Heart of the Heart - Part 2

[Mike]

IC1805 - Central section of the Heart Nebula in Narrowband.
[SII]Ha[OIII] 4 x 15m per channel - 3 hours total exposure. No darks or flats as ran out of time.



Click this link for the full resolution version - http://www.amateur-astronomy.org/images/IC1805-RGB-SHO-1h.jpg

[JohnP]

cool - not seem many images of this before on the web. The full res is very impressive - I'm impressed by how pinpoint the stars are across the frame.

John.

PS - You done anything with the Vixen yet - I'm looking forward to seeing your first attempt at Mars.

[Mike]

Yes I was pleased with the stars, nice and round despite the conditions. The Vixen is gathering dust at the moment. I want to make sure I have cracked this wide field stuff before moving onto the F9 scope as it will be far more technically challenging. Plus it needs collimating.

Here is a re-edit of the IC1805 pic which has brought out a it more detail.

[Mike]

I've sincve learnt you need to do double length exposures for the OIII and SII filters, i.e. I need another hour per filter for this image to be proper colour balance.

[Rocket Pooch]

Hi Mike,

Like wow again, and watch it, you now have my competative streak going so I'm going to get some more narrow band filters for my garden and see what I can come up with, esspecially when the mount is fixed onto a pilar.  

But excellent shot, I'll hand over the mantle of posting the most into the gallery to you.  Also shall we call it the Mike calendar this year?

I assume you are using the SVX guider for the subs now?

Also the Vixen, is meant to be easy to collimate, so lets do it at DSC and get some more Mars shots, apparently a TelVue 5x barlow is the thing to use for it (Paul, hint).  Thats going to be my target for the weekend along with M45 using the EOS and any DSO I can image with the EQ^, two scopes more batteries required....

Anyway whilst you guys have had the glory or capturing all these images from the UK, I'm stuck here in Indian, back home for 5 days then Egypt, then back for 1 day then DSC, so I'm what you might call not going to be prepaired for the cold.

Bye

[Mike]

But excellent shot, I'll hand over the mantle of posting the most into the gallery to you.  Also shall we call it the Mike calendar this year?

LOL! I can assure you that I have a LOOOONNGGG way to go before I get up to the number that Paul has done.

I assume you are using the SVX guider for the subs now?

Yes I am. Pretty decent little guide camera once you figure out how to use it. Will get down to about Mag 11 with a 1 sec exposure, though I tend to choose brighter stars.

Also the Vixen, is meant to be easy to collimate, so lets do it at DSC and get some more Mars shots, apparently a TelVue 5x barlow is the thing to use for it (Paul, hint).  Thats going to be my target for the weekend along with M45 using the EOS and any DSO I can image with the EQ^, two scopes more batteries required....

Yeah, not bothering with the Vixen just yet as i'm still learning things with the widefield kit. Will bring it along to DSC though and we can collimate it, then I can lend it to you to get some Mars pics if you like.

M45 is one I am also after as well as the Horsehead. May try those with the ST80, but not sure how good it is quality wise for imaging. It's either that or some mosaic's. Would like to use the Vixen to try and get the Comet too (C/2005 A1 in Perseus - Mag 13 at the mo but will be dimmer by DSC - about 13' tail).

See you when you get back.

Mike

[Whitters]

Realy realy nice images Mike, I take my hat off to you. I love the second version with all that extra detail you have brought out.
A Hint for darks, You don't need to take them every time out, take a set at usual observing tempreature, and exposure lenghts, and then reuse those. I suggest re-taking them every 3 months. same goes for bias frames. It's only the flats you need to take at the time, as every time you change the filter or re-focus you change the effect of the mechanical effects, and dust donuts.

[Mike]

Yeah. Haven't done 15 min exposures before so hadn't done 15 min darks. Was too late to spend another half hour or more doing a series of flats. Will do them next chance I get and reprocess to see if it improves it.