Dark Horse Nebula - added repro + B&W version

[naskies (Dave)]

Here's my rendition of the Dark Horse Nebula from Leyburn: click on the link for the 1800x1200 (1.4 MB) version or full resolution 5436x3623 (11.6 MB) version.

The Pipe Nebula is fairly obvious, but the Snake Nebula can be found in the centre of frame.

18x 720 sec (3 hr 36 min total) subs taken with a Canon 5DmkII and 135 mm f/2L at f/4 ISO 200, mounted on a black stallion (EQ6)

[naskies (Dave)]

Side note... I happen to think that the Pipe Nebula is incorrectly named. I see a Brontesaurus!

[RickS (Rick)]

Lovely work, Dave. You're certainly nailing those wide field shots!

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Great shot Dave!

Brontosaurus maaaaybe...but my first impression was a Thorny Devil

Mike

[naskies (Dave)]

Thanks Rick. I'm keen to get a bit closer with the RC8. Just need more dark skies + good weather!

Mike, wow... that does look like a thorny devil!

[Bassnut (Fred)]

Insane res on the big version, you can zoom forever . Excellent pic on Dslr gear, very sharp.

[LightningNZ (Cam)]

And here I was thinking it was a Kiwi! In fact we're using an image of this dark nebula for our astronomy education group Galactic Kiwi.

Great image!

Cheers,
Cam

[naskies (Dave)]

Thanks Fred and Cam!

Cam - I'm not sure that I see the resemblance of the kiwi...

I was having a look at my raw subs today, and noticed that they were actually better than my stacked version! Hmm... something fishy there.

I double checked in Deep Sky Stacker and it turns out they weren't being aligned properly - I wondered why I couldn't make the colours pop here.

A couple hours of troubleshooting later, it turns out that there was a problem with the flat frames - unchecking them from the stack fixed it. Weird?!

Here's a repro that I much prefer to the original The colours are "real" (I checked against Nick Risinger's Sky Survey) but substantially enhanced.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13644418/iis...-1800x1200.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13644418/iis...-5418x3612.jpg

I thought that a B&W rendition had a nice flare to it too - it shows the dark dust lanes more clearly:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13644418/iis...00x1200-BW.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13644418/iis...18x3612-BW.jpg

[astronobob (Bob)]

Originally Posted by LightningNZ

And here I was thinking it was a Kiwi! In fact we're using an image of this dark nebula for our astronomy education group Galactic Kiwi.

Great image!

Cheers,
Cam

Lol Cam !

I see it as a mottled autumn leaf that has menifested in a galactic way

Great capture Dave The last color production is magic

[DavidTrap (David)]

Hi Dave,

I've found some big differences in stacking between Maxim & PI, so not surprised you've had some issues with DSS.

The new version is very impressive - it certainly pops. Nonetheless, I couldn't help but notice there is a green cast across the image, especially in the lower right corner.

I've taken the liberty (hope you don't mind) of running it through the HLVG plug-in I was telling you about previously.

Cheers
DT

[seeker372011 (Narayan)]

Guided?

[seeker372011 (Narayan)]

Awesome image BTW

[naskies (Dave)]

Thanks Bob!

DT - Cheers! That is certainly a big improvement with the green cast gone. I think the bright blue that's left in the bottom-right is a bit "off", but I'll leave that for another day. Thanks for reminding me about HLVG.

Side note: shooting at ISO 200 x 12 min was a mistake here, because the non-diffracted stars bloomed and added a lot of red noise. I should have stuck with ISO 1600 x 1.5 mins.

Narayan - Thanks! Yep, it was autoguided with an Orion Mini Guider + QHY5 + PHD.

[LightningNZ (Cam)]

Here's the Kiwi!

Cheers,
Cam

[naskies (Dave)]

Aah, I see it now, Cam... I guess I'm not culturally trained to look for kiwis!