better late than never - Tarantula first light

[SimmoW (SIMON)]

Yes long time no post, has been deliberate as I tame my 10 inch F4 and ASI1600 combo. Finally the spacing is getting closer to right, and tilt pretty minor.

I took 240 shots of 60 secs 2 nights ago, very windy and 3/4 bright moon up above testing the 3nm Ha Astrodon filter. So I culled the subs to the best 77, boy does being ruthless with subs help the sharpness! Thanks to PI's subframe selector tool for that, and a last minute blink.

All taken at -15c and 139 gain. Will be interested to see how much more contrast I can get on a moonless, still night.

This is just a basic stack, DBE and slight noise reduction, but later I started experimenting with the new "LocalFuzzyHistogramHyperbolization " script that look very effective, if used in a layered and subtle way. For those interested, below is a video of the changes in appearance based on using the different main functions. I haven't found a decent tutorial yet, would love to know of one if you''ve seen any about.

anyway, I hope the result looks promising to you, it does to me! I think I"m set for imaging bits of the sky at 1000mm, .75 arcsecs per pixel, for ooh, a good 15yrs.

https://youtu.be/6B-ArpuYtaU

[RickS (Rick)]

An excellent first light, Simon!

[Andy01 (Andy)]

Nice Simmo, got a link to a high res version we can see?

[Atmos (Colin)]

Detail is looking good Simon, the 3nm Astrodons are pretty darn good

[multiweb (Marc)]

That looks great Simon
I'm headed there myself with a Ha filter tonight, tomorrow night and hopefully also Tuesday night, well away from the moon in Orion.

[SimmoW (SIMON)]

Originally Posted by RickS

An excellent first light, Simon!

Thanks Rick, took awhile but yes very satisfying. I compared mine to yours (so to speak!) and was still surprised that yours was so very close to mine, a little less detail but bloody close.

Originally Posted by Andy01

Nice Simmo, got a link to a high res version we can see?

Ta Andy, try this link, sort of a preview of what you'll be seeing I hope. Cant wait to see what your QSI can do, I really covet that camera for its ability to get the wispy stuff, but am too far down the track on CMOS imaging.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xhY...ew?usp=sharing

Originally Posted by Atmos

Detail is looking good Simon, the 3nm Astrodons are pretty darn good

Thanks Colin, yes theyre definitely a keeper, though with this moon, the other filters aren't worth using I reckon

Originally Posted by multiweb

That looks great Simon
I'm headed there myself with a Ha filter tonight, tomorrow night and hopefully also Tuesday night, well away from the moon in Orion.

Haha yes Marc, it's a kind of refuge right now. Might do another panel of Ha tonight. At these focal lengths, I better get used to mosaics. And Pixinsight mosaics? Last time I tried it, I thought using and setting up Mygov was easier!!