Cone Nebula NGC 2264

[Benjamin (Ben)]

Have really struggled to get any time under the stars lately (clouds and 'life') but decided to have a crack post Xmas. Managed to dodge a few clouds and get something, even if it is a bit noisy and lacking integration time.

NGC 2264/SH2-273- Cone Nebula/Christmas Tree Cluster
Scope: 8" f4 'Quattro' Skywatcher Newtonian
Mount: Skywatcher EQ6-R (EqMod)
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro Gain 200 Offset 50, cooled -10º
Filters: Astrodon 5nm Ha (41x180s), 3nm [OIII] (29x180s), 3nm [SII] (25x180s)
Processing: PixInsight, using a SHO colour palette
Astrobin https://www.astrobin.com/xdv5h5/

[multiweb (Marc)]

You've done really well Ben. Cracker of a shot. It's faint and not high enough for us southerners.

[Benjamin (Ben)]

Cheers Marc. Ha, I hadn’t thought of it being low but did find an alternate spot in my garden to image this. I grew up in Mount Gambier and remember (as a much much younger person) the Pleiades sitting not far above the horizon: my first astro memory...

[vlazg (George)]

Good detail and great colours, I like.

[mswhin63 (Malcolm)]

Seeing images like this make my option between Colour or Mono so much harder.

Wonderful image

[Benjamin (Ben)]

Thanks George and Malcolm. Mono is great for light polluted areas (or moonlit skies!) if you plan on doing narrowband, or even broadband if the filters are good at avoiding certain parts of the spectrum where light pollution might dominate. Expensive too, given the camera itself, filters and filter wheel. Also need multiple sets of flats (for each filter) and when doing broadband you have to try to get enough data from each filter to make a complete RGB or LRGB image. However, there is a lot of reward from the data itself. This is perhaps more true of emission nebula which emit Ha, [OIIi] and [SII] while galaxies and other broadband targets (reflection nebula, clusters etc.) might benefit from some of the new technologies going into one-shot-colour cameras (the 16bit back lit sensors seem to be getting great results). If I was under darker skies and it was regularly clear around new moon I’d be getting an OSC for sure. While it’s nice to be creative with a SHO colour palette I still think nothing beats the more natural beauty of RGB :-) Of more benefit to my imaging I think is the fast Newtonian. Still a long way from taming it but the central part of the image is usually okay and you can get heaps of data in a quite short amount of time. Then there’s RASAs....

[CoolhandJo (Paul)]

Thats a tough target! Well done.

[Benjamin (Ben)]

Cheers Paul. Not a lot of [OIII] and the [SII] was very faint and noisy. Definitely could get the signal to noise ratio better with some more hours, just not sure when or if they’ll be coming along again this summer!

[alan meehan (Alan)]

wonderful shot Ben welldone

[Benjamin (Ben)]

Glad you like it Alan. It’s been on my summer list for a while and slowly, very slowly, I’m getting them all half done :-D

[Benjamin (Ben)]

Updated the image with some noise reduction and the like.
https://www.astrobin.com/full/xdv5h5/B/

[RyanJones]

Absolutely love it Ben. What a fantastic image.

[Benjamin (Ben)]

Thanks Ryan. An interesting one to process with a SHO colour palette.

[Andy01 (Andy)]

Looking good Ben!
I prefer the portrait orientation and overall sharpness of the original too

[Benjamin (Ben)]

Thanks for your thoughts on this Andy. Always much appreciated. I think the portrait view gives the impression of the cone being a lighthouse of sorts, lighting up the clouds behind it. It was a bit of an exercise in noise reduction, given the small amount of data so may have gone a little too far!

[Benjamin (Ben)]

Okay, so I reduced some of the star halos and sharpened it bit
https://www.astrobin.com/full/xdv5h5/J/?nc=user