Horsehead and Flame Nebulas Last Night South Coast

[Startrek]

This is my first capture of these Nebula using my ZWO 2600MC OSC camera
Location South Coast
Scope 8” f5 GSO newt
Mount EQ6-R
Filter ZWO Duoband
Cooled to -12C
30 x 180sec subs dithered
15 x darks
No flats
Captured from 11.30pm to 2.30am
APT
Stacked in DSS
Processed in Startools V1.6

Original framed image ( just squeezed both objects in FOV ( my 8” has a bit too much focal length for this object )
Also some crop frames to show fine detail

Comments most welcome

Note the large circular anomalies to one side ?? Any ideas ?? They showed up very very faint on the subs. To big for dust on sensor , maybe a dried droplet but my sensor appears pristine clean , so does my filter and so does my coma corrector
Cant be mirrors ?? , cleaned them both as well spotless !!
Any advice most welcome
Thanks

[multiweb]

That bright arc is most likely a shiny edge in your focuser or adaptors.

[jahnpahwa]

Nice one, Martin!
The long and slender diffraction spikes from Alnitak scream precision to me, and I have no idea if that is the case or not... Just looks sharp :)
Interesting colour to the flame. Have you imaged this without the duo band with this camera?

[muletopia]

Martin,

+1 for the quote.


The split spike in one direction and the less good spike opposite is usually present in my pictures. I put it down to a misadventure of my 'scope. It slid out of a borrowed mount and hit my foam ob floor about a metre below.. Destroyed the mounted camera but the effect on subsequent imaging was to produce the split fork. I put it down to one slightly deformed spider vane.
Usually my focusing is done to minimse the fork whilst retaining two good spikes.
You might examine your spider vanes.


Chris

[Startrek]

JP
This is the first time I’ve imaged the Horsehead and Flame in over 3 years of AP
Yes I’d like to image it during the dark
As far as pin sharp diffraction spikes I do cheat a little and apply Deconvolution which sharpens thing up especially diffraction spikes
Thanks

Chris
I find the more you tweak the spider vanes the worse your diffraction spikes become. You can spend hours on the damn things if you want
I’m happy with one side perfect and the other side not so perfect
Thanks

[Sunfish]

Very sharp. Love the bicolour look blue and red colour.

[PKay]

Nice on Martin.

Ever tried a mosaic?

[RyanJones]

Hi Martin,

+1 on the internal reflection.

Amazingly sharp defraction lines. Not just the spider but around the stars too.
Nice work

Cheers

Ryan

[Startrek]

Ray
Thanks I’m pretty happy with the first go at this target

Peter
Thanks
Never tried mosaic but should

Ryan
Thanks
I should have pushed for more subs as everything was running swimmingly but I was pretty tired. Haven’t done a long haul to the wee hours for quite a while

[Robert_T]

hi Martin, the detail for the horse-head itself is excellent. No real clue on that arc but some sort of reflection as mentioned would be my guess. My only query on this one is the flame looks a little low-res and lacking in differentiation compared to the other nebula?

[Startrek]

Marc
Thanks for the suggestion
I checked my focuser tube and it was flush with the inside of the OTA and is coated Matt black.Also check my adapters , coma corrector too and they are all coated so I don’t believe those were at fault
What I do know is that a tiny bit of stray light seems to be hitting my gutter from the street behind me which is west ( 60m away ) obviously a street light and the target was getting low towards the west. So maybe that’s it
Never come across this issue before and I’ve had this scope for over 3 years
Anyway I imaged the Rosette last night , processed the image and no issue with this unknown curve anomaly
Thanks
Martin

[Startrek]

Thanks Robert
Yes I agree the flame looks a bit lifeless
It was a standard RGB process across the image so I might try a reprocess with the Compose module and try some blends. I could always mask in the flame and push up the HDR as well or the Life module
Thanks for your comments and observation

[Rerouter]

Could also be some light leaking in from a weird spot, had something similar appear when a green status led was pointing up towards the underside of the focuser a few nights back.

[Startrek]

Thanks Ryan
All my Leds on connectors and hubs etc... are covered with black gaffer tape and my Laptop is in a plastic tub facing away from the scope
Thanks for your input
I’m sure it was some stray light from a street light in the street behind me as my scope was facing in that direction
Hasn’t happened again