IC1318 - Butterfly Nebula in HST palette

[Paramount]

Hi
I have recently got myself an FLI Proline 16803 camera and this is first light on IC1318 which I took over three nights, it is 6x30 minutes Ha, 5x30 minutes OIII and 7x30 minutes SII. The first thing that impressed me about the camera (apart from the ability to maintain set point temperature of -35c indoors in a warm room for over 20 hours taking dark frames) was how clean the sub frames appeared when downloaded, I was expecting to need 6 nights to finish this image because of keeping noise levels down but even with the shortish integration time there is little or no noise apparent (no noise reduction used).
I have put a larger version at the following link. I have done this area previously with a Starlight Xpress H36, this can be seen at my website http://www.imagingtheheavens.co.uk for comparison
http://www.pbase.com/imaging_the_hea...94396/original
Thanks for looking
Best wishes
Gordon

[RobF (Rob)]

Beautiful image Gordon, and great to hear your thoughts on the 16803 and noise floor. You'll have to update your great website re the new camera to btw

What's the night sky like when clear from Hereford part of UK just out of interest? Do you have much light pollution to contend with?

[Paramount]

Originally Posted by RobF

Beautiful image Gordon, and great to hear your thoughts on the 16803 and noise floor. You'll have to update your great website re the new camera to btw

What's the night sky like when clear from Hereford part of UK just out of interest? Do you have much light pollution to contend with?

Hi Rob
Thanks for the comments, I will be updating my website soon to include my current setup, etc.
The light pollution where I live is a constant issue, I am surrounded by neighbours on three sides two of which have security lights that come on periodically during the night and on the other side I get an orange glow from street lights on the other side of our house. Seeing conditions vary but are generally average, when I have good focus and run continuous 3 second exposures the FWHM typically fluctuates between 1.5 and 3. RGB imaging is possible but only when the subject is very high up near the zenith and when the moon isn't present so RGB needs a lot of pre-planning and luck hence why most of my imaging is narrow band.
Best wishes
Gordon

[pluto (Hugh)]

Wow, that full-res is amazing!