IC434 Horsehead Nebula ( In Progress)

[Startrek]

Summer so far has been mostly cloudy with only limited opportunity to image and poor seeing conditions.
Captured a couple of hours on IC434 Horsehead Nebula from my NexDome Obs on the South Coast under Bortle 3 skies.
Managed only some Luminance and Ha data over two different nights as the cloudy weather continues so this project is a works in progress.

Location: NexDome Obs South Coast NSW
New Moon period
Bortle 3 Skies
Seeing Conditions poor to average
10" f5 Klaus Helmerich Carbon Fibre Newtonian
Skywatcher EQ8-R Pro Mount
ZWO 2600MM cooled to -10C , Lum Gain 0 and Ha Gain 100
ZWO 7 x 2" EFW
Orion 60mm guidescope with Helical focuser
ZWO290MM Guide Camera
Antlia filters

Lum 35 x 1min dithered subs
Ha 50 x 2min dithered subs
Darks from Dark Library
Flats for Lum and Ha
Flat Darks for Lum and Ha
Total integration so far just over 2 hrs

Tracking and Goto EQMOD and Stellarium
Aquisition APT
PHD2 Multistar Guiding ( 0.65 to 0.75 arc sec total )
Data reviewed, analysed , calibrated , stacked and aligned in ASTAP
Post Processed in Startools V1.8 via Compose Module

Considering poor conditions, the image scrubbed up quite well for only just of 2 hours of data. Nothing, I mean nothing beats dark skies when it comes to image quality and fidelity. Imaging from my B8 City Suburban location to my B3 dark sky location is simply chalk and cheese.

Have to wait a couple of weeks now until the next new moon to capture RGB data to complete a colour image. Some additional Luminance data would certainly help as well.

Astrobin links below for full resolution…..,

https://www.astrobin.com/dzjngm/

Crop version included for a closer look

https://www.astrobin.com/1ggf87/


Thanks for Looking

Comments Welcome

Martin

[TrevorW]

Nice start Martin :)

[Anth10]

Martin,
Love your work. The Ha and Lum have meshed beautifully to create a great canvas for your RGB on this classic neb.
Orion is climbing high in the sky, look forward to seeing the final image with colour.
Sad to see Altinak out of the picture for obvious reasons, but it’s right refraction spike is letting us all know where it’s hiding hehehe.
Cheers,
Anthony;)

[Startrek]

Thanks Trev
Even poor seeing under B3 skies is an absolute joy compared to the muck I have to deal with in Sydney’s B8 skies
I might have to convince my wife to move permanently down here
Just grateful to have the choice to getaway to darker skies
Martin

[Startrek]

Thanks Anthony
Now for some clear weather later in January
The 2600MM in that big carbon Newt , B3 skies allowed Startools to weave its magic again
By the way I did a quick trial on Pi a month ago and found it too User dependent, complicated and time consuming . Startools watches your back every step of the way and does all the heavy lifting in the background mathematically, so much more intuitive. Each to their own
Too old to learn complex levels , curves and masks etc…
Cheers
Martin

[strongmanmike]

Always nice to hit a good Horsey this time of year :D

Yes, move to the coast, easier for surfing too :thumbsup:

Mike

[Startrek]

Thanks Mike
I wish we could move down here , too many of our kids need Grandma and Pa to look after the grandkids until they reach school age , we’re halfway there
Daycare and Preschool fees are ridiculously expensive in NSW compared to school. We’re happy to help out whilst we can.
This year we only do 2 days a week , last year it was 4 days a week , so at least now we can getaway for 4 day weekends at our coastal retreat, which means more R&R plus imaging time, Yay !!!
By the way we’ve had 2 shark alarms in the past week so using the kayaks in the local river inlet has been a wiser choice than getting out in the surf. Must be a lot of bait fish around at the moment. Haven’t had a shark alarm in years

Cheers
Martone

[Dave882]

Gosh you’ve captured some beautiful detail there Martin! Especially in and around the horse head you can zoom right in there…very surprising indeed. Impressive especially for the sub-optimal conditions. Great work!

[Startrek]

Dave,
Thanks for the kind comments
Much appreciated
In Startools I used the Contrast Module with just a Local preset and it really exposed hidden detail particularly around the Horsehead and in the lower darker regions.
To be honest the image blew me away after the Contrast module and for only 2 hours of total data.
Hoping to get some clear skies in a week or so to finish off RGB , although the forecast looks a bit ordinary
Cheers
Martin

https://www.startools.org/modules/contrast