My Humble Attempt at the Helix

[leon]

Hi Guys, last night turned out pretty reasonable, but the clouds did roll in at about 1 am.

It took me ages to get a guide star, and wasted at least 45mins of good imaging time but I was determined to have a crack at this one, however only 5 frames into the run the clouds appeared. :sadeyes:

So here we have a full widefield, and a half crop of the same image.

It was captured at 400 ISO, @ 7 min's each, through the Tak and modded 5D, auto guided with the WO 80mm FD, and the G11.

Processed in Image Plus, flats applied, and touched up a little in PS2.

Please feel free to comment either way, thanks for looking.

Leon:thumbsup:

[iceman]

That's really nice Leon, just hanging out in space.

I'd love to have a go at this object one day.

[RB]

Yep I really like it Leon, well done.
For 35 min that's v.good !

Shame you couldn't get more because of the cloud cover.

[Matty P]

Looks very nice Leon. :thumbsup: Nice detail and colour. It really pops from the background.

I tried to image the Helix last month but couldn't find a guidestar as well.

Well done. :)

[leon]

Thanks Guys, much appreciated, Yea I know where you are coming from Matty, I reckon I spent 45 minutes, up down, to the left, to the right, four times i had to slew back to the original coordinates as I lost it completely. :lol:

In the end I found the faintest little star, a thought, well, that is all Iv'e got and it seemed to lock on pretty good. :whistle:

Leon :thumbsup:

[Alchemy]

swisho leon, color looks good, i can see the outer loop nicely; looks smooth as from what i can see.:thumbsup:

[peter_4059]

Looks good Leon. I had a similar experience trying to find a guide star. Glad it's not just me!

Peter

[peeb61]

Hi Leon,
Lovely colour, nice and sharp, stars pinpoints...how do you do it?

Paul

[leon]

A lot of trial and error Paul, and a bit of determination to get it right, trust me, I have had many failures, and like I mentioned earlier, am only getting it all together with the help of all the good folk on IIS, many thanks for your comment.

Leon

[strongmanmike]

Yes, yes...nice image, looks good blah, blah, blah ..... NOW can I have that telescope???? :D

:lol:

Seriously, your trials and tribulations sound all to familiar to me :sadeyes:

Nice work

Mike

[Garyh]

Go on Leon do a swap!!:) Mikes ready for a TAK...

Good widefield image of this Leon, colors are good etc...you are improving with every image...:thumbsup: and this is no easy target to image....Have done 6 hours of this sucker and I am still battling noise etc...
Well done!..:thumbsup:

[Jeffkop]

Bloody shame Leon, this image has the hallmarks of something really good given a bit more data ... heres hoping you can get some more and complete it ... I cant wait

[leon]

This is all to much to handle in one night guys, but i do appreciate all your kind comments and engouraging words, thank you all. :ashamed:

And to Mike, sorry mate but the answer is NOOOOOOOOO. :lol: :lol:

Leon :thumbsup:

[AlexN]

has a really nice 3D affect.... colors are great and Helix stands out great against the background...

[Deeno]

So crisp.
Lovely colour

[Ric]

Very nice Leon, the widefield looks fantastic.

Cheers

[bluescope]

Nice image for relatively short exposure Leon.

:thumbsup:

[leon]

Ric, I just that wide field effect that the Tak can produce, thanks for your remarks, and to you Steve.

Leon