20210720 - (CEP) IC 1396 The Elephant’s Trunk - Making the most of a run of Clear Skies. ‘Third Light’ with the TS-94EDPH APO + CEM70G, testing the accuracy of the mount with 600s subs, processing straight into PixInsight
What was the experience
I’m revisiting a DSO I did a month ago with the RedCat51. Now aiming for the heart of the nebula - straight ‘into the heart of darkness’ (even with a nearly full moon 🌕 in the neighbourhood )
No more quick and easy processing, but opting to build up the skills in PixInsight and do this straight into PixInsight. First had to get the darks sorted out, to remove the amp glow. The ASI 178 being non-cooled leaves a lot of background noise. Still not 100% perfect, but bearing in mind this is a non-cooled camera that is better suited for planetary, I’m happy with the result this second Rig is continuing to give me 👍.
What’s in the picture(s)IC 1396 - The Elephant’s Trunk -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant%27s_Trunk_NebulaQuote: “The Elephant's Trunk Nebula is a concentration of
interstellar gas and dust within the much larger ionized gas region IC 1396 located in the constellation
Cepheus about 2,400
light years away from Earth. The piece of the
nebula shown here is the dark, dense globule IC 1396A; it is commonly called the Elephant's Trunk nebula because of its appearance at visible light wavelengths, where there is a dark patch with a bright, sinuous rim. The bright rim is the surface of the dense cloud that is being illuminated and ionized by a very bright, massive star (
HD 206267) that is just to the east of IC 1396A”
How it was done
Mount: iOptron CEM70G
Guiding: ZWO OAG, ZWO ASI290MM, ASIAIR Pro
Scope: TS-94EDPH APO (FL 414mm / 517mm with 0.8x corrector)
Camera: ASI178MC (non-cooled)
Resolution: 1,19”/pixel, FoV 74’
Filter: Optolong L-Extreme
Moon: 86%(+), Bortle 5/6 SQM 19.60
Photons: Gain 125, cooling -10, 600s, 20x (0 rejected)
Darks 25x
Processing: PixInsight, Adobe Photoshop (Mac)
Astrobin:
IG: @astrowaut
What have I learned from this
Finally managed to get the amp-glow fully under control, but this also means I will have to re-process my previous 2 images 😳 (Crescent, Dumbbell), but it’s always good to practice and learn 😅
It’s always a difficult choice to trade-off between capturing a new DSO and getting more data on an old one. The consequence of going for diversity is less quality, as not enough data can be captured, but the diversity of DSOs also helps to learn how to deal with the specifics of each DSO.
Still need to build up a bit more fluency in PixInsight, but the practice and re-processing helps 😎
Clear Skies everybody! 🤩✨🔭
#astrophotography #astrophoto #astrophotos#backyardastronomy #astronomy#backyardastrophotography#astrography #astrography_ #backyard#deepsky #nightsky#universe #sky#Nebula #galaxy#deepskyphotography#photographingspace #photooftheday#natgeospace#longexposure#nightphotography#universetoday#nightimages#yourESA#skyphoto#telescope#ASIWEEK
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