Monkeyhead in Detail

JimFox

Moderator
Staff member
@Mike Lewis told me he was working on capturing the Monkeyhead Nebula. I recalled it from it's rather unusual name. I asked Mike where it was, and he said that it was near the Jellyfish Nebula that I had been capturing. So last Friday night before the comet rose in the sky, I thought I would spend some time imaging the Monkeyhead Nebula. I know Mike was capturing it in Mono, so his detail and coloring will look cooler then what I can capture with the color Astro camera. But I hadn't captured this yet, and thought it would be fun to give it a go.

In fact, I recall seeing this one a year or so ago, but it was one of those ones, that I just couldn't capture with my old gear. But now that I have upped the gear game, I am now able to actually capture the Monkeyhead Nebula! :)

These are 2 starless versions. I will post a version with stars later, but without the stars in the image, we can better see some of the really cool intricate detail in this, like for example, that golden cross area in it. It was so weird to see an area colored gold like that.

135 - Lights @ 180 secs - Just short of 6 hours
30 - Flats
30 - Dark/Flats
10 - Darks
No Filter

iOptron Gem28
ASI2600mc Pro
ASI120mm mini - Guiding
Askar Fra500
Stacked in DeepSkyStacker
Processed in PixInsight
Finished in Photoshop

By no means perfect, but this is the level of detail and quality I could only dream about a year ago. I mean, who would have thought that I could ever get this kind of detail???? It's really a bit mind blowing for me to take in.

All comments are welcome,

Jim

#1
MonkeyheadNebula_NGC2175_20230120_Cropped_NoStars_dw.jpg



#2 - A Crop to show of the Detail, not my presentation view.
MonkeyheadNebula_NGC2175_20230120_Cropped_NoStars_d1w.jpg
 
Last edited:

Mike Lewis

Staff Member
Very nice, will be fun to compare to my results at whatever point I am able to finish the image. I have not decided which narrowband palette I might go for on this, but since it seems to have a decent signal in all 3 common narrowband emission lines, hopefully something that takes advantage of that.

I love the colors and the detail here, and look forward to the version with stars too whenever you update this post with that.

ML
 

JimFox

Moderator
Staff member
Very nice, will be fun to compare to my results at whatever point I am able to finish the image. I have not decided which narrowband palette I might go for on this, but since it seems to have a decent signal in all 3 common narrowband emission lines, hopefully something that takes advantage of that.

I love the colors and the detail here, and look forward to the version with stars too whenever you update this post with that.

ML
Thanks Mike! Yeah, I noticed all 3 channels looked very similar. I look forward to seeing what you get.
 

JimFox

Moderator
Staff member
I like the starless look the first is my favorite
Thanks Ben. Yeah, the first one is my favorite, the 2nd one is just a crop showing how insane an amount of detail I was able to get. I can't believe I could get that amount of detail.
 

Alisa

Well-Known Member
These are cool Jim! This has noting to do with your skill in taking a photo but I am not seeing the money head... Maybe more of a dragon...🤪
 

JimFox

Moderator
Staff member
These are cool Jim! This has noting to do with your skill in taking a photo but I am not seeing the money head... Maybe more of a dragon...🤪
Ha ha, actually from this orientation, it does kind of look like a dragon! It's funny with a lot of these nebula, that sometimes the name just totally fits. But other times like this one, there could be 2 or 3 really valid name choices.

Thanks!
 
Top Bottom