Lobster Nebula start...

[xelasnave]

Here is my effort with capturing the Lobster Nebula... Gear used 80mm Espirit,HEQ 5 unguided mount,hour in HA, 30 minutes of red and 45 minutes of Luminance all 30 second exposures due to the cloud or rather moisture passing in and out ..had to throw half out even then.
Anyways I have plenty of excuses but it is what it is...stacked in Deep Sky Stacker processed in Star Tools, combined in Star Tools and slight level adjustment and downsized in Gimp...

alex

[Startrek (Martin)]

Nice image Alex !!
Plenty of detail in there
In Startools have you tried Life ?
It reduces detail and background colour from the interstellar background and puts more emphasis on the object including the nebulosity
Try it if you haven’t
Life , Less More , use 30% then try 50%
I use it quite a bit and get pleasing results
Cheers

[Lognic04 (Logan)]

Alex i think what you have here is great! nice balance of fainter bits and the nebula.
Can't wait to see how you go!

[multiweb (Marc)]

Pretty bloody good Alex. Your best shot to date I reckon.

[xelasnave]

Thank you all very much for all your encouraging and kind words.
I think I am feeling just a little disappointed that I could not get more data and was forced to swap around between objects and throw out so much data...plus I am very disappointed with the widefields actually as I had hoped for so much more.
Plus I think all the mucking around re the caravan really took it out of me...that plus the drive plus legs and just being old when there is so much I want to bulid and do...
anyways it is clouded in here so I guess I should be happy I got something at all....I just wanted to do a really good Swan ..what was odd was the difference in seeing between the Lobster region and the Swan..so close you would not think you could image one ok and hardly see the other..
Thanks again.
alex

[ChrisV (Chris)]

Nicely framed and captured Alex. I reckon the Halpha by itself is really nice

[xelasnave]

I managed a little more data although it was far from ideal...still you gotta grab what you can and do the best with what you get...I am at least starting to notice the things wrong..noise is real bad in this one ..either that or I am getting some nice dust globs

Anyways here is todays effort.. I just remembered there is some more data that I could add.. next time...may get some more tonight but I feel like trying something else...Going to be Moonlite but it looks as if it will be clear and drier.
alex

[ChrisV (Chris)]

You can really see the lobster now. And it's well cooked!

[xelasnave]

Thank you Chris for your input.
I am a little tired tonight so I think I will just let the camera bang away on ha for a couple of hours☺.
Alex

[xelasnave]

Managed another couple of hours of ha...seven hours of ha now☺
Lappy says check in five hours ... thats time for a decent sleep.
Alex

[Sunfish (Ray)]

Perfectly Cooked lobster. Amazing amount of nebulosity . Better even than your scary spider.

[xelasnave]

thanks Ray.


here is a another maybe 7 hours but lots of noise...still got more data, made a mistake with binning on red so it is absent here... so this is still a work in progress
alex

[Sunfish (Ray)]

The dark lanes are interesting. I suppose they are dust in the foreground which obscures the stars.