The region I concentrated on with the pictures is IC 1396A the trunk itself with a surrounding dark cloud. With My usual 600-second exposure timings with my Optolong L-eXtreme filter and ZWO Asi 533mc Pro camera. This is only part of the nebula and to get the full nebula in, the picture will either be a wider field lens or a mosaic style picture.
The picture above is my usual post processing technique and the one on the right is concentrating on the red shift pattern. I have yet to do a Hubble pallet version of this and may wait for the larger picture before trying it out. Later in the year, when the nights are longer, I will do a full mosaic version of this nebula getting the whole structure in with about 6-8 hours per panel. This will depend on clear skies also. The UK isn't known for clear nights very often. Watch this space! The setup
Scope - Skywatcher 72ed Mount - Skywatcher eq5 goto Guide scope – ZWO 30mm Guide Camera – ZWO Asi 120mm mini Control box – ZWO ASIAIR Pro Filter – Optolong L-eXtreme 1.25mm Filter drawer next to the camera sensor Fox Halo 96k power bank Dew heaters with their own power banks on both guide scope and camera |
This target has been targeted again, but this time with newer equipment as well as Mosaic version of this target. Previously (above) only concentrated on the actual Elephants Trunk its self, but this time I tried to get all of the target in the image. A request came to me asking for their star to be photographed, which I agreed to.
Little did I know their star was just on the outside of IC1396, so the picture is slightly to the side of centre of the nebula. This picture will be amazing printed! if not slightly large in file size.
To process this was a lengthy process. Literally about 4-5hours processing time, and a lot of the time I was just waiting for the processes to finish, restarting due to mistakes and more waiting.
Little did I know their star was just on the outside of IC1396, so the picture is slightly to the side of centre of the nebula. This picture will be amazing printed! if not slightly large in file size.
To process this was a lengthy process. Literally about 4-5hours processing time, and a lot of the time I was just waiting for the processes to finish, restarting due to mistakes and more waiting.
Equipment used was the following:
Each panel was 60 mins total exposure, with 60 sec sub-exposures, dithering every 3 frames.
Calibration frames
Darks - 25
Flats - 60
Bias - 60
- Scope – Celestron RASA 8
- Mount - Skywatcher EQ6 R Pro
- Guide scope – ZWO 30mm
- Guide Camera – ZWO ASI 120mm mini
- Main Camera – ZWO Asi 533mc Pro
- Control box – ZWO ASIAIR Pro
- Filter – IDAS NBZ Nebula Booster 2”
- Starizona Filter drawer next to the camera sensor
- Fox Halo 96k power bank
- Dew heater with its own power bank on the guide scope
- Main scope Celestron ring dew heater powered though ZWO ASIAir
Each panel was 60 mins total exposure, with 60 sec sub-exposures, dithering every 3 frames.
Calibration frames
Darks - 25
Flats - 60
Bias - 60