First in a while..

[JohnP]

Well finally blew off all the cowebs after about 4 months of having scope & mount stored in my shed. Mount is as stiff as anything - definitely needs stripping & regrease etc. Took this on Sunday night - actually surprised everything worked first time & that I could actually remember what cable went where... Not the greatest image - too noisy. Due to trees etc. only have a small window when I can get this - ended up with 24 x 5mins (shame they weren't at a dark site..) - ED80 + Atik16ic (normal setup) - OAG.

Cheers,  John.

[Mike]

That's great John. I always love seeing those streamers behind the horsehead. Nice to see you are back to imaging again like Jim.

[MarkS]

I love it John!

That image is so reminiscent of the famous picture of the Horsehead taken by the Palomar 200" Hale Telescope back in 1951 - one of my all time favorite images which inspired me as a kid.

see
http://palomarskies.blogspot.com/2010/03/astrophoto-friday-horsehead-nebula.html

Mark

[Rocket Pooch]

Very nice John, up close as personal with the horsey!

Perfect round stars as well.

[Jim]

That is nice John, I know how hard it is with the small chip size of the Atik to get the object centred.

[Carole]

That's really good John.

Carole

[JohnP]

Thank you All... Mark thks for posting link - not bad I suppose considering I am missing 196.8 inches of aperture & was imaging through mag 3.5 skies... After seeing that image makes we want to try again with bigger aperture from a dark site.

Jim - I think it was one of those lucky nights - I did a one star alignment on Aldebaran & then a goto IC434 & what you see in the image is exactly how it lined up on my chip - I didn't even have to mess with rotating etc. Doesn't happen very often but nice when it does....

Cheers again,  John

[mickw]

Very nice John

[JohnP]

cheers Mick...

[Tony G]

Nice image John, HIGH FIVE!!!!!!!
And there was me thinking that I might get an image in here before you again.

Tony G

[JohnP]

Thks Tony - Well it has been 4 months since the last..... Have you got your scope out yet in your new garden? John

[Tony G]

Not quite yet, I'm having a small patio area laid so I'm not traipsing in mud, and the blinding was only laid today, but hopefully this time next week it will all be set up. Fingers crossed. 

Tony G

[Fay]

well done John, nice horse, nice round stars. hope you get out there a few more times now

[RobertM]

Just need more subs to make it a really impressive image John, everything else looks perfec to me.

Robert

[JohnP]

thks Fay & Robert....

[JohnP]

Whilst you were all boozing it up & DSC I spent sometime sorting out my hard-disks etc. I happened across the images I took down at Les Granges with Fay, Chris & Jim in 2008 & decided to have a quick look at the Ha I took of the Horsehead for comparison with my image the opther day. I did a quick stack & stretch, upscaled image 200% in PS & a few little tweaks & then resized to 1024 (remember size of my CCD is 640 X 480) so upscaling image shows all the warts & noise. Have to say I am pretty gobsmacked - Unbelievable how much easier good clean data is to process. This image was taken with my entry level 16ic & cheapo ZS66....

Bloody hell I want to go to Les Granges again !!!!!!!!!

[MarkS]

John,

The Les Granges version looks even more like the Hale Telescope image! 
Plus, it's facing the right way 

Mark

[JohnP]

Cheers Mark - Makes me think imaging in Bromley is not really worth the effort even with NB filters... I need to move... (just have to convince wife & kids).

John.

PS - from this day forward my horseheads will always face LEFT...!

[mickw]

That really is a good result John

[JohnP]

Thks Mick - reckon once you moved to your nice dark skies you should be able to get better with your kit... John

[RobertM]

That's very nice John.

Makes me think imaging in Bromley is not really worth the effort even with NB filters

Get 5nm/3nm filters or even better a remote setup down at Ollys if you want colour   Persuading the wife to move to a dark site might not be an easy option especially your's has an affinity to shopping like mine does

[mickw]

has an affinity to shopping like mine does

Ashford has loads of nice shops 

[RobertM]

has an affinity to shopping like mine does

Ashford has loads of nice shops 

Don't worry, she does know that

[Fay]

Gosh John, that is good! my M31 was only 8x300 from there, no darks or flats!!!!!!!!!! I did about 5 images in a night there! because they were so short, none of this 10 hour malarkey

[JohnP]

Thks Fay - My horsehead was also only 16 X 5mins No flats & darks (don't even think I knew what a flat was then...) - It is amazing how easy it is to process good data. Only took me 5 mins to process (& its not because of any new skills I have) - not the normal 6 hrs I spend on an image...

Ohhh for good skies....