The Snake Nebula (B72) in Ophiuchus

[Octane]

Well, here's first semi-proper light for my FSQ-106N.

My STL has a broken filter wheel and is on its way to Peter Ward to hopefully get fixed. So, I used the 5D Mark II instead. I was really hoping to go ape on Rho Ophiuchus. It's my favourite part of the sky and I've been desperate to re-image it after my other DSLR attempt from several years ago. As the camera's not modified and therefore insensitive to hydrogen alpha, I spent the weekend chasing down dark nebulae and reflection nebulae.

This composition marks the longest cumulative exposure that I've done to date on a DSLR, 4 hours and 30 minutes. I know this is small fry when it comes to multi-hour LRGB marathon sessions, but, I think it's a pretty decent effort for a DSLR.

One of the things that caught me off guard was that I only needed to expose for 300 seconds before starting to reach saturation on bright stars. This is no doubt a result of imaging at f/5 instead of the f/7.5 that I got used to on the ED127. About a stop faster, and therefore, no need for 10-minute exposures on a one-shot colour device.

Anyways, hope you like it. Lynchings, bashings, comments, and critique is, as always, most welcome.

Normal resolution available here (http://members.optusnet.com.au/mrozycka/Manar/Manar_20100817_Snake_Nebula.html).

Thank you for looking.

H

[strongmanmike]

Sensational image Humayun. Even without the STL you are in a select group of DSLR masters, so armed with that FSQ you can clearly still do top work :thumbsup:

I would like to see a bigger version though....:shrug:

Mike

[luigi]

This photo rocks! Very interesting, very unusual and perfectly executed!
Wow!

[AlexN]

As Mike said, You sure are a master of the DSLR Humi...

Fantastic work...

[spearo]

That's come out beautiful!
Very golden sky as you predicted
beautiful
frank

[CoolhandJo]

Now thats how you use a DSLR!

[multiweb]

:eyepop: That is indeed very nice. Post the full res. c'mon! ;)

[luigi]

I wonder if the saturation point is real or just a glitch of the JPG that the camera shows in the display. The histogram is the JPG histogram. Did you check in the RAW histogram if you had still some room to expose on the bright stars? Thanks!

[gbeal]

Wowsers H, stunning.
Gary

[DavidU]

DSLR at it's finest. Super work H.
My goodness there are some nice images posted on IIS these days.
Now hurry up with the new CCD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Lester]

Hi Humayun, you are very good at this and your image is testament to that. Thanks for the view and all the best.

[renormalised]

Nice shot of the dust there, H:)

There's a pterodactyl there too, off to the right of the "joe blake"...see his wings and body, and a thin neck and pointy head (faint), and his tail:):)

[Screwdriverone]

Wow H,

Are you SURE you didnt point the camera straight down while at the beach????
SOOOO many stars it looks like sand.

Captial A for Awesome dude.

Excellent.

Cheers

Chris

[TheAstroGuy]

Absolutely Insanely Good!!!

I love that area and the depth of field you have got here is sensational.

There is a portion at about 2 o'clock that is so 3 dimensional i love it.

That's some fine skill and work with such a wide field.

Kindest Regards

Shane

[jase]

Splendid work Humayun. Shame about the STL though. Keep them coming.

[Stevec35]

Excellent Snake Humayun!

Cheers

Steve

[richardo]

Pretty wild area looking to the heart of our galactic centre, the star field is massive and this image just shows us how dense things are with the wider fovs...
Just wall to wall...
Gotta love fast scopes with excellent optics!!

Great work H !!

Yes shame about the FW... ain't there always some thing:rolleyes:

All the best
Rich

[Alchemy]

Yep, looking nice, I like the dust at 2 o'clock very interesting.

[Garyh]

Beautiful widefield shot of this interesting snakey thing.
Lovely work Mr H :thumbsup:

[sjastro]

Fantastic image H.

Steven

[RobF]

Awesome work Humayun. Interesting what you say about limiting exposure to control over exposure. Many people seem quick to suggest long exposures without considering this in relation to focal ratio.

Hope the SBIG and filterwheel are back together again soon.

[Bassnut]

Gee, certainly different, bit mushy though (starwise)?.

[rogerg]

Very nice contrast of colours there H, the golden star field with the blue brighter stars. Nice contrast of textures too. Just great. Bet it looks good big, 100% big .. if it were mine I'd be doing a 80x50cm print of it and staring at the endless field of stars :)

[strongmanmike]

:eyepop:Oo-oo-ooh yee are a hard man Fred :shrug: :question: :screwy: :lol:

[mill]

Geeeeeeezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!!!!! those stars are there and are not going away Fred :P
Very good image there Humayun :thumbsup: (don't listen to Fred he is just jealous ;) ).

[gregbradley]

Absolutely gorgeous Humi.

I also like the way the 106N presents the bright stars with that nice blue glow. A trademark of the scope.

A stunner. I'm the opposite of you in that I am looking forward to getting a 5D Mk11 (terrestial mainly though) whilst you want to get into CCD cameras!

Greg.

[Bassnut]

Jealous?, yes I am, but I hate stars, they are the devils creation, mearly an artifact of woozy wide feild imaging, boringly the same (apart from colour), the bain of true, pure, zoomed in (NF), accurate presentations, devoid of forground distractions.

Mushy joined together stars in a soup of background noise, please :P.

[rcheshire]

Love it... stars, dark structure and blue :thumbsup:

Good point regarding f-ratio/exposure time, which I presume will change with iso setting, and possibly the type of filter used.

[mill]

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

[AlexN]

Lol @ Fred. Stay true my friend :)

[Octane]

Mike,

Thank you for the very kind compliment. I have a ways to go, though.



Luis,

Cheers, mate. It's all IRIS. : )



Alex,

Thank you! You've been AWOL for a while. What's the go? Are you gearing up to buy some nice gear? We miss the Alex we once knew. : P



Frank,

Thanks, bud. Now, I'd like to see you do an f/11 on the Snake, or part, thereof. ; )



Dr. Paul,

Thank you, kind sir.



H

[Octane]

Marc,

Cheers, buddy. : )



Luis,

I imaged with the camera tethered to EOS Utility and the results can be observed immediately in Digital Photo Professional. I observed the histogram with the shadow/highlight detail enabled. I usually drag the exposure slider and work out how long I can image before saturating, and, round down/up to whole minute figures.

So, the histogram, in this case wasn't lying as I was observing the RAW file directly. 5-minutes was the maximum limit before I could start seeing saturation alerts.



Gary,

I'm glad you liked the image. I've been looking at it the whole day (set it as my background at work) just pondering. The enormity of it all just hits home when you realise that this is essentially a couple of finger width at arms length in the sky. Incredible.



David,

Thank you, mate. You're absolutely right, the calibre of images shown here is nothing short of staggering. There's been a very marked improvement in even just the last year, with new people showcasing magnificent work, not just the oldtimers. I will have my CCD back today, or Monday. In time for Border Stargaze in a couple of weeks, where I plan to devote the entire event to perhaps just one or two objects!



Lester,

You are too kind. Thank you, mate!



H

[Octane]

Carl,

Cheers! And, yep, I see the pteradactyl. I think it'd make a very decent target in and of itself at a longer focal length. 1000-1500mm ought to do it justice.



Chris,

Glad it comes across that way for you. I had seen images of this object on the web in the past and I hadn't quite seen one presented like this. I'm not too fussed with the science behind the image or if it is 100% valid and true to life. I like to think of myself as an artist presenting my own vision of what looks good in my head. This'll do for me. : )



Shane,

Thank you!

Yep, as mentioned to Carl earlier up, I would love to have a go at that 2 o'clock object by itself. I don't have the right gear for it at the moment, unfortunately. In the future, perhaps!



Jase,

Thank you, kind sir. STL is fixed and on its way back. More to come soon!



Steve,

Thanks!



H

[Octane]

Richie's Creation,

I can't believe how pinpoint the FSQ resolves stars. I've never had a scope that's done this before. I'm floored!

Thank you!



Clive,

Cheers! I was browsing Doug's galleries a few weeks ago and came across your IC 4603. I have to say, that's one of the best renditions I've seen of that region. Are you still imaging or have you hung up the boots for a while? Would love to see some more of that FLT action!



Gary,

Cheers, mate!



Steven,

Thank you, sir.



Rob,

Thank you! Well, I think with CCDs having a 16-bit sensor, and a greater well-depth, you're capable of going for longer without too much of an issue. With a DSLR, with the shallower wells, you reach saturation far quicker, not to mention all the other noise that plagues the DSLR.

Luckily, the 5D Mark II gives pretty spectacular results for test images shot at ISO-6400. I might take a 15-second exposure, and boost the resultant exposure by 2 stops using Digital Photo Professional; I check to see if there's any saturated clipping, and make sure the histogram's a decent distance across the X-axis. So, if a 15-second shot at ISO-6400, pushed 2-stops in RAW, gives me good results, I just do the relevant division/multiplication to get me down to ISO-1600 for "correct" exposure. 15->30->60 for the two stops of RAW latitude, and then, 60->120->240 for the 2-stops for the ISO. I then add a little more exposure to account for the extra noise in the image at ISO-6400. 240->300 seconds isn't an altogether huge leap and works well for me.



H

[Octane]

Fred,

I'll take your comment (and resulting ones) as the Vanderhaven tick of approval. lol.

Leave me alone -- I'll work with what I've got! : P



Roger,

Thanks, mate.

I'm almost out of yellow ink on the Epson, so don't want to risk it at the moment as I'm about to start printing some enlargements for a recent wedding. But, I will do some astrophotographic prints in the not so distant future once I've blown the almost-$1K for replacement inkset. : (



Martin,

Thanks, mate! I know, I know, he's into his whole starless narrowfield phase. He'll grow out of it, eventually. : P



Greg,

Thank you!

I think some of that blue glow is natural, and some of it not so natural -- it had clouded over by the end of the first night's imaging session. I didn't actually throw those sub-exposures out; I left them in to see what effect those 4-5 exposures would have over the entire 54-image set. I might go back and re-stack and remove the offending exposures to get a truer representation.

Greg, I have had the 5D Mark II since it was released (I ordered it the day it was announced in October 2008). I got mine in the first shipment to JB Hi-Fi. I am more than happy to provide you with links to landscape images that I've taken with the camera to give you an idea of what's capable of this system. It is, without a doubt, the best camera I've ever owned. I bought the 300D when it first came out in 2003. I upgraded to the 350D as soon as that came out. Got the 40D modified for astrophotography and this is now my wedding/portrait/landscape camera. It's making me money, so, I can't fault it, at all. : )



Roland,

Thanks! Spot on, if when imaging with the DSLR and going through a hydrogen-alpha filter, I don't think it'd be uncommon to push for 20-minute or even 30-minute exposures, especially with very narrowband filters.

In this case, it was just the DSLR (one shot colour) so no compensation had to be made. In future, with the STL, I will have to work out an adequate ratio for the filter system. Normally, I think people typically stick to the same length exposure, but, alter the weighting of each filter in pre-processing with G2V reference stars to white balance.



Thanks, everyone -- especially Fred, for your nod of approval. : P

H

[AlexN]

Yeah mate, between working permanent night shifts 5pm to 5am every day, building a car, and getting my backside into gear and buying into some real estate, I've had very little time for anything...

There is however, a rig in the works... I still need a few bits and bobs, but it will be the best setup I've had yet when its all done... Teeheehee... Got you wondering doesn't it... :P

[ptc]

Serpens Caput: caput as in expended, used up, deadsville....

in Latin, Caput means head. But in American slang it means used up, expired, exhausted, dead etc...

had a brief window of opportunity to shoot the head of the snake a few weeks back. managed to get three shots before the opportunity expired. Two came out well. I think the head portion was particularly well done.

No flats, biases, or darks used for the data reduction. Completely unfiltered as well.

completely hand held and guided. Very short shots: a few milliseconds.....

the image scale is 12" between wires

http://www.narrowbandimaging.com/incoming/snake/1_snake_3ft.jpg

:thumbsup:

[alexch]

I love those dense star fields with dark nebulae. Exceptional image, would make a brilliant poster or desktop wall-paper.

Thanks for sharing.
Alex

[Screwdriverone]

Very clever Richard,

I initially thought, hey, stop spamming H's thread, get your own post to show your pics!

Had a laugh.

Cheers

Chris

[Jen]

:eyepop::eyepop: OMG H that is a stunning pic :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Paul Haese]

Very nice H and well illuminated. The shorter focal length and F ratio mean much shorter images. My 6559 had 20 minute subs for the Lum, so by comparison the FSQ is lightning faster.

My only lynching as you put it is the stars have a brownish tinge to them, not a golden colour in the star field. I think maybe some more selective sharpening to the dust lanes will make them pop out a bit more, but that is only for taste and no way a necessity.

Very nicely done. :thumbsup:

[Ric]

A fantastic image H.

It's like gold dust has been sprayed everywhere.

Cheers

[Phil Hart]

really nice H. definitely applying the 5DII to its strengths. i've hardly used mine for deep sky at all.. so many great ideas so little time.. but yours is a very motivating image!

Phil

[marc4darkskies]

A wonderfully rich and vibrant shot H - well done!! :thumbsup::thumbsup: Hope you get your STL back soon!

Cheers, Marcus

[Octane]

Alex,

Ouch @ horrible timings, but, good on you. Do the hard yards now and then enjoy life later on.

So, you're getting a Paramount ME or an AP1200GTO and a nice big RCOS. : P



Richard,

Nice snake. Wondering what your thoughts on my actual image was, though. Anything I can improve?



Alex,

Cheers, mate. I've been viewing the image before going to bed lately. Just makes you wonder.



Jen,

Thanks, girly!



Paul,

Far out, 20 minute luminance exposures! Pity if a cloud decides to come a-wondering half-way through. : )

I agree with you regarding the stars. Could be a bit more golden. I hope to sort this out once I start G2V calibrating/balancing. At the moment, it's a bit of a eyeball process, so, not entirely accurate.

Thanks for looking and commenting!



H

[Octane]

Ric,

Thanks, matey. I am getting intrigued by these dark nebulae and have got a whole heap planned for next season. Perhaps a mosaic or two. : )



Phil,

Thank you! As you know, the 5D Mark II at ISO-1600 is just phenomenal for deep space. It's like the modern day ISO-400 equivalent. So, so very clean. Give it a go. : )



Marcus,

Thanks, matey! I got my STL back within 2 days of having sent it back to Peter. All fixed -- check my thank you thread in General forum. : )

I have a RoboFocus unit on the way, too..

I'm pretty much all for Border Stargaze in a couple of weeks time. Looking forward to it!



Thanks so much everyone for looking and commenting -- I'm overwhelmed by the positive responses this image has yielded. Gives me a big confidence boost to know I'm on the right path. : )

H

[TrevorW]

Top shot H :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Jen]

:eyepop: hey how did i miss this one :thumbsup::thumbsup: very nice H :thumbsup::thumbsup:

[TrevorW]

Hey Jen you did'nt go back a couple of pages you posted on the 14th Aug

if you where a b,,,,,,, I say you had one of those days

[Octane]

Trevor,

Thanks, mate!

Jen, thanks, again. : D

H

[Jen]

:lol::lol: ooops i did too i must have been having one of those days :rofl:
i wonder why i didnt get the follow up emails since my comment then mmmmm :screwy: well i loved the pic i must have needed to see it again lol :thumbsup: i cant explain in words how much i love H's pics :)

[dpastern]

Super shot H, very impressive. A lot of patience too!

Dave

[danielsun]

Stunning chock a block full image there H!!:thumbsup:

Hey don't worry Jen, getting old can be fun . Looks like you will be able to hide your own Easter eggs next year!:lol:

Cheers Daniel.

[Octane]

Cheers David and Daniel. : )

H

[Miaplacidus]

Yowzer! Congrats H. Another stunning image. (Uncle Barnard would be proud.)

[Shano592]

Wow! Postcard pic!

That is just magnificent.

[gregbradley]

Well Humi it seems you may have set some sort of record with this image.

I see you have gotten over 1300 viewings.

Greg.

[Octane]

Brian and Shane,

Thanks, very much, gents.

Greg, I know, I rule. :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

H

[ballaratdragons]

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, . . .

Just trying to count the stars :lol:

Fantastic work H :thumbsup:
It's a very impressive image :)

[Omaroo]

Here's Humayun's Snakey - 2nd from right, middle, as part of our recent "m a g n i t u d e" event. It, amongst others, was well-commented-on. I believe that Mr Malin gave it more than a cursory glance too...

[gregbradley]

Just 5 more views of this and you hit 1500 hits.

What prize do you get?

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

One..... :scared3:




DOH! I see it's already 1520 :doh: