Advice Needed - To jump or not?

Here's my view from 30,000 feet.  If you find learning something new to be interesting and fun then take on narrowband imaging.  NB imaging allows taking high quality data when the moon is blasting stray light all over the sky and as you've noticed, you can produce some spectacular images with NB data.  On the other hand, if you find that learning something new is "frustrating", don't do it.  Hobbies are supposed to be fun.

John

Generally speaking you can get away with just Hydrogen and Oxygen filters when you're starting out.  Sulfur data tends to mimic Hydrogen, but there are some differences.     With a good set of 3nm Filters you can image even under a full moon (not saying it's ideal however). Oxygen is the one element/filter that takes a hit when the moon is out.   Hydrogen you will hardly notice any difference, there will be more background, but the signal is still usually strong.    Using narrowband allows you to capture data on almost any clear night.  

Personally I find narrowband processing much easier than broadband image processing, so much that in my 6 or so months of imaging, my images are almost exclusively narrowband.  There's less gradients, less background extraction involved and overall a much cleaner, stronger signal to work with.   There are also tutorials for combining narrowband data with broadband data resulting in some amazing images.   My latest production is a unique process combining Ha with RGB.  Feel free to check it out.     

There's no question, you should definitely dive into narrowband.  Especially if your weather limits your imaging time.  Exposures will be longer, and if your camera can handle it, as long as you want really.    I typically do 20 minute exposures for all my narrowband stuff now.

Thanks,Brian for the encouragement to get into narrow band. 

At your suggestion I looked at your images. They are truly amazing. I noted that some of your exposure times were up to 1200”. At what point do you start using guiding?

I'm always using guiding.   My EQ6s are not accurate enough to go without.     My guiding has always been consistent tho, so I rarely lose subs, and if I do, it's because of clouds which get thrown away anyways.   

Also, thanks! 🙂

I got my first mono this January and started with SHO 3nm filters only.  I love it and have now been thinking of getting LRGB for the stars and shooting galaxies.  The processing has not been that different and still working on perfecting workflow.  I say go for it!

Since you are lucky to be in a zone 4 I don't think you really notice the difference in how easy it is to do narrowband (for someone in zones 7 -8 the difference is huge).

But the real advantage you can take is that you can do AP even during a full moon* and get really fantastic images.


*This goes for Ha and Sii. Oiii never when the moon is present. And if you use a guiding camera it is a good idea to look for targets far away from the moon, because even if your main camera won't have any problems, the guiding camera can easily overexpose horribly and not pick up anything.