The Bat nebula with Bokkies

[ErwinvdVelden]

Hi everyone,

Since it was cloudy this morning I processed my third image of last observing weekend, IC2948 the Bat nebula. This time I used 6x640s @ 800 ISO with the Celestron 80ED @ f/6.3 and of course the modified D70, although this gets close to CCD, especially since the jpg adds a lot of noise compared to the tif version, especially in the brighter parts! Ambient temperature was 13 degrees, and the dark frames used for dark frame synthesizing work much better now. See

http://www.pbase.com/terrylovejoy/image/42842820

or for the original size:

http://www.pbase.com/terrylovejoy/image/42842820/original

Thanks Terry again for providing the web space!

Cheers,

[gaa_ian]

Fantastic Shot .... Will have to track that one down to see what it looks like visually :astron:

[seeker372011]

what a super image!

I have been hunting the running chicken nebula for weeks, and was just processing images captured last thursday when I saw this post..now I won't bother!

thanks for sharing


PS
btw would you mind posting a single raw frame? I was just curious to see how much of the red nebulosity there was in teh original data compared to an image through my unmodified 300D

tia

[ErwinvdVelden]

Dear Tia,

Keep on processing! That's the only way to learn how to make good images!

Thanks for your compliment anyway.

Here is an unprocessed to colour converted RAW frame at 25%, of course heavily JPG compressed.

Cheers,

[iceman]

Wow it's not even visible in the raw frame! Great image Erwin.. I don't know how you get time for all this astrophotography.. up every morning for the planets and all night for the DSO's :D

[Astroman]

Should change his nick to Zombie :D

Great Pics amazing detail What was the telescope ?

[gaa_ian]

Is it actually possible to see this Nebula :confused:
It is listed as an open cluster in the IC Catalog

[gbeal]

Another fantastic image Erwin, keep them coming, I am continually impressed.
Gary

[toetoe]

Unbelievable shots, now you see it, now you don`t. :)

[ErwinvdVelden]

Thanks for all the comments, folks!

Actually I'm a Cylon, never need any sleep and am programmed to think I'm an astrophotographer. And I have a plan.... :evil:

This weekend is observing weekend again, but first Mercury tomorrow morning.

The Bat/Running chicken was shot with the Celestron 80 ED, and with the C9.25 it is visible as a faint glow around an open star cluster.

Cheers,

[ving]

brilliant pic. funny i dont see a running chicken init tho....
:)

[tornado33]

Great pic there. Cound I ask:
Do you autoguide your images, and if how how do you do it, with a webcam and "Guide dog" software or some other method. Do you have a guidescope or off axis guider? Could I also ask what software you use to stack and process the images.
Thanks.
Scott

[xelasnave]

thats magic... thinking of the big bang ...its hard to imagine all those stars (and all the rest) came from a single speck as they say
congratulations on the shot great work
alex

[ErwinvdVelden]

Hi Scott,

For the C9.25 I'm using the Celestron radial guider behind the focal
reducer with the Quickcam Pro camera in the guiding eyepiece holder.
The program is Astrovideo with the settings minimum 20 ms interval,
40 ms standard interval and 200 ms maximum interval with the
handcontroller at 1.5x sidereal speed. Exposure time is 2s. The
interface between the computer and the mount is a relay box made by
Albert van Duin.

This whole combination works perfectly with the 80 ED refractor, with
the C9.25 there is still a 1 arcsec wobble in the RA because for some
reason Astrovideo has about 5s delay in processing the guiding
images.

Sofar I was able to find a guide star for every object, it is easier
however to find guide star when using the 80ED than with the C9.25,
because the 80ED has a larger focal plane with less vignetting.

Cheers,

[Striker]

Great stuff Erwin.....

It's funny now that you dont hear anyone saying that you cant get a image as good as a visual through the eyepiece....

Awesome mate.....

[asimov]

Awsome. :thumbsup:

[Itchy]

Hi Erwin

Brilliant once again

Cheers