2nd DSO attempt - NGC 2070

[Mark]

Well..the Tarantula Nebula (or at least the core). I wasn't expecting green! I know that unmodded dslr's aren't exactly red sensitive, but I wasn't expecting this much blue/green. No amount of fiddling with the raw images white balance and RGB curves seemed to help. Do I need longer subs?

Anyhoo... under a waxing gibbous moon plus the neighbors floodlight with the nebula at only 25 degrees altitiude, with a slight breeze (and still no wedge), I present NGC 2070, 15 x 30 second subs at ISO400 Canon 40D, 8" SCT @ f/6.3.

[Alchemy]

Only 2nd dso doing extremely well, bold move shooting under the moon

you are stuck with the blue, but look on the bright side you are probably capturing what others arenot seeing. It looks good on m8,m42, galaxies and some others , you will find the helix a dead loss though. You will be able to capture hundreds of objects with that camera..

you could try levels and bring the white slider down a bit to bring up more of the nebula. also try shooting at 800 iso if you shoot as many subs as you are you will beat the noise down,and i dont think at that time level it will be a huge problem but try shooting a few darks and see.

you dont say if you have guiding capability, if you do stretch it right out, see how far you can go

[dugnsuz]

Nice image Mark,
You've managed to record those filaments of nebulosity well.
I'm following your posts with great interest as I've upgraded to the 40D too.
Unfortunately Ive had cloudy skies and a moon pretty much every night since I bought the camera!!!
When I get a good night, I want to try pushing the iso setting a bit.
Cheers
Doug

[Mark]

I forgot to mention that darks were used. I made master darks for that evening at ISO 400, 800, 1000 and 3200, and also shot many subs at those sensitivities as well. As I have not got around to setting up the wedge, I'm getting about a 50% yield at 30 secs. Autoguiding is on the 'to do' list.

Normally I wouldn't even get the scope out under a bright moon and usually curse the moon as a thundering nuisance, however since getting the 40D I want to use it every clear night!

Here's the Tarantula later that evening at ISO 3200, 10 x 10 sec subs plus darks. More of a test to compare to lower ISO's. I hope to get around to processing the ISO 800 subs tomorrow.

[Ric]

Well done Mark, you have captured some nice detail in the nebula despite the blue/green bias.
It really looks like a giant spider lurking and ready to pounce.

Cheers

[Mark]

Finally got around to processing the ISO 800 subs. 15 x 30 sec subs, dark subtraction, RGB tweak in DPP and unsharp mask in PSP. This is a 100% crop.

[Mark]

What the heck - here's a composite of 24 frames, plus darks at ISO 3200 & ISO 800. 100% crop. I'll stop now. :lol:

[ballaratdragons]

That is looking good mark!
I like the green. I imaged Tarantula in green once before and thought it looked ok. So does yours.

You have captured the spidery legs better than I ever have :thumbsup:

[Mark]

Thanks everyone!