taking the horsy head out for a ride

[Robert_T]

This is my first serious attempt and imaging using my new Askar 400 but this time with it's pair 0.7x reducer bringing it from 400/5.6 to 280/3.9. Also using the L Extreme filter here.

I decided to focus on the horse-head - originally was going to try and frame both it and M42 and at 280mm I could ft both but it meant both were towards the edges so composition looked off and the edges at F3.9 and using an APSc chip (ASI071) quality is impacted towards the edges.

F3.9 is great for getting detail with shorter subs (though here using 5min subs here as surface detail is pretty faint Total 2hr 15min here), but I'm struck by how much more critical everything becomes at f3.9, focus needs to be perfect to avoid flaring and tilt impacts are exacerbated etc.

Anyway here it is

[raymo]

Lovely job Robert, but the flame is much too red for my taste; I presume
that is caused by the filter.
raymo

[Robert_T]

Thanks Raymo, yes I suspect so. Thinking I might do some subs with my more broadband filter (IDAS LPS P2 - much same as the L pro) to add to this taken with the rather t extreme L extreme and bring out some more varied colouration

[PKay]

Lots of detail showing Robert.

Yes there is every colour of the rainbow in that field, if that's what your after.

I use 60s subs (neutral gain) with the OSC to avoid saturating pixels.

And careful stretching...

Nice image.

[Robert_T]

Thanks Peter, would that 60s be using a filter? The L extreme here is very narrow hence the 5min subs, but there's no doubt I've saturated many stars. Maybe 120-180s better, but I really need to use a more broadband filter to capture the wide colours here I think and shorter exposure as you do.

I could try zero gain here as well I guess to maximise my dynamic range. This here is unity gain 90 for the asi071... or i might try my asi533mc