regular images. I've got the PMX humming now.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Larryp
Lovely image, Greg!
Thanks Larry.
Quote:
Originally Posted by johnnyt123
Spectacular!!!!!!
Thanks Johnny. I figured the Horsehead is such a classic area it was worth some extra effort.
nice pic Greg 
