Yet another horse

[telemarker]

After unsuccessfully trying to image IC 434 with an unmodded DSLR, what better target to give first light to Alex's Orion Starshoot OSC in its new home. Here's the result from 19x5min subs, bloody awful but hey it's there! :D

So now I need to:
1. tighten up the guiding
2. chase down the reflection
3. learn how to process the images
4. flatten the field
Not too much really.... :P

[Jeffkop]

Great effect that reflection Keith .. shines to the centre piece of the image.
I think your well on the way there .. without doubt.
Good Luck

[telemarker]

Thanks for the comment Jeff, more complicated working with fits than DSLR raws but hey, early days. :thumbsup:
Just thinking, that reflection looks like its from Alnilam. Definitely from that direction.

[[1ponders]]

Nice shootin' Keith. I quite like the effect of Alnilan shining in from stage left. It's a bit of a challenge getting this one to work. Alnitak maxes out in about 15 sec but the HH needs about 15min. :lol: good luck with it.

Consider trying a high dynamic range layering to get both to work out.

[AlexN]

Awesome first light with the new camera mate! I hope you enjoyed the experience with it!

As Paul said, that reflection you mentioned is light from the star Alnilan which is just outside the camera's field of view.. There's not much you can do about that from a capture perspective, other than framing the horse head differently.. Guiding looks good to me, maybe a high res tells another story, but from what we've seen here, it looks nice!

Again, as Paul said, the horse really needs 15~20 minute exposures to get good detail... I used 5min subs for colour data to be used in a Ha : OSC blend and that worked well, but the Ha Lum gave the image all the detail, they were 20 minute subs..

Good luck with the camera mate.. I hope you enjoy it like I did!

[DavidU]

What was the scope/lens Keith?

[telemarker]

Thanks for your suggestions Alex, I will indeed invest in a Ha filter and have a go at this again. The Horsehead is one of those icons you must have a go at. I promised myself this when I first started last year but was disappointed with the DSLR shots. This is a totally different kettle of fish but the first result I find very encouraging. Oh, so many targets, so little time..... :thanx:



Thanks for the suggestion Paul, this was only a trial with the camera, but yes Alnitak is a bit of a monster and hard to process around. I will come back to it after I get a Ha filter as Alex suggests. I'm not familiar with the HDR layering but I'll have a read up on it before I have another go. :thumbsup:

David, I used a SW ED100 (old blue tube one) F9 mounted on an LXD75 guided with a 100 mm F6 achro/DSI pro combo and PHD. Took 25 subs but only used 19 as DEC was bouncing around occasionally.

[DavidU]

I recon that's a good image.
Can you show us a high res version?
Those ED100 (blue tube) were a great scope.

[toryglen-boy]

Thats a very good image Keith, thanks for sharein'


;)

[telemarker]

Thanks David, I don't have any web hosting but if you PM your email address I'll send it it to you.

[Octane]

Keith,

Well done on first light.

Just to fix an error in the other poster's replies, the star is Alnilam, not Alnilan. :)

Regards,
Humayun

[[1ponders]]

Sometimes ya gotta type fast before the boss comes in :lol:

[Octane]

lol, Paul! OK. :P

Regards,
Humayun

[AlexN]

I copied Paul's spelling because I usually call it "the middle one of the 3 bright ones in a vertical line in orion" :D hahaha

[Octane]

lol, ya mug. Mintaka, Alnilam, Alnitak. Easy, peasy!

Regards,
Humayun

[telemarker]

Thanks Humayun and Duncan, now for all this dust and cloud to disappear to get some quality time with the new toy :sadeyes:

[multiweb]

Very cool effect. The spotlight is on the HH. Nice. :) :thumbsup:

[telemarker]

Thanks for the kind words Marc. My initial thoughts were Oh No!!! When it showed up in the processing. Ofcourse, the real trick will be to get the angles right when I try again for more data.:question:

[strongmanmike]

That's a nice shot of the horsehead, I like it in portrait framing actually, kinda different.

Yes that reflection is pretty bad and you would not want this happening too often :eyepop: I had troubles with such ray/reflection but the problem has dissapered since upgrading to the new low reflection Astronomik filters (touch wood) although I haven't tried the horsehead region and this is just about the worst spot in the sky for such blemishes to show up.

MIke

[telemarker]

Thanks for the kind words Mike. Unfortunately no filters causing this reflection. As this was the first go with the camera, only more time under the stars will see how this goes.

[Hagar]

Very nice image for a first light. Reflections can be a problem but experimentation with filter position ing might give some relief from some of the reflections.

Well done.