Flame Nebula

[Brian DeJong]

Yup, not a typo, I stayed up wayyyy to late for this one.

Simple stack of 4 images with little adjustment.  I also seem to have a small problem with lense flare.  Any suggestions on how to avoid that one?  Looking at the channels, it is only in the blue.

4 images, ISO 1600, LX200 @f5.5, No Guiding 114 seconds each.

I will have to spend more time and get more iamges next time, but it was late and I wanted to get all of Orion....

[ricksastro]

Alnitak is super bright, and it's difficult if not impossible to avoid flares and internal reflections around the flame, particularly with SCT's.

To get almost 2 minute unguided exposures with the LX200 is extremely impressive!

Rick

[Jean-Yves]

Hi Brian,

Very nice indeed, what time did you get up to shoot this one ?
I like the contrast beteen the super bright star and the dim nebula, they get well together,

Cheers

Jean-Yves

[Brian DeJong]

Thanks Rick, Jean.  As far as the 2Min unguided, I still have a spot or two where it does not track very well,  I can really see errors in 1 or 2 of every 4 images, so that tells me that I still need to work on my PEC training a little more, but I will take it for now since I dont have any kind of guide camera.

For what time I got up, I didnt.  I was still up from the previous evening

It was about 2:30 or so and I noticed a familiar star patter rising in the east.  I wasnt even thinking about Orion but a quick look at SNP confirmed that it would be up in a short while.  I had just setup for a series of shot of the Cass cluster.  That series was going to be finished in about an hour and a half so I took a quick nap and got back out there in time to see Orion clear the tree line.  the rest is history, I stayed out until dawn.  To me, thats what it is all about.