IC1396 - Elephant Trunk Nebula at DSC

[MarkS]

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:


Bigger version is here:
http://gallery.orpington-astronomy.org.uk/albums/userpics/10046/elephant15052010.jpg

[Carole]

Lovely to see a wide field of the Elephant's trunk, and so much detail. 
Fabulous image Mark.

Carole

[RobertM]

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

[Rocket Pooch]

Very nice Mark

[Fay]

Fantastic Mark, extremely nice!

[MarkS]

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

[Mike]

Really nice image Mark. Especially considering the conditions.

[Tony G]

Great widefield Mark.

Tony G

[Mac]

Very nice.

[JohnP]

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

[MarkS]

Re-processed:



Larger size here:  http://www.markshelley.co.uk/Astronomy/2010/elephant15052010v2.jpg

[Fay]

WOW!

[The Thing]

Can you stencil 'Hubble II' on that banana thingy, it's awesome. Great image.

[RobertM]

Being picky I think the colour balance of the stars is slightly too red but it's still a stunning result.

Robert