The Great Pumpkin! + Edit

[JimFox]

Charlie Brown would image this one for sure if he was an astrophotographer!

I have never seen this one before, I found it while poking around in the sky looking for objects to image while zoomed in on the app SkyGuide. Here in SoCal at my place here I have a very limited view of the sky, so I was doing some deep diving to find a few different objects to image and to also test my new Dual Band filter the Antlia ALP-T.

So I came across this area with some objects and when I googled the scientific name for it (SH2-232) I found it was being called The Great Pumpkin. And sure enough it really looks like a pumpkin from Halloween with a crooked mouth, eyes and some vertical stripes on it like a real pumpkin. I even see a hat on it. I am guessing that the name The Great Pumpkin might be a more recent name as most of the images I saw of this on Google had it being display with the pumpkin on it's side. It's not uncommon to rotate a Deep Space Astro object while processing. Now in my case, I didn't rotate anything, this is how it framed up.

38 - Lights at 600 secs with the Antlia ALP-T 5nm filter
30 - Flats
30 - Dark/Flats
30 - Darks

iOptron Gem28
ZWO ASI2600mc Pro
ZWO 120mm Mini - Guide Camera
Askar Fra500
Antlia Alp-T 5nm filter
Stacked in Pixinsight
BlurXterminator
NoiseXterminator
StarXterminator
Graxpert
Processed in Pixinsight and Photoshop

All comments are welcome,
Jim


#1 - Original

#2 - Edit - Reduced Saturation by 10%

 

[Jameel Hyder]

Interesting looking DSO. Nice subtle details and tones in this. Nice work with the processing.

 

[JimFox]

Interesting looking DSO. Nice subtle details and tones in this. Nice work with the processing.

Thanks so much Jameel.

 

[AlanLichty]

Linus would be happy to see this

So when you list stacking up 128 images for the final result can you program your astro rig to automatically take all those captures or do you have to hang out and actually trigger each one?

 

[Bill Richards]

Hi Jim,

This looks pretty darn good for Bortle 8/9 skies - great job! You may want to dial back the sharpening and/or star reduction, as it appears that the stars within the nebula have tiny dark halos around them giving the image a "crunchy" appearance. It's very subtle, and maybe an artifact/limitation of the web site, but worth looking at. And recognizing that this is art and beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I'd also tamp down the saturation and curves transformation just a little bit; not much, just enough to calm down the lower-left corner. It stands out quite a bit and the viewer's eye is drawn to that section rather than the main target.

I may have to consider getting one of those filters...

 

[JimFox]

Linus would be happy to see this

So when you list stacking up 128 images for the final result can you program your astro rig to automatically take all those captures or do you have to hang out and actually trigger each one?

Thanks Alan! I do think Linus would be happy.

I use the ASiAir Pro Astro controller, it's is mini computer. In it I set how long I want the exposures and how many. The ASIAir is the command center if you will. It controls every aspect of the Astrophotography. It controls the Guide camera (so I can do long exposures like 10 mins as the Guide camera tracks individual stars). It controls the separate EAF (Electronic Auto Focus). I can set how often it refocuses. In my case, I have it refocus once an hour, or if the temp changes more then 2 degrees (it has a temp probe). If I had a filter wheel with multiple filters, like mono Astro cameras use, it would control that. And it controls the main Astro camera, including a built in dew heater, and then also how low I want the built in cooler on the camera to operate at.

The ASIAir has a plan mode, so I can plan out a whole night of imaging, having it take X number of images on one object before switching to another object (if I wanted) and then imaging that, etc.

So all of the components are controlled by the ASIAir. There can be complications as all of the above items have lots of individual settings and timings, especially the Guide camera. But once things get dialed in, I have an expensive Smart Telescope. The only issue is it takes about an hour to setup and connect all of the components and calibrations to start. Taking it down is faster since there is no calibration needed.

 

[JimFox]

Hi Jim,

This looks pretty darn good for Bortle 8/9 skies - great job! You may want to dial back the sharpening and/or star reduction, as it appears that the stars within the nebula have tiny dark halos around them giving the image a "crunchy" appearance. It's very subtle, and maybe an artifact/limitation of the web site, but worth looking at. And recognizing that this is art and beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I'd also tamp down the saturation and curves transformation just a little bit; not much, just enough to calm down the lower-left corner. It stands out quite a bit and the viewer's eye is drawn to that section rather than the main target.

I may have to consider getting one of those filters...

Thanks Bill,

I really appreciate the thoughts and suggestions. I am not doing any sharpening on the stars, so it's either in the NoiseXterminator or I do run a star reduction routine sometimes. I know the star reduction can do just what you described. I will have to look at that closer.

It's funny, I liked how cool this looked after I got done processing it, but when I viewed it here after posting it, my first thought was man, how did it get so saturated looking? But I didn't change it since I posted it, I wanted to see what others thought at that point, so thanks. I will dial back the saturation.

 

[Comet Hunter]

Nicely done, and in Halloween colors

 

[JimFox]

Nicely done, and in Halloween colors

Thanks Ed. What's interesting is I didn't change the hue or anything, it just came out this orange tone.

 

[JimFox]

Hi Jim,

This looks pretty darn good for Bortle 8/9 skies - great job! You may want to dial back the sharpening and/or star reduction, as it appears that the stars within the nebula have tiny dark halos around them giving the image a "crunchy" appearance. It's very subtle, and maybe an artifact/limitation of the web site, but worth looking at. And recognizing that this is art and beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I'd also tamp down the saturation and curves transformation just a little bit; not much, just enough to calm down the lower-left corner. It stands out quite a bit and the viewer's eye is drawn to that section rather than the main target.

I may have to consider getting one of those filters...

I decreased the saturation by 10%.

 

[jsb]

Nice capture Jim! This is new one for me and have added it to my target list.

 

[JimFox]

Nice capture Jim! This is new one for me and have added it to my target list.

Thanks so much! It is such a cool looking nebula. I can't wait to see if it's up at Halloween this year. I am not sure what it's cycle is yet.

 

[Mike Lewis]

Fun capture. This is a nice target, I will have to get it sometimes in NB I think. Like the result you have here.

ML

 

[JimFox]

Fun capture. This is a nice target, I will have to get it sometimes in NB I think. Like the result you have here.

ML

Thanks! You should go after it. I never even knew it existed until I stumbled upon it. You have more experience, so you probably have seen most all of the objects, but I am still new enough to be surprised pretty often.