The Iris nebula NGC7023

swag72

swag72

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Sara
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The Iris Nebula, also NGC 7023 and Caldwell 4, is a bright reflection nebula in the constellation of Cepheus. It lies 1,300 light-years away and is six light-years across. It is called the Iris nebula due to the way it is framed within the huge dust clouds surrounding it. These types of dusty targets are rather tricky as it's difficult to get any form of separation from the reflection of the Iris and the actual dust.

This is a total of 50 hours worth of exposure and it took a few weeks to gather all the data.

Each exposure in the luminance filter that provides the detail is 10 minutes and the colour filters were 5 mins exposures.



NGC7023 - Iris nebula by Sara Wager, on Flickr
 
As always, another stunning image.
One day I might think of something else to say, but stunning, great, superb, brilliant, are the only words that I can think of.
 
I'm with Dominic - it is hard to find the words
However I do have at least an appreciation of the work involved. While we were on holiday in the Algarve my partner imaged the Elephant Trunk nebula with a OSC CCD (not his). Now at home he's using his own mono CCD to add Ha to it - a slow process as it's a smaller chip, though also a smaller scope, which helps, but it still all has to be mosaiced. Rather him than me. My setup is very simple, involves no computers and no guiding and I'm still crawling through my holiday shots as I find the integration/processing so boring...........
50 hours here and you could substitute 'a few years' for 'a few weeks' :(
 
swag72 said:
These types of dusty targets are rather tricky
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When you describe something as tricky and then produce an image of that quality, I can't even begin to imagine what is involved. Completely different league, amazing work, thank you for sharing.
 
Thanks for sharing Sara - I would be happy with a good milky way shot which I have yet to try!
 
Excellent work, as usual, thanks for sharing Sara ;)
 
Can't embed GIFs!
 
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Wow, totally amazing... Is there any chance you can summarize the process how you achieve this? Obviously you say it's 50 hours of exposure. How long do you expose a night? How long did this shot take on a time line... How long do you expose on each shot? And how many images do you have before processing? I am assuming you merge a lot of images into one?
 
AndyG123 said:
Wow, totally amazing... Is there any chance you can summarize the process how you achieve this? Obviously you say it's 50 hours of exposure. How long do you expose a night? How long did this shot take on a time line... How long do you expose on each shot? And how many images do you have before processing? I am assuming you merge a lot of images into one?
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On Sara's website: http://www.swagastro.com/my-guide-to-image-capture.html
 
AndyG123 said:
Wow, totally amazing... Is there any chance you can summarize the process how you achieve this? Obviously you say it's 50 hours of exposure. How long do you expose a night? How long did this shot take on a time line... How long do you expose on each shot? And how many images do you have before processing? I am assuming you merge a lot of images into one?
Click to expand...

The link that Stuart showed is probably the best thing to give you an idea of how i get these images. Basically I have a mount that tracks the sky to within an inch of it's life!! A mono cooled astro camera that uses colour filters to pick up the various wavelengths of light and a rather large telescope. With the help of computers and technology I set a target and then run software that gets t the same place night after night to keep gathering more exposures. Then I work on them in software and make one image that is essentially black and then I spent 8-10 hours on each image to make it how you see it here.
 
That's about 10 stages past 'stunning'!, I'm officially envious now ;)
 
I love looking at your work, as someone fascinated by astronomy and the stars but so far singularly failing to even get a decent Milky Way shot I am both in awe and slightly jealous of your images!

I just checked out your website out of curiosity and that is some serious kit you have, very impressive!

Thanks for sharing!
 
WereBo said:
That's about 10 stages past 'stunning'!, I'm officially envious now ;)
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I'm thrilled that you like it

kh_42 said:
I love looking at your work, as someone fascinated by astronomy and the stars but so far singularly failing to even get a decent Milky Way shot I am both in awe and slightly jealous of your images!

I just checked out your website out of curiosity and that is some serious kit you have, very impressive!

Thanks for sharing!
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I have found that expensive kit have made the whole process much easier
 
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