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Archive 2020 · FINALLY a Couple of Clear Nights - The Heart Nebula (maybe my best one yet)

Colorado CJ
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · FINALLY a Couple of Clear Nights - The Heart Nebula (maybe my best one yet)

With all the smoke and clouds, I've only been able to do astrophotography 6 nights since April.

I finally had a couple of clear nights over the past week or so to finish up one more image.
This is the Heart Nebula, located 7500 light years from Earth. The nebula is lit from the ionizing radiation from the star cluster located in it's center. This star cluster is known as Melotte 15.

The image is a combination of:

150, 90 second Hydrogen Alpha Images
66, 90 second Oxygen III images

58, 90 second Sulfur II Images

For a total of 6.9 hours of imaging, the longest single image with my RASA 11 so far. This is also my first image that I used a powerful software package designed specifically for Astrophotography, called Pixinsight. It is a daunting program to learn and is very different than my normal Photoshop routine, but the final image is much cleaner, deeper and more detailed than I have ever made.

Heart-Nebula by Colo CJ, on Flickr

Sep 23, 2020 at 01:21 PM

stephen_s1
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · FINALLY a Couple of Clear Nights - The Heart Nebula (maybe my best one yet)

Bravo!!

Sep 23, 2020 at 01:29 PM

Colorado CJ
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · FINALLY a Couple of Clear Nights - The Heart Nebula (maybe my best one yet)

Thanks!

here's a link to a larger version (much better to look at than this smaller one here):

https://scontent.fapa1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/119990269_10218385401045727_7248326225738336183_o.jpg?_nc_cat=107&_nc_sid=825194&_nc_ohc=kyQzHxRX4WsAX8BFK2P&_nc_ht=scontent.fapa1-2.fna&oh=2ac25669557117dd482e7db3271a925c&oe=5F92512D

Sep 23, 2020 at 01:42 PM

junglialoh
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · FINALLY a Couple of Clear Nights - The Heart Nebula (maybe my best one yet)

Nice job to get such clarity from the nebula

Sep 23, 2020 at 02:31 PM

dbehrens
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · FINALLY a Couple of Clear Nights - The Heart Nebula (maybe my best one yet)

WOW! - the subject/comp.
For me 6.9 sec is a long exposure - but 6.9 hours?! Wow again!

Sep 23, 2020 at 05:32 PM

Harold Carlson
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · FINALLY a Couple of Clear Nights - The Heart Nebula (maybe my best one yet)

Beautiful!

Sep 23, 2020 at 08:51 PM

Chaz
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · FINALLY a Couple of Clear Nights - The Heart Nebula (maybe my best one yet)

Yikes! Your new name should be "Mister Hubble!"

Sep 23, 2020 at 09:39 PM

Hathaway
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · FINALLY a Couple of Clear Nights - The Heart Nebula (maybe my best one yet)

Stunning. Have you used that SW for normal MW shots? Wondering how t would clean those up. Bob

Sep 23, 2020 at 11:13 PM

Milan Hutera
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · FINALLY a Couple of Clear Nights - The Heart Nebula (maybe my best one yet)

Excellent. I attempted to capture the "Heart of the Heart" nebula using a borrowed Atik 314l + mono CCD about a week ago and failed quite spectacularly. And I hear you about Pixinsight. As a beginner, it drives me nuts. A couple of days ago, I finished LRGB imaging of Iris Nebula (about 4,5 hours total integration) and naturally wanted to use "LRGB combination process" - ending up with almost washed out image. Then I looked into some tutorials and threads on messageboard where people were having the same issue. In short, different steps and gajillion additional steps are required. Crazy...

Sep 24, 2020 at 02:18 AM

DanielJStein
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · FINALLY a Couple of Clear Nights - The Heart Nebula (maybe my best one yet)

Amazing work. Perfectly processed. You nailed those dusty nebulae!

Sep 24, 2020 at 07:44 AM

jcw1982
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · FINALLY a Couple of Clear Nights - The Heart Nebula (maybe my best one yet)

Very beautiful image! You did a tremendous job to capture this.

Sep 24, 2020 at 07:14 PM

Danpbphoto
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · FINALLY a Couple of Clear Nights - The Heart Nebula (maybe my best one yet)

This is spectacular!!!
I did CCD astro-photography for a few years long ago..

Not to the measure of this!
Dan

Sep 26, 2020 at 12:00 PM

dclark
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · FINALLY a Couple of Clear Nights - The Heart Nebula (maybe my best one yet)

Wow!!
What a project and what a beautiful result.
Amazing work.

Dave

Sep 26, 2020 at 10:52 PM

graytrekker
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · FINALLY a Couple of Clear Nights - The Heart Nebula (maybe my best one yet)

Chaz wrote:
Yikes! Your new name should be "Mister Hubble!"

I was going to say exactly that!!

Its great to see that such dedicated labors are so well rewarded. Beautiful image

Sep 26, 2020 at 11:51 PM


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