IC443 - Jelly Fish Nebula in wavelength ordered palette

[Paramount]

Hi
This is the first full narrow band image that I have done with my new ML8300 camera as weather hasn't been playing ball lately. It is of IC443 taken in the wavelength ordered palette of SII:Ha:OIII = R:G:B (commonly known as the HST palette). It was taken over three nights with 10x30 minutes for SII, 11x30 minutes for Ha and 9x30 minutes for OIII. We have had a lot of problems with freezing fog recently and the seeing conditions were very hit and miss on all three nights with the FWHM number varying between 1.3 and 2.4 from one minute to the next, it made focusing quite interesting!
Taken with Takahashi FSQ106ED f5 and FLI ML8300 on a Paramount ME with auto guiding by a lodestar and OAG using dithering. I may add some more OIII data as this was very weak and needed to be pushed more aggressively in the processing so there is a bit of noise in the image but overall I'm fairly pleased with the results. I added the difraction spike on after for extra effect, the ML8300 and FSQ combination often gives smaller difraction spikes (?due to the microlenses on the chip)
I have had a few goes at this subject over the last few years with different scope/camera combinations, these can be seen on my website http://www.imagingtheheavens.co.uk for comparison.
There is a full size version at the following link
http://www.pbase.com/imaging_the_heaven ... 7/original
Thanks for looking
Best wishes
Gordon

[Airconvent]

Beautifully taken Gorden. That would make a nice poster somewhere! Thanks for sharing..

[Gary]

Fantastic contrast between the nebula and bright star. Thanks for sharing.

Btw, have you submitted any or your work to bbcstargazing live yet? Tonight is the last. How's the reception of the program at your area? 3.8 million viewers on first night. Did the telescopes started to fly off the shelves from the retailers?