IC1396 - The elephants trunk nebula

[RobertM]

This was my main image from last night but unfortunately flexure issues meant that a few subs were dropped, PHD crashed out and I eventually finished of the last two unguided.

Taken with the Sky 90 @ f4.5 and Starlight-Xpress SXV-H9 with Astronomik 13nm Ha filter.

6 x 10 min guided with Atik 16IC/PHD on the C9.25@2350mm
2 x 10 min and 1 x 5 min unguided

Post processing was a bit tricky and certainly nowhere near ideal but hopefully that will improve with time.

Details:
http://gallery.orpington-astronomy.org.uk/displayimage-573.html

Image:

[JohnP]

Lovely wide field Robert - Looks like the 16ic was working well. I was also imaging the same object last night but had flexure problems - I think I may have found the issue but have one more test to make... I only ended up with a few frames. Looks like stars are nice & round now - your collimation did the trick Only comment is you could do with more frames to reduce noise but looks great to me.

Well done,  John.

PS - I think Fay was also imaging this so it was a popular object last night...

[Mike]

Nice detail.

[RobertM]

Thanks for the kind comments.  Yes, in this hobby you can always do with more frames   I'll see if I can get any more detail by using the lost frames but I think better processing would get over the noise issue (will have to swat up on that).

The collimation still isn't spot on - compare the top left to bottom right and you'll see what I mean.

I had a look at Fays wonderful image of this in the gallery this morning, I wonder whether she's getting more Ha subs or doing an RGB !

[Rocket Pooch]

6 x 10 min guided with Atik 16IC/PHD on the C9.25@2350mm

Hi,

With this setup your guiding ig going to be chasing the seeing in the C9.25 and the mirror will move as well, esspecially if its pointing up!  Do you not have a small scope to guide through?

Chris

[RobertM]

Hi Chris,  No not a small scope, I know I need one and yes the mirror moved when the scope was just over vertical.  I think I'll have to bite the bollet and buy a new ED80 if one doesn't come up second hand soon !

[Fay]

Robert, I must say your image looks good in the Gallery.

[Rocket Pooch]

Robert can you send me your fits, sumbs, dark and bias and i'll have a go.

[RobertM]

I've resampled to 1.6 arcsec/pixel - since I had enough subs this equates to drizzle/dithering.  This is the same technique I'd used for M51.  There is now far more resolution and the stars are the right shape i.e. round.

Trouble is the gallery won't let me upload it - looks like a job for Rick ...

Will also redo the N-W Veil in the same way and repost.