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Astrophotography Emission Nebula

Astrophoto: Elephant’s Trunk Nebula – Sh2-131 – 09/21

The Elephant’s Trunk Nebula in my 2024 reprocessed version with photons collected in september 2021.

The Clear Sky Astro-Shooting

Astrophoto IC 1396A Elephant’s Trunk Nebula Clear Skies 20-22.
From september the 3rd to september the 5th there was very nice clear skies after a summer full of clouds. 3 days i did a single object. This time an emission nebula.

Elephant’s Trunk Nebula

A really pretty object. With my 600mm focal length and the APS-C chip it is really nice to capture. But it is even nicer with a shorter focal length.

Here the high resolution version of the astrophoto on Flickr:

IC 1396A, Elephant‘s Trunk Nebula
Same data – advanced processing

Lessons Learned

This picture is the first one, i did with “full equipment”. Beside the Vixen ed80sf on my HEQ-5 i used the Flattener (not perfectly configured yet), the 1:10 Lacerta micro focuser.

And i used my new Optolong L-Extreme the first time in my ZWO Filter Changer. A question i have to ask myself is, if it is the best idea to use a duo-narrowband filter on a f7.5 telescope with a camera where i am forced to expose at a maximum of 180s.

Due to the fact of using the narrowband filter and being limited to 180s exposures, i used ISO 1600. As a result i had bright edges aafter stacking the frames. Possibly this is some camera glow i need to take care of in future. possibly i ll go for ISO 800 next time.

Technical overview of Astrophoto IC 1396A Elephant’s Trunk Nebula Clear Skies 20-22

TelescopeVIXEN ED80sf
Focal Length600mm
Aperture ratio7.5
Erecting LenseTSFlat2
FilterOptolong L-Extreme
MountSkywatcher HEQ-5
Goto-ControlEKOS
Mount ControlINDI
Guiding Scope Focal Length162 mm
Guiding Camera Chip4.8mm x 3.6mm, 8bit
Guiding Camera Resolution1280×960
Guiding SoftwareEKOS, INDI
Dithering3 pixel
CameraCANON EOS M100(a)
Methodfocal projection
Camera angle
Camera ControlEKOS, INDI, Gphoto2
Photography Date3.9.2021, 4.9.2021, 5.9.2021
Moon
Exposure-Time Lights145x180s
SensitivityISO 1600
CalibrationframesFlats, Bias, Darks
Processing Date10.09.2021
Reprocessing Date01/06/2024
Stacking, IntegrationDeep Sky Stacker
Processing SoftwareAffinity Photo and SiriL
Image EditingAffinity Photo
Reprocessing SoftwarePixInsight
Capture PlaceKoblenz, Germany
LightpollutionBortle 5
Scattered lightstrong

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