My best yet Nebula image? Running Chicken nebula IC 2994

[PhotonCollector]

Hello everyone,

here's an image I snuck in last night just before the weather turned back to its normal dismal cloudy appearance.

The image is the Running Chicken nebula (IC 2994).

Image was produced on the 12" telescope with 8 x 4-minute exposures @ ISO 200 using the modified Canon 300D (32-minutes total exposure time).
I used a Baader 2" Coma Corrector and Baader 2" UV/IR Cut Filter. Image is hand-guided with my 4.5" f/18 guidescope.

Image is dark subtracted, offset and flat-field adjusted in IRIS. Then Photoshop and Noiseware was used.

There's a higher res. image here
http://www.skylab.com.au/pmsa/IC%202994.html

regards to everyone

[tornado33]

Yes, Paul as I mentioned in the earlier email, a fantastic shot, the dark globules sharp and very pronounced :) Well done.
Scott

[RB]

What a superb image Paul.

[h0ughy]

Wow, that is absolutely unreal, not to mention the chook shape that I still can't see! But hey, look at that fantastic clarity, you have really stuffed that chook Paul! ;-)

[Lester]

Rich colouring there Paul.

Can you answer this question? Doesn't the modified Canon camera have the IR cut filter removed to capture more of the infra red range which is in most diffuse nebula. So by putting a infra-red cut filter back in front of the camera would undo to some extent what the modification was meant to do.

Hope you can understand what I am trying to say. It is just a thought I have come across, that I cannot answer.

Your photos as always are excellent.

[PhotonCollector]

Hi H0ughy,

for my interpretation of the running chicken shape see this thread,
where I have drawn a pic. of the running chicken.

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=8790&highlight=running+chicken

[h0ughy]

thanks paul

[PhotonCollector]

Hi Lester,

Yes I understand what you are asking.

The primary idea of modifying the Canon is to let the camera see 100% of the H-Alpha wavelength (red nebula). The standard camera blocks about 80% of that wavelength and about 100% of infra-red.

After I modified my camera the resulting images showed 100% H-Alpha (wonderful!) however the images also appeared much redder than normal. Even stars appeared much larger than pre-modification.

As it turns out this was happening because the modded camera could now see well beyond the H-Alpha wavelength into the infra-red spectrum and that means the stars "bloat" from excess radiation. I think the sky itself is also a IR heat source which is probably responsible for making the image backgrounds appear more reddish in colour.

Enter the Baader UV/IR Cut filter - it blocks the IR light from about 7000A and above, which is well above the important H-alpha 6562.8A line in the spectrum - so 100% of the H-Alpha light gets through to the camera but excess IR is cut-off.

hope you understand this, heres a link http://www.baader-planetarium.de/download/uvir-Cut_e.pdf for the filter.

thanks for your comments
Paul M

[iceman]

WOW! :eyepop:

Incredible stuff Paul, looks great - so rich!

[Robby]

Awesome shot. Nice & Crisp.

[Striker]

Looks suberb Paul...well done and thanks for the info regarding the filter.

[Lester]

Thanks Paul for the explanation, looks like I need one of these filters when shooting with the Canon 20DA.

[ving]

lol @ your interpretation of the running chicken!

looking at your new image it is so obvious why its called the running chicken :)
great image!

[PhotonCollector]

Hi everyone,

thanks for your replies.

Yes I was quite pleased with the Running Chicken Nebula image too.

After doing some more imaging since then it has become apparent that the Baader UV/IR Cut Filter is important to have if you have a modified DSLR, without this filter your camera will record excess infra-red from the sky background and from bright stars making stars appear to bloat on resulting images.

I also tried the UV/IR Cut Filter held in front of the Canon 300D's 18-55mm camera lens and took some normal daylight images. The filter shifted the image colours back closer to normal (but not perfect). So the filter must also change the colour balance of deep sky objects too (back closer to the way our eyes perceive colours).

clear skies to everyone
Paul Mayo

[dkrlly263]

Can anyone please give me an outline view or some clue as to how this nebula is a "RunningChicken"?:shrug: I don't get it.

DK

[kbusher]

Paul,
I am a teacher in Virginia, USA. My students just learned how to access a telescope via the Internet that is located in Pingelly, AU. One student (grade 3) took a black and white image of The Running Chicken Nebula but it didn't look anything like your image! Yours is amazing but we were pleased with our images of deep space, all the same :-) Thanks for sharing!

[Ian Robinson]

Gotta be pleased with that image....

Well done.

Must be something in our water here in Newcastle for there to be so many talented astrophotographers here .:D

[bluescope]

For those who can't see the chicken ...... load the image into PS and adjust the red channel down with a curve and you can clearly see two extended wings and a central body just like a running chicken. I have attached a adjusted and captioned version. Ofcourse my interpretation may be different to others but it's how it looks to me.

Good work Paul

:thumbsup:

[PhotonCollector]

Hello kbusher,

I'm glad you liked the image and thanks for your compliments.

Fantastic to hear you have organised telescope access for your students. My compliments to you for doing that :)
Pass on my salutations to your students :hi:.

Clear Skies
Paul Mayo