Originally posted by StiffLegged I take it these are the colours as seen and not by combining selective narrow-wavelength filtering? Many academic images are false-coloured to highlight distribution of particular elements in stellar objects for research purposes.
This is from the K3II, so it is RGB and not narrowband. You actually wouldn't want to shoot this object in narrowband. It's a bright reflection nebula, so like galaxies, it is considered a broadband target. If you were to use narrowband filters it would cut out a lot of the light that this target emits making it more challenging to capture a decent image.
I think this was only around 2hrs worth from my Bortle 3 backyard.
Originally posted by RobG Amazing! I'd love to get shots like this, but the telescope, tripod and tracker are a big investment. Thanks for sharing! Hopefully there will be some more dark nights with clear skies soon when I can try the astrotracer again.
Thanks! Yes the mounts can be an investment. But, you can start to get really nice results with even a move-shoot-move tracker or the Star Adventurer and a telephoto lens. This target is relatively small, smaller than the full moon. But there are many objects that are many times bigger than the full moon and 135mm on a star adventurer would get you amazing images.