Deep Helix

[John Hothersall]

SPX350 F4.5, ST10XME, Astrodon filters Ha5nm OIII 3nm.

Thought I would see what a deeper pixel well would do compared to the 314L+ and it sure brings out the fainter stuff with less noise. With 10min subs the black levels read 95 with the auto stretch in CCDSoft much lower than the 200+ with the 314. The outer material shows very well and the OIII rays are strong.

Had many difficulties with egg stars, loosened my EQ6 RA mesh and autoguiding improved, continual bad seeing, occasional secondary misting and sometimes egg stars in the corner with the heavy ST10 not sitting square when focuser screws tightened.

Ha-4hrs
OIII-6hrs all in 10min subs.

Colour:
Ha-red
OIII-blue
Ha25%OIII75%-green.

1st image Ha used as luminance
2nd image show detail
3rd image used OIII as luminance
4th image OIII lum image over processed and reduced for better emphasis.

Thanks for looking, John.

[Lee]

Love the first two, not sure on the second two.... excellent technique though - the first two are among the best helices I've seen anywhere...

[DavidU]

Very tidy John !:thumbsup:

[RickS]

Really nice, John! It's a stunning object and you've captured lots of detail. Very interesting to compare the different filters as Luminance.

I have been working on the Helix too, but at f/9 and I think it's going to take me a couple more months to get enough data (assuming the weather holds).

[Peter.M]

Looks great John, I like the look of this object at this image scale!

[Shiraz]

amazing images John - excellent. Regards Ray

[Peter Ward]

Great image. :thumbsup:

....as an aside, the ST10 remains one of the highest QE front illuminated cameras period (sadly are no longer produced)....I'd suspect well cared for examples will be sought after in time.

[jase]

What a ripper, John! The details you've extracted are stunning in the first couple of renditions. Perhaps taken it too far in the last two but its good to see what the data is capable of. Great work. Thanks for sharing.

[marc4darkskies]

Great detail! Very impressive John!! Well done!!

Cheers, Marcus

[cazza132]

Love the first one! Geez, I wonder if any exoplanets around neighbouring stars survived that supernova. You can make out the trailing ionized gas from a few of the stars in your shot. Fantastic work!

[Larryp]

Nice work :thumbsup:

[Greg Bock]

John,
I really appreciate that you're prepared to experiment a bit with the different luminosity frames, and then share them...it expands the possibilities to see what we may otherwise miss...
a big thankyou.

[multiweb]

Terrific work John. Very clever mix of the channels in LUM to show the various details. Top notch. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Stump]

Very nice image!

Is that central star the source of the gasses? It looks much more pronounced than in some of the other images I've seen of this object.

[John Hothersall]

Pleased to here your working on this at F9 this will show excellent cometary detail around the core so can't wait for your version.

I know the ST10 is very sensitive and I found out I got one of the last ones, its a shame they stopped manufacture. For small pixels the ST10 packs a punch and has strong binning. Blooms spikes are very minor in narrowband

I tried to use the OIII emphasis but the OIII was nowhere near as strong as the Ha so I blended the Ha around the edges to remove the noise and just used the OIII around the centre. The OIII did need a little over processing and it does show. I majorly over processed the last one for fun as the OIII rays are very subtle.

Two images Ha and OIII you can see the differences in structure clearly.

John.

[E_ri_k]

That's fantastic John! Really awesome images :) The first two are great. Surprising difference in the Ha and OIII.
Erik

[strongmanmike]

Yes, the difference between the Ha an OIII structures is quite marked huh? Hard to blend them together too but your renditions are commendable! Some great detail showcased there too :thumbsup:

MIke

[naskies]

Wow, very inspiring. That's some great processing.

[FranckiM06]

Wow, it is really splendid image John. I'm sorry but I'm so busy at the moment that I didn't seen your incredible image.
Franck

[Ross G]

Great looking photos John.

Amazing detail.


Ross.