The Great Carina Nebula

[arkle]

Another one from me (can you tell I'm a new member?)

The Great Carina Nebula is a giant diffuse nebula composed of ionised hydrogen. It is one of the largest H II regions in our Milky Way galaxy.

Technical details - Canon 40Dh with 200mm lens at f/4, 53 x 120 second exposures @ ISO1000. Dark subtraction, flat field application, registration, stacking and processing in IRIS. Total exposure time 106 minutes.

Criticism always welcome!

arkle

[dugnsuz]

Very nice Steve,
If tracking allows (I know we discussed this) try and push the exposure times to bring out that wispy peripheral nebulosity.
The keyhole looks very nicely resolved.
Great stuff
Doug

[winensky]

Great shot. Really good noise control. Wonderful colour and the field of view is just right for this object. Not that I am is a position to be critical but looking at your previous thread and this, is it possible that the focus is just a little soft? Great work.

[leon]

New member or not, you have certainly done well with this one, it is a wonderful target, just waiting to be imaged. ;)

However, as mentioned, a bit longer with your subs perhaps, and maybe a little sharper in focus, other than that you are well on your way, very nice indeed. ;)

Leon :thumbsup:

[arkle]

Thank you very much.

The focus is such a pain. I have to go in and out of the house about 100 times to get the focus right. The neighbours must think I have a mental disorder, creeping repetitiously about in the dark for an hour. I think having to scale everything down to 200kB for the forum makes things a bit more blurry too.

There's a full resolution copy of the Carina Nebula here

http://img138.imageshack.us/my.php?image=080209cn15xj5.jpg

and a full resolution copy of the Crux Carina wide field here

http://img137.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cruxcarina15hp0.jpg

arkle

[Hagar]

Very nice widefield of this huge nebula. Some longer guided exposures will help to resolve the finer detail and true extent of this nebula. Check your focus it looks a little soft but may even be slight tracking errors.

Well done. If you are new to this look out everyone in a few months. Start saving for more gear, you're hooked.

[arkle]

Yes I have a mount with a poor RA drive. It has terrible periodic errors that limit my exposures to about 30 seconds at 200mm, and even then I have to throw away about three trailed images for every one that I stack. I don't know how to balance my C8 telescope with a heavy camera mounted on the side. I do appreciate everyone's help.

arkle

[iceman]

Hey Steve, :welcome: to IceInSpace!

Great image, haven't seen carinae for a while!

[winensky]

This is a really good image. I sympathise about the focusing as this takes so long without a good crayford or motorized focuser. I marvel at your patience going in and out of the house. At least I have a lap top so it only takes 4 -8 seconds between each adjustment. Don't know what your budget is like but if your camer allows, downloading straight to a lap top will save a lot of leg work.

[h0ughy]

I agree with Mike - -cant half tell I am photon starved - great shot!!