I suppose one of the most iconic images of the last 20 years from Hubble is the Pillars of Creation. Its colour and detail is simply beautiful. I have tried to emulate the colour and detail, albeit not to the same stunning levels. I have tried to image this object several times over the last few years. I tried imaging it with the TSA102 and felt it lacked scale. Last year I went to image it with the RC12 but the camera broke down and that killed that idea. I think I am finally going to get around to collecting all the data I need to do it justice.
After sorting out most of the recent elongated stars problem which, I think was a combination of tilt and balance (I still need to tweak the balance a bit more), this image is a short run on NB data of 8.5 hours. I am hoping to pick up a few more hours tonight and then wait for the new moon for the RGB colour. I am not a fan of the magenta stars but I can live with that when I look at the detail of the pillars.
I still think that Harel Boren's image of this target is one of the best amateur images, but I am pretty happy with what I have achieved thus far.
Click here for high resolution image.
Tell me what you like and what you don't like. It's probably a little dark for some.