The Elephant Trunk Nebula taken on Saturday night (15 May) at DSC.
This was fairly low in a pretty milky sky. High level clouds coming over, meant that only 24 exposures of 36 were usable.
I had the same problem with the camera not accurately orientated on the focusing tube, so the stars at the top are quite blurry.
Details:
H-alpha modded Canon EOS 350D on Tak Epsilon 180ED at F/2.8 with Astronomik CLS filter
24 x 5minute exposures
Stacked, asinh range compression and 2/3 scaling in IRIS
Small version here:
(http://gallery.orpington-astronomy.org.uk/albums/userpics/10046/normal_elephant15052010.jpg)
Bigger version is here:
http://gallery.orpington-astronomy.org.uk/albums/userpics/10046/elephant15052010.jpg (http://gallery.orpington-astronomy.org.uk/albums/userpics/10046/elephant15052010.jpg)
Lovely to see a wide field of the Elephant's trunk, and so much detail.
Fabulous image Mark.
Carole
I knew that was going to be good when I saw one of the raw subs on your laptop screen... what a great result !
To be picky the brighter stars look very saturated but the nebulosity looks fantastic.
Robert
Very nice Mark :-)
Fantastic Mark, extremely nice!
Thanks for your comments!
Robert - you're right about the star saturation - I'll re-check this to see if the subs were also saturated.
I've also noticed a bluish haze (i.e. gradient) towards the left - I'll try to remove it.
As for collimation - I really need to get out for an evening to do some further experiments and get this spot on. I just didn't get time last month.
Mark
Really nice image Mark. Especially considering the conditions.
Great widefield Mark.
Tony G
Very nice.
Hi Mark,
That image looks brilliant to me - the best yet out of your Tak - You must be chuffed. I really like the wide FOV & the colours look spot on. Also even though you took it in less than ideal conditions the image has a really natural feel to it - not too overprocessed....
Very good, John
Re-processed:
(http://www.markshelley.co.uk/Astronomy/2010/elephant15052010v2_half.jpg)
Larger size here: http://www.markshelley.co.uk/Astronomy/2010/elephant15052010v2.jpg (http://www.markshelley.co.uk/Astronomy/2010/elephant15052010v2.jpg)
WOW!
Can you stencil 'Hubble II' on that banana thingy, it's awesome. Great image.
Being picky I think the colour balance of the stars is slightly too red but it's still a stunning result.
Robert