The Second New Forest Observatory “Deep-Sky Image of the Week” by Astrophotographer Annie Morris

The second New Forest Observatory “Deep-Sky Image of the Week” has been created by astrophotographer  Annie Morris – another PAIG imaging lady (come on guys, where are your images?  You’re being totally creamed by the girls!!!).  I had absolutely no problem or hesitation in choosing this remarkable narrowband panorama of the North America nebula/Pelican nebula region from Annie as the “Deep-Sky Image of the Week” for this week 🙂  Here are the imaging details provided by Annie:

This image has a total integration time of 72 hours and took 3 months to complete using an Orion EON80ED and Atik 314L+.

I have mapped this in a modified Hubble Palette and used my 58 hr Ha layer as Luminance. I have only been doing astrophotography for two years and this was my astro-anniversary project.
Here are all the details:
Image date: May 21, 2011-August 21, 2011
Image type: Full narrowband (SII, Ha, OIII) mosaic
Camera: Atik 314L+
Guide camera: Starlight XPress Lodestar
Scope: Orion EON 80ED
Filters: Astronomik Ha, SII, & OIII
Total Integration Time: 72 hours
Integration time/channel: Ha-58 hrs 40 min, OIII-6 hrs 20 min, SII-7 hrs
Mapping: Modified HST (SII, Ha, OIII), Luminance (Ha)

I think you have pipped me on total imaging time with this one Annie – my maximum is somewhere between 60 and 70 hours (pretty sure not more than 70) for M31 and for the whole of the Veil nebula which was a 2-framer taken in RGB, H-alpha and OIII.  So I can fully appreciate the mammoth effort that you have put into creating this amazing skyscape 🙂  You have also given me a huge incentive to get the mini-WASP array focus trained for H-alpha, H-beta, OIII and SII filters so that I can start adding a bit of narrowband to the one-shot colour data as well.

Please submit your image (less than 5Mb JPEG please) and some image/processing details to greg@newforestobservatory.com if you would like your image to be considered for the New Forest Observatory “Deep-Sky Image of the Week”.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

5 Responses to The Second New Forest Observatory “Deep-Sky Image of the Week” by Astrophotographer Annie Morris

  1. budguinn says:

    Oh, My, My, My!!…that is drop dead gorgeous! The colors in the palette and the detail are really just wonderful. I’ve seen this done many times, but this has to be one of the best efforts that I’ve seen.
    Congrats on a well deserved recognition.

  2. Greg Parker says:

    It’s certainly one of the very best I’ve seen of the region too – and I’m not a fan of narrowband false colour – but this really pays off 🙂

  3. Julius says:

    Is there a problem with this image or is it my browser? I’m unable to see the small image in the post in Chrome, but Safari and Firefox are OK. The larger image is OK in all of my browsers.

    What a fantastic image, though.

    It makes my idle fantasies of setting up an imaging rig of my own seem worth pursuing.

  4. Greg Parker says:

    Well if you can see the image in Safari and Firefox how can it be a problem with the image?

  5. Julius says:

    OK, got it. The Ad Block Pro plug-in was blocking it for some reason. No idea why.

    I wondered if the image was glitchy as it was the only jpeg on the site which was not showing up. Anyway, all sorted now.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *