The Eye of God...

[Andy01 (Andy)]

My first go at the Helix Nebula, it's a dim object alright!

13 x 10 mins subs processed in Nebulosity / finished off in Photoshop.

Think my -20C 10 min master dark needs a revisit as this is a bit noisier than usual, maybe the warm conditions last night affected the usual -20C setpoint as it was only reading -14 on the SBIG control. I've cleaned it up a bit, but I mayhave to create new darks and reprocess this one again.

Is it normal procedure to create a library of time and temperature specific darks for different seasons?

Comments welcome thanks for looking.

Andy

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

It's faint, but it's HUGE!!
Nice capture.

[torsion (Bram)]

Nice! Indeed, faint and huge. I attempted it last night as well using my DSLR (1h45m) but it isn't as bright as yours.

I guess, more data will make it less grainy?

cheers,
Bram

[Rex]

Hi Andy, not a bad shot, as you said this is a very faint object. I don't have a CCD camera so I cannot comment on what is usual, but I believe that the answer is yes, have a dark library for different temps. I have heard that some people change the setpoint to match the hottest time of year. Meaning that if in the middle of summer the best your camera can cool is -10C, then they put the setpoint at -10C even in winter when the cooling could go much deeper. In this way they avoid having to have more than one dark library.

[lazjen (Chris)]

Not a bad start. I had a go at this one recently and after looking at your image, I think my initial processing was rubbish, so I've now got something to look at next week - useful since it looks like rain all week.

[Andy01 (Andy)]

Hi Folks, Thanks for your positive feedback. That's a good idea you have there Rex - as always we never stop learning. Cheers