Van den Berg 142 in Ha on a cloudy night

[Paramount]

Hi
It was one of those nights again last night, trying to decide whether to try some imaging or not. There was patchy cloud dotted over the sky with a few clear patches and occasionally some thicker patches drifting in occasionally, I have seen this before where I live and sometimes it is worth giving it a go even if only to salvage a few frames.
I decided to give Van den Berg 142 (Elephants trunk nebula) in Cepheus a go as it had just risen high enough over my neighbours tree. I managed to get 15x10 minute unguided subframes with the TMB 115/Starlight Xpress H36 on my Paramount ME. Unfortunately 6 of the frames had to be junked because of cloud damage and the last two frames because "good light stopped play".
I did a sum combine and 0.8 gamma stretch in Maxim DL and then transferred to CS2 where I used 3 iterations of curves and local contrast enhancement using Noel's tools.
I have enclosed the widefield version and also a cropped closeup. I was having a further play with Noel's tools and added false colour, these can be seen on my website
http://www.imagingtheheavens.co.uk
in the image gallery under nebulae
Considering the clouds and short imaging time I am quite pleased with the result
Thanks for looking
Regards
Gordon:)

http://www.imagingtheheavens.co.uk/USERIMAGES/elephant-trunkHa.jpg

http://www.imagingtheheavens.co.uk/USERIMAGES/elephant-trunkHacrop.jpg

[seeker372011]

unguided 10 minute subs-oh its a Paramount ME

nice result, despite the trying conditions

[strongmanmike]

Ah the fickle weather :rolleyes:

Nice result none the less, I love Ha images.

What do you think of the H36? I was considering one of those then went with the ProLine 11002.

I had a look around your site Gordon and I liked the Astronomy Jokes :thumbsup:

"If you find it difficult to look at Uranus...look at Mars then, she won't mind"... :doh:

MIke

[Paramount]

Hi Mike
Thanks for the comments, I like Ha as well, at least you are not restricted by moonlight and light pollution, the only downside being that you have to use longer exposures. The H36 is a great camera, it only has 2 flaws as I see it
1. No control over cooling
2. Not as sensitive in quantum efficiency as the FLI equivalents
The problem was that I really wanted a proline 9000 but in the uk it cost almost £9000 which is twice the price of the H36 and I just couldn't justify the cost. In the future a definite possibility though.
Love the joke by the way, do you mind if I put it on my site?
Best wishes
Gordon
:)

[Robert_T]

Hi Gordon, love the image! Don't think I've seen this one before.

10minutes unguided exposure... now that's the kind of polar alignment and guding accuracy I can only dream of:D

[skeltz]

Way to go gordon,god you guys in the UK must have some patience what with your weather.
Yeah you goota love HA
Onya mate:thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Go ahead :rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl: :lol: :lol: :rofl::rofl:

Not that funny :screwy: :whistle:

[Ric]

Very nice Gordon, there some lovely detail in this one. The globules at the bottom really jump out.

Cheers