California Nebula, NGC1499

Here is my rendition of NGC1499, the California Nebula. It does not have as much time on it as I usually get because it wasn’t my intended target. I captured the data while waiting for another target to be high enough in the sky.

This image is ~6.3 hours data using a monochrome Astro camera attached to the Canon 500mm f/4 IS II. Narrowband filters were used, final editing was done in PixInsight.

Thanks for looking!

More information is available at https://photo-adventure.com/2020_cal​ifornia/

Just beautiful!

Went to your website and quickly saw I need to bookmark it and go back when I have some time to digest it better. Just awesome!!

Thanks for sharing.

Thank you! I started the site mainly for terrestrial photos, but with the pandemic I haven’t been able to travel much. Instead I’m spending a lot of time taking pictures of the stars!

That's really gorgeous!

If I may ask, (I understand little about astrophotography) how does one get so far out there in space with an EF 500mm lens? there must be something like eyepiece magnification?

Stunning, though I wish people would stop posting such stunning images made from monochrome cameras... I weaken every time I see them and consider getting one!

Thanks CyberDyne! That is a fair question n reach. The nebulae are much larger than most would expect. Here is a link to a page (not mine) that has some different images with a full moon added in the corner for approximate visual scale. Many are multiple times larger than the full moon, they are just very dim requiring a lot of exposure time.

https://calgary.rasc.c​a/bigthings.htm

Another consideration is the camera. I’m attaching the lens to an Astro camera with a much smaller sensor, providing additional magnification (17.7 x 13.4mm vs 36 x 24mm). Many of my images are actually done at 100-200mm.

Nebulae are great wide field targets. Galaxies require more reach. Most my galaxy shots use the 500mm, sometimes with the 1.4x attached. I’ll be picking up a 2x and trying that.

Planets are out for me. They require much more magnification to see the details.

I hope that was clear!

Thank you xa-coupe! I like the mono, although it is a little more to keep track of in post. I’ve seen amazing images from OSC and DSLR images as well. I’m using the ASI1600mm with an electronic filter wheel. It does have some reflection artifacts to watch out for on large, bright stars. Between that and using camera lenses with aperture blades (vs a scope) it can lead to some ugly stars that sometimes create interesting images (reference Pleiades mage below).

I think your images are looking great. One thing I have focused on this year is exposure time. I am only doing 1 or 2 subjects in a month, but getting a lot of time on it. I’m finding it easier to bring out the details with much less noise.

Beautiful image.. I have tried to get most of this in frame with my 420mm telescope and even with a 0.8x focal reducer bringing it down to 330mm its still to big...

rdricks wrote in post #19168424
Thanks CyberDyne! That is a fair question n reach. The nebulae are much larger than most would expect. Here is a link to a page (not mine) that has some different images with a full moon added in the corner for approximate visual scale. Many are multiple times larger than the full moon, they are just very dim requiring a lot of exposure time.

https://calgary.rasc.c​a/bigthings.htm

Another consideration is the camera. I’m attaching the lens to an Astro camera with a much smaller sensor, providing additional magnification (17.7 x 13.4mm vs 36 x 24mm). Many of my images are actually done at 100-200mm.

Nebulae are great wide field targets. Galaxies require more reach. Most my galaxy shots use the 500mm, sometimes with the 1.4x attached. I’ll be picking up a 2x and trying that.

Planets are out for me. They require much more magnification to see the details.

I hope that was clear!

Thank you for that concise explanation. That makes perfect sense now. I was imagining something completely different, and just did not realize it was there in front of us, just not quite visible to the naked eye. Fascinating! Now I understand the 6 hour exposure too!

I'm still quite the beginner, I am learning processing from the start as I've always been behind the ball with PS, even before I started astro! I figure I've got far enough into it to work on a LRGB image (following tutorials).

You've inspired me to get a mini filter wheel with filters and use my previous guide camera to give it a bash..... but at the same time I'll be blasting away with the DSLR to make sure I don't end up with nothing for a night's work!

On these emission nebulae an Ha filter is amazing. The first time you use one it is amazing what it picks up. I use PixInsight for processing. It has a lot of power, but you need to be patient when learning.