Horsehead and Flame

[twilbur]

The 4th Annual Horsehead shot from Conlin Hill Observatory!



Not sure what happened, I thought I posted this and it's nowhere to be seen. Sorry in advance if it shows up as a
duplicate! For the curious, here's a link to all 4: http://www.conlinhill.com/gallery-nebulae-horseheads.htm

[Ron]

I don't remember it

Nice Image

There is considerable improvement with each edition

I like the TAK version very well, nice job.

Ron

[dsnay]

Very Very nice Ted!
Tracking looks nice and steady.
As nice and crisp as the horsehead is, I really LOVE the flame.

Is the halo around the Alnitak just due to the amount of light it produces?

I usually can find something to improve upon in most images, but I really don't see anything here. Very well done!


Dave

[twilbur]

Thanks Ron and Dave!

Dave, I agree about the tracking! There are 2 things working in my favor, one is that I'm getting good guiding resolution by using the LX200 as a long focal length guidescope. The other is that the image scale is nice with this setup, a forgiving 3.37 arcseconds per pixel, so guiding errors are not as prominent as they were when I was imaging through the main scope at 1.18 arcsec per pixel.

As you noted, the halo is due to Alnitak's brightness. It's a reflection of the Tak 60's objective. There are two or three smaller circular reflections that go off the top and bottom of the star also. They are kind of interesting, and after the battle I had with the blooming I wasn't about to try to get rid of them. You wouldn't believe how much time I spent just getting rid of the blooms, I almost gave up a couple times. Putting it down for a while never hurts, I knew it would be there later when my patience returned.

[dsnay]

Putting it down for a while never hurts, I knew it would be there later when my patience returned.

I hear you there Ted.

[ricksastro]

Really nice image, Ted!   Blooms are a real pain, and you did a great job dealing with them.  Looks like focus was a tad soft...that can be next year's shot

Rick

[twilbur]

Hey Rick! You're right, I moved the Robofocus over to the Tak but I need to be more disciplined about periodically refocusing. I also went really light on the sharpening to avoid dark halos which seemed to come out very readily on this one.