Dark Horse Nebula - added repro + B&W version

[naskies]

Here's my rendition of the Dark Horse Nebula from Leyburn: click on the link for the 1800x1200 (1.4 MB) version (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13644418/iis/DarkHorseNebula-1800x1200.jpg) or full resolution 5436x3623 (11.6 MB) version (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13644418/iis/DarkHorseNebula-5436x3623.jpg).

The Pipe Nebula is fairly obvious, but the Snake Nebula can be found in the centre of frame.

18x 720 sec (3 hr 36 min total) subs taken with a Canon 5DmkII and 135 mm f/2L at f/4 ISO 200, mounted on a black stallion (EQ6) :)

[naskies]

Side note... I happen to think that the Pipe Nebula is incorrectly named. I see a Brontesaurus! :lol:

[RickS]

Lovely work, Dave. You're certainly nailing those wide field shots!

[strongmanmike]

Great shot Dave!

Brontosaurus maaaaybe...but my first impression was a Thorny Devil :question:

Mike

[naskies]

Thanks Rick. I'm keen to get a bit closer with the RC8. Just need more dark skies + good weather!

Mike, wow... that does look like a thorny devil!

[Bassnut]

Insane res on the big version, you can zoom forever :P. Excellent pic on Dslr gear, very sharp.

[LightningNZ]

And here I was thinking it was a Kiwi! In fact we're using an image of this dark nebula for our astronomy education group Galactic Kiwi.

Great image! :thumbsup:

Cheers,
Cam

[naskies]

Thanks Fred and Cam!

Cam - I'm not sure that I see the resemblance of the kiwi...

I was having a look at my raw subs today, and noticed that they were actually better than my stacked version! Hmm... something fishy there.

I double checked in Deep Sky Stacker and it turns out they weren't being aligned properly - I wondered why I couldn't make the colours pop here.

A couple hours of troubleshooting later, it turns out that there was a problem with the flat frames - unchecking them from the stack fixed it. Weird?! :screwy:

Here's a repro that I much prefer to the original :) The colours are "real" (I checked against Nick Risinger's Sky Survey (http://skysurvey.org/)) but substantially enhanced.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13644418/iis/DarkHorseNebula-Repro-1800x1200.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13644418/iis/DarkHorseNebula-Repro-5418x3612.jpg

I thought that a B&W rendition had a nice flare to it too - it shows the dark dust lanes more clearly:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13644418/iis/DarkHorseNebula-Repro-1800x1200-BW.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13644418/iis/DarkHorseNebula-Repro-5418x3612-BW.jpg

[astronobob]

Lol Cam !

I see it as a mottled autumn leaf that has menifested in a galactic way :P

Great capture Dave The last color production is magic :cool:

[DavidTrap]

Hi Dave,

I've found some big differences in stacking between Maxim & PI, so not surprised you've had some issues with DSS.

The new version is very impressive - it certainly pops. Nonetheless, I couldn't help but notice there is a green cast across the image, especially in the lower right corner.

I've taken the liberty (hope you don't mind) of running it through the HLVG plug-in I was telling you about previously.

Cheers
DT

[seeker372011]

Guided?

[seeker372011]

Awesome image BTW

[naskies]

Thanks Bob!

DT - Cheers! That is certainly a big improvement with the green cast gone. I think the bright blue that's left in the bottom-right is a bit "off", but I'll leave that for another day. Thanks for reminding me about HLVG.

Side note: shooting at ISO 200 x 12 min was a mistake here, because the non-diffracted stars bloomed and added a lot of red noise. I should have stuck with ISO 1600 x 1.5 mins.

Narayan - Thanks! Yep, it was autoguided with an Orion Mini Guider + QHY5 + PHD.

[LightningNZ]

Here's the Kiwi! ;)

Cheers,
Cam

[naskies]

Aah, I see it now, Cam... I guess I'm not culturally trained to look for kiwis! :P