NGC6334 (cat's paw) my deepest so far

[Garbz]

My attempt at the cat's paw nebula. This turned out to be my deepest exposure so far coming it at 4h 35min taken over 2 nights.
It was originally a 2h exposure but I was unhappy with the resulting noise when trying to push the nebula out of the light pollution.

Sadly this picture is now tainted for me. The day in between exposures my 18 year old cat was put down due to a combination of old age, inability to handle surgery and someone backing out of the driveway without looking. :sadeyes:

Hope you all can enjoy it more than I can.

Details:
4h 35min, (mix of 1min and 2min ISO500 and 400 subs)
Celestron C8, NEQ6
Meade f/6.3 focal reducer and Nikon D800
Orion 50mm finder guider package

[peter_4059]

Your stars are looking good Chris and you are getting some nice structure and colour in the nebula. Just need to get longer subs going.

Sorry to hear about the cat - 18 years is a pretty good innings.

[Garbz]

Thanks Peter, what's the goal with the longer subs in this case? Lighter subs or less noise? I.e. should I be aiming for 4min subs keeping my ISO at 400 or dropping the ISO down to 200 and keeping the same brightness but improving the noise?

The reason I ask is because this time I purposely put effort into keeping my subs a bit darker so I get some actual colour into my stars.

[Ross G]

Hi Chris.

Nice photo. I really like the colour.

Sorry about your cat. Eighteen years is a long friendship.

Ross.