Night of the Trifid (combined)

[Anth10]

Dragged myself out into the dark cold of night in Melbourne last night to take this 44 min shot of M20. First go at imaging with my coma corrector which has helped a bit. Tracking is still something to hone but moving forward slowly.
The air was quite thick creeping toward midnight, the scope was like it was dunked in a bathtub, and my feet felt darn cold by the end of the sesh.
Astronomy is fun and rewarding all said and done.

Anth

[Atmos]

Nice and colourful, you've captured some of the fainter dust nicely.

[h0ughy]

thats a fair crack - nice, whats were the subs?

[Imme]

Well done anth.........that tracking wouldn’t be as much of an issue if you were guiding! Hahahahaha

[Mickoid]

That's really nice from the 'burbs. You're certainly getting the hang of it now, great colours and your focus looks spot on.

[Anth10]

h0ughy,
I wanted to try 1 min but settled for 45sec subs iso800.
Used 58 of 100 subs with 20 dark/flats. Lost a lot due to scope movement, I recon the counterweights May have been shifting with the amount of dew settling on the extension rod perhaps.
Noise was kept low as the dslr was kept at bay temperature wise. I’ll try this again later on when it climbs higher. I shot this relatively early as it started to climb from the east about 9-10.30pm.
Cheers
Thanks

[Anth10]

Thanks Atmos
There was heaps more too in the test shots at 60sec. I had to trim back to shorter exposures since tracking wasn’t the best.
However still found I could draw out the dust surrounds somewhat.

[Anth10]

Mickoid,
Thanks for your comment, still using the trusty Canon60D.modified of course.
I used the Baader iv/ir cut filter which I find helps with my stars. Will try next time with the Hutech V3 and mix it with the current stack to see what it produces.
Ps liked your post of this object and lagoon with the different filter mix of subs.

[Anth10]

Imme,
You know I will one day, I’m just too slow when it comes to the tech.
Thanks for the ribbing :lol:

[rcheshire]

Nicely done...

[Andy01]

That’s a great Triffid, John Wyndham would be proud :thumbsup:

[Anth10]

Thanks Row,
Go Cats

[Anth10]

Hahaha,
Glad somebody recognised the hidden pun in my image title,
Appreciate your comment Andy,
Thanks

[Anth10]

Had another attempt at processing concentrating on reducing noise as much as possible.

[gaseous]

I know nothing about the intricacies of AP, but to me that's a cracking photo.

[xelasnave]

Excellent images such that I feel I should not post my humble efforts☺
I will of course if I can ever get everything stacked.
Alex

[Anth10]

Thanks gaseous, been missing the chance to image the Trifid over years gone bye mainly because of the freezing conditions in which it transits our sky!



Alex, don’t ever be, we’re all in this game together no matter what shape or form our images present, let’s face it each of us can always say we could improve or they don’t meet the typical standards but hey we’re having a go and having fun at the same time(I hope- .,,,it can be a pain sometimes I have to admit.)

Cheers
Anth

[Anth10]

Thursday night snapped 20 extra subs between the passing clouds with V3 Light pollution filter to add to the previous data set from the other night. The combination of different captures has subtly increased contrast and improved the finer dust areas too.

Processing I find is hit and miss most of the time and a different result manifests with every attempt.

Happy days, clear nights

Anth

[Imme]

Extra shots have definately made a difference anth. Goes to show what more time pulls in doesn’t it.

Keep adding and see what you end up with!

What are you using to process? Still startools?

[raymo]

Hi Anthony, don't often see M20 inverted from its usual orientation.
It seems to be sort of dimpled somewhat like a mattress, none of my
efforts show it; I don't know if its because my subs are shorter, or
whether it is some sort of artefact.
raymo

[Anth10]

Raymo your right, I had another look at it I think I may have overdone the Unsharp in Photoshop it crimped the image too much. I also scaled back the denoise in photoshop too leaving it smoother.


mme, I use a bit of both in Startools and photoshop,

I'm still trying to understand the modes and functions, the algorithms are beyond me but it is really trial and error until you get what you want.

[Imme]

Ive been using startools for the last 6 months and am finally feeling i am getting a bit of an understanding of how it works. It's worth reading the startools manual.....opened my eyes to a few new things and gave me a better understanding.

[raymo]

You have reduced the dimpling a lot, but its not all gone; its all part of the learning curve isn't it. I'm glad I'm not on the curve, as I only use DSS.
raymo