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The K5 was out last Thursday night and caught the witch (Witchhead Nebula IC2118) - which definitely looks like it is named
The Witchhead is a reflexion nebula in the Orion constellation lighted by the star Rigel.




37 x 300s @ ISO 200 with a TS APO Tripet 80/480 mm on an AZ-EQ5

That's really cool, Pete! I had a go at this nebula a week ago and only managed 1 hour before conditions deteriorated. Could only find a faint hint of this object. Very impressive result of a very faint object.

Clear skies!
HJ

Thank you HJ


Where do you shoot from? Here in Germany the Orion constellation is quite low in the skies ( ca. 30°). My plan to shoot all the DSOs single and make a composition in a wide field image does not work therefore. The gradients are too big


CS
Pete

I had never seen the witchhead upside down like that! Now it make sense! Really great pic BTW.

Is there really an up and down in space?

My shooting location is on the outskirts of Melbourne, Australia. The Orion constellation (as well as any other part of the sky) is upside down, so the witch's head reached 60° at 22:30 at the moment.

No! But usually North is up which doesn't really show the witch head.

Even in the Southern hemisphere?

I hesitated a while to turn it upside down because here in our local community they (we) set a high value on authenticity. But I wanted to show her head (and I also do not recognize it when north is up) and so I ignored the conventions. I fear that I'll get no like here in my local forum

Funny - it's the only way I know this nebula. Just pretent you went on a holiday to escape the northern winter... And no, IMHO rotation doesn't change anything in terms of authenticity.

Yeah, what you say! But I hear that background can be too black and should perhaps be about RGB 30,30,30 and things like that. I think when being authentic it should be RGB 0,0,0 because nothing is darker than the empty space. Everything else beeing lighter is the result of imperfections caused by the atmosphere or the imaging system. The same with the stars and how they should look like. Looking around in the internet I see that amateur astrophotography is a playground for unconventionality and only aesthetic criterions should count. And as "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" tolerance is the core competence needed. And that is why I like this group

P.S. If I could escape to your warm southern nights I would sleep none of them but shoot until the sensor burns

Es muss halt alles seine Ordnung haben... Some things I do not miss about Germany .

seems you know what you are talking about

But with that knowledge you know that also in Germany the range is wide - "es gibt solche und solche....."

By the way there are other astro forums that demonstrate that this kind of purism is international


Greetings to the other side!
Pete

Agreed. It has not been my intention to bag all Germans... just the pedantic ones

Very nice. Hard bit of nebula to capture! 5 minute exposures is pushing it to the limit - no way I'd get away with that right now, but it is summer down here! I guess your cooler winter temps give you a bit more leeway.

Given you are in light polluted Europe, are you using a filter to cut out the ambient light? If so, what one, it is doing a damn fine job.

As already pointed out, space has no orientation. Hell, given the name of the Witchhead Nebula, it is pretty clear that Astronomers That Can Name Things (take that internet arm-chair experts!) don't care about orientation. I crop and rotate the give the most pleasing and enjoyable view. I worry about orientation when I am photographing landscapes.