The Witch Head Nebula

[strongmanmike]

This is the second image I did from Wiruna last weekend and the first time I have imaged this beautiful nebula in Orion. The Witch Head Nebula is located very close to Rigel, the bright star in Orion.

Unfortunately the atrocious conditions of high wind and very poor seeing affected the image a bit in fact to be honest I can't believe it came out this well really..? :)

Like the last NGC 6744 Pavo Galaxy image, no gradient removal was necessary in this image either - one of the benifits of a true dark sky :thumbsup:

LRGB = 60 60 60 60min

Really need a bit more exposure but seriously, I was freekin out because the wind was so bludy strong!!! and the seeing was absolute crapola too, I am amazed that I even got an image out of the data, the NJP mount on the pedistal pier really is a beauty! There are actually a few faint background galaxies in there amazing for a region full of obscuring dust. I can only imagine what could have been had the conditions been more favourable???........:sad:

Large and best view (4.5meg)
http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/104169333/original


Small view for those with less patience (1.4 meg)
http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/104169279/original

Hope you like it :thumbsup:

Mike

[Garyh]

Woaha! that`s a beauty Mike, Don`t think I have seen such a closeup!
Was it easy to frame being so faint? I remember doing it some time back with the TV and I couldn`t even see it on a sub with the DSLR!
cheers Gary

[leon]

Yes I have to agree, a great effort, and very well captured.

leon

[Hagar]

Lovely image with so much nebula visible. So faint a nebula would be a real pain to capture or at least process with out blowing the stars away and lifting the grain in the image. The fine detail stands out so well considering the conditions you were in. Must be very dark up there. I hope Lostock is similar.

[winensky]

Definately a dark sky object. You must have avery good knowledge of the star field to have framed it so well. A real beauty.

[Matty P]

WOW!! Once again a fine image Mike. :)

You have done an amazing job of capturing this illusive nebula.

I just spent a couple of minutes viewing the Hi-Res version. Stunning!

Thanks for sharing. :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Gary, glad you liked it. I guess that is teh difference between DSLR's and CCD's I just binned my pixels 3X3 for the framing and used 10sec exposures and it showed up nicely, noisy but I could see it all :thumbsup:



Thanks Leon, I was very surprised it came out even this well, had the conditions been more acceptable it would have been quite a fine structured vista I recon..? Somehow a few background galaxies still showed up though.



Actually this was one of my easier processing efforts Doug :P the faintness helps in not blowing out any bright bits in the nebula..because there are3n't any :D and the stars in the field aren't bright either. The seeing and wind would have affected the fine resolution for sure so I would love to do it again in better conditions, I recon the difference would be pretty obvious.



Oh I know roughly where it is Matt but the goto, after aligning on Rigel, put her nose right in the middle of the frame really. I just binned the framing shots so she showed up quite ok, I only kept imaging out of imaging addiction and withdrawals really but I'm glad I persevered, as an object it looks quite nice I think, even in amazingly bad conditions?



You are welcome Matt :thumbsup: it's a nice vista huh? and a bit different really, the Witchhead isn't imaged up close like this often, I was pretty pleased that I could fit her whole face in :)

Mike

[richardo]

Jeezzzz, so little time, such an image.
By the sounds of the conditions it's a wonder you got anything half as good as this.! But then again you do have that taka mount, she's a rock!

I agree with Gaz, can't say I ever seen the Witchy this close.
Really enjoyed cruising the 4.7mb image with all its tiny stars.
The reflection nebulosity just sets em off.

Muy excellente Migel:thumbsup:

All the best
Rich

[gregbradley]

I love it.

Another hot image.

Was this Friday night?

I was away for 5 nights and only got Thurs night for 2/3rds and last night for about 2 hours. The other nights either rained or threatened to rain. Last night was also windy as well.

I started to image this last night but clouds moved in after a totally clear sky. I managed to get one or two downloads to frame it only.

Oh well.

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

G'day Richi pichi

I dunno, I think some might think I'm making up some sob story or excuse or something to gather some strange praise out of sypathy or something :shrug: but seriously, my focus star was shooting all over the focus screen on the lappie and it was ballooning in and out like a pumping heart only more irregularly, kinda like this guys head and eyes do: :eyepop:

I only kept going because it was clear and I had driven some 300km and 4 hours and setup took me an hour and a half and I wasn't bluddy going anywhere! :mad2:

Like you say, I had quiet confidence in the Tak mount and my sensational pedestal pier as far as not actually falling over in the wind :scared: but fairdinkum mate, it was very scary a few times ..I kept shaking my head when each sub came down with round stars. I only think they came out round becasue the stars were being blown in all directions by the wind so averaged to a circle :doh:, this will of course have smeared the detail but I have to say the NJP and the pedestal must have held better than many mounts would have, so I am very lucky there.

If I get the chance to re image this I will and hopefully in better conditions there will be a big difference for sure.

Thanks and glad you liked the image anyway :thumbsup:

Mike

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Greg

No this was imaged "last" weekend, Sat morning and again Sun morning not the long weekend just gone.

With calm steady skies the Starfire would make a cracker of this region I am sure :P....err? I guess the crappy BRC with your tiny chip might do an O-K job too ..? :rolleyes:

Mike :)

[gregbradley]

You know no matter what scopes I use I always love a top refractor image.
They are hard to beat. Sometimes it comes down to practicalities like time
and F ratio. But refractors seem to capture the object in a beautiful way.

If we could get a practical and affordable APO of 250mm aperture and fast F ratio then yeah it would be unbeatable.

On Astromart, a guy has listed a 200m TEC fluorite triplet for US$30,000 - wow! They are no longer made and 180mm is the largest Yuri now makes.
He owes me a 180mm. Perhaps soon, I was promised end of Sept - patience!

Greg.

[gregbradley]

I was also planning to image this whole area with the FSQ and reducer in a mega mosaic but that rain front put a stop to that!

Greg.

[Martin Pugh]

Nicely done Mike...I guess a 2 frame mosaic would have been just right judging by the field of view......then again, that weather you speak of clearly would not have allowed that.

cheers
Martin

[gregbradley]

Hey Mike,

Don't you get worried with heavy wind that your objective lens
gets pasted with dust?

Or was the scope facing away from the wind? Either way it
can be a bit risky.

Greg.

[Octane]

Mike,

That is so beautiful!

When I imaged this object, using a 300mm lens, it came out all brown. :(

I will have to try again one day to try and get it in blue.

Regards,
Humayun

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Martin baby :thumbsup:

A two frame mozaic huh? well I did think about it... but unfortunately we mere mortals with fully portable rigs and only a couple a days a month to do anything in can't really bank on the time for that :sadeyes: here is my fully automated observatory that makes 40hr mozaics so easy to capture :rolleyes:

http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/wiruna_trips

:lol:

Mike

[strongmanmike]

You are right I guess but :sadeyes:...I just didn't care, it was clear so I just wanted to take an image...

Mike :P

[RB]

One of my favourite nebs and once again you've done a marvelous job with it Mike, despite the conditions.
Gotta love that mount too, huh, legendary.

:thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

So glad you enjoyed it Humi, like Martin said, a two frame mozaic and with still calm skies then a cracker of an image would have resulted I think..?

The near perfect conditions I had at Wiruna over the three days back in May when I took my ultra deep Cen A image would have been great...me thinks that may have been a bit of a fluke for Wiruna? :sadeyes:

Mike

[Octane]

Hi Mike,

Can you do a mosaic for us -- I'd love to see the whole thing!

Here's mine (http://members.optusnet.com.au/mrozycka/Magellan_Observatory/Magellan_Observatory_20061125_Witch _Head_Nebula.html) from a while back.

Regards,
Humayun

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Andrew, a couple'a more hours would have been nice :rolleyes:...it wasn't that hard to pocess as the dynamic range isn't that big across the image and there are no bright stars in the field to blow out, add dark skies so virtually no gradients and it was rather basic processing really.

Cheers

Mike

[strongmanmike]

Hmmm?..maaaaaybe at IISAC..? I "was" planning something else... :confuse3:

Yes I remeber that version of yours, I'm a bit of a fan of your work actually :love:

Mike

[Octane]

Mike,

Gosh, shucks. *blush*

I can feel the love all the way down here. It's keeping me warm on this cold evening in Canberra, lol. :)

Still, I don't understand why it came out brown! Admittedly, I haven't really done an image search on Google to see what other people have captured.

Regards,
Humayun

[RB]

I fiddled with your camera's White Balance when you weren't looking H. :ashamed:

[Phil]

Stunning shot. This is on the hit list this year. Have not imaged it yet.
Phil

[Paramount]

Hi Mike
Very nice indeed, this is one of my many targets for the future if light pollution doesn't spoil it
Best wishes
Gordon

[peeb61]

Well what can I say Mike?? My jaw needs some WD40 as it won't close...thanks for that!

Beautiful image!

Paul

[Bassnut]

Very subtle and smooth Mike. I 1st thought the background was too high, but it suits it.

[Craig_L]

Wonderful shot Mike. You'd swear you were there, looking at from space.

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Phil quite a few people have said that they want to image this now, glad it has sparked an interest in this object, it really is very beautiful I think..even blowing around in the wind :P



Ditto from above Gordon :)



Well Paul, isn't it funny I had the worst conditions I have ever imaged in really and the response to the image created in those conditions has been one of the most positive and from all round the world...:screwy: :lol:



Ah you thunk too much Freddo :P I have seen Witch Heads against very black skies too and yes it doesn't look quite right..? I generally favour backgrounds that aren't black anyway...sheesh let's see..?.. I like noise, a blue cast to my images and a non black background :eyepop: am I a looney ?:shrug: :screwy: :lol:



Yes I thought the same thing Craig, it feels like you are flying right through it huh? I am spewing that the conditions were so crap :mad2: or maybe the softening the conditions had on the image have actually helped a bit in this case...? Naaah! :rolleyes:

Mike

[KenGee]

Top image Mike, you are are one of the Bar setters on this site. Will give it ago.

[Craig_L]

Gee this is a hard one to image. Inspired by Mike's shot, I tried to shoot this last night with the Modded Canon DSLR @ 7minsISO1600 thru the Hutech LPS V3 filter and barely registered the nebula at all. Maybe I need a dark sky and LRGB filters. I'll have to be content with easier targets.

[tornado33]

very nice image. Pleasing neutral sky background with a very natural blue colouring in the nebula with the faintest hint of pinks (probably from very faint Ha emissions).

Actually bad seeing doesnt seem to have caused much problem as the faint stars are still pretty small, barely a pixel across. Perhaps it might bloat the brighter stars but if it has its ceriainly not by much. A refracter on a stable mount will be better suited to iffy seeing than a big reflector anyway. I reckon transparency is the thing to get the best from the Witch head neb. and I imagine thats always quite good that far from populated areas.
Scott

[h0ughy]

what a pretty lady - nice - very nice Mr Sidonio

[strongmanmike]

You think? well I guess that's a compliment? :o Yeh go for it it is a beautiful nebula, I recon 600mm FL (or a two frame mozaic at 1200mm) and a few hours on this would churn out a pretty nice image :thumbsup:



Glad you had a go Craig, I think the dark skies really do help here as does having a reasonably sensitive mono CCD, and remember, although rather short for LRGB imaging I still did 4hrs worth of exposure.



Thanks master Scotty :P



Man, if you had been there you would have thought me completely mad for imaging :screwy:..err? you probably already do but for other reasons :P



Yes pretty colours for a Witch huh? :scared:

[multiweb]

That's a great shot Mike. I couldn't figure out where the profile was at first as it's so close up. That would be a good candidate fo a mosaic you reckon? :)

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Marc, glad you liked it.

Yes at this image scale and chip size at least two frames would be required to get all or most of it in.

Mike