NGC 2359 RGBHaOIII

[kosborn (Kevin)]

As much as I'm enjoying this new Sidereal Trading Newtonian, it's throwing up problems I've not had to deal with before with my refractor. I had several hours of Ha on this target and was combining it with several hours of OIII when a cable snag rotated the camera. It wouldn't have mattered with the SW Esprit but with the Newt it caused misregistered diffraction spikes that looked really ugly. The solution was just start again. Now I have combined it with RGB and I'm reasonably happy with the result except my poor polar alignment and resulting poor tracking have elongated the stars (and compared to Diego's recent example of the same target my processing is wanting). Anyway, small steps!

Any processing suggestions welcome (I know I've blown out some of the nebula). If anyone wants to try processing the data please let me know and I'll make it available. This was 28x 60 seconds each of R, G & B (binned 2x2) together with 50x 180 seconds Ha and 48x 180 seconds OIII. A larger version is on Astrobin.

Cheers, Kevin

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Very nice shot of this perennial favourite Kevin

Multiple diffraction spikes from separate systems doesn't necessary look bad..?

Mike

[RickS (Rick)]

Looks pretty good, Kevin! I'm with Mike. The more spikes the better

[multiweb (Marc)]

Very nice details and colors.
+1 for spikes and if that's not enough you can always top it up with the star spike pro plugin for photoshop.

[kosborn (Kevin)]

Thanks Mike, Rick and Marc. What I didn't like about about the extra spikes was that they were different colours in the HOO version. Given the multiple spike encouragement I'm currently combining all the data which will make 5+ hours of Ha and 5+ hours of OIII... Drizzle integration of 106 images is a slow process!


Kevin

[diegocolonnello (Diego)]

I love this result, makes me want to add RGB stars to my version, i like it, i really do... I am glad you like the NEWT.....

[ChrisV (Chris)]

Very nice Kevin

[kosborn (Kevin)]

Originally Posted by ChrisV

Very nice Kevin

Thanks Chris.

Originally Posted by diegocolonnello

I love this result, makes me want to add RGB stars to my version, i like it, i really do... I am glad you like the NEWT.....

Thanks Diego. The Newt is every bit as good as I hoped it would be. I have it mounted on an EQ6-R which I think is at it's limit (although I hoping when I replace an Orion 50mm guide scope with an OAG tracking will improve a bit).


Cheers, Kevin

[Andy01 (Andy)]

Looking good Kevin!
Maybe a tad green for my taste but a very good image regardless.
Enjoying your new toy then?

[kosborn (Kevin)]

Originally Posted by Andy01

Looking good Kevin!
Maybe a tad green for my taste but a very good image regardless.
Enjoying your new toy then?

Thanks Andy.

Interestingly, it was even more green in the pure rgb combination after a photometric colour calibration and given it has such a strong OIII emission I suspect its "real colour" (if there is such a thing) tends to green. It became more blue after adding OIII to the blue and green channels so I was happy to leave it there.

I'm certainly enjoying the new toy. By coincidence my next target was going to be NGC 2736 - I notice you've just been there with your new toy!

Kevin

[marc4darkskies (Marcus)]

Agree with others - a very nice result Kevin! Diffraction artefacts don't detract. I also agree with Andy about the green. I'd also suggest you could bring out the Ha a bit more.

Marcus