M17. Swan Nebula

[xelasnave]

Mangaged more data in O11 ans S11 to add to my HA.

Maybe three hours all up(over three nights because of cloud and problems with balance and low batteries) but the data was not flash due to moisture in the air, having the scope on too small a mount.

Triplet 115 mm, zwo mono, heq5 unguided, Deep Sky Stacker, Startools, Photoshop and Gimp.time spent fixing the egg stars that I did not notice in my Stacking...great experience. The colour was dictated by what looked ok rather than try and meet any preconception.
Still learning the ropes.
I was going to use my auto guide because I purchased a new usb cable but because of cloud threat I did not..lucky because it is clear that the heq 5 mount does not like the 115mm it is just too much for it...I had to adjust the counter weights by about an inch after an hour and a half...it would have sent me nuts if it was auto guide... some eggs got through but it was maddening to go inside all running well and come out to find trails and having to rebalance and no way auto guide could have managed I expect...still got 90 seconds unguided when it was balanced ok.
alex
Still learning mapping LRGB in Startools but most effort went on getting something from the poor data.
Alex

[PKay (Peter)]

9 out of 10 for effort Alex.

I can never see the swan, I wonder who came up with that name?

You can see the Omega symbol (horse shoe) in your image easily.

Peter

[xelasnave]

Thanks Peter for your encouragement sorry to grizzle but I have had a pile of things that deserve a grizzle.
I see the swan in my photo swiming on a little pond with a frog sitting on the bank.
Alex

[astroron (Ron)]

Originally Posted by PKay

9 out of 10 for effort Alex.

I can never see the swan, I wonder who came up with that name?

You can see the Omega symbol (horse shoe) in your image easily.

Peter

Maybe you have never observed it through a telescope eyepiece

Your post is the normal response for an image of an object that is named for it's visual appearance,not it's photographic one,which normally don't look anything like their visual description.

[Startrek (Martin)]

Alex
That’s a really nice M17 with so much detail in there
Well done !
I imaged M17 too with my 6” newt on Tuesday night in Sydney however conditions were really poor
So much dew around and heaps of low lying moisture in the air , guiding was really struggling with guide star SNR jumping all over the place.Total rms started out at 1.50 and ended up 1.80 to 2.00 arc sec error running 60 sec subs later in the night. Only managed an hour of data , processed image today but not worth posting.
I’m down at my weekender ( Bortle 3 skies ) now for 2 to 3 weeks so I’ll capture M17 again with my 8” f5 newt when the moon buggers off later next week
Martin

[jahnpahwa (JP)]

Nice one, Alex!!


Agree with PK,i see no swan, but i do see an oyster blade steak.

[Fernando]

Alex, nice image!!!

[xelasnave]

Thanks for the kind encouragement.
But looking at my earlier posting "Silly Swan" it seems I have lost a great deal...so I am trying to muster the determination to do a total reprocess and see if I can do better.
One wonders sometimes why.
I think I have rushed things..I was without power so when I recharged the batteries I may have been too hasty.
Alex

[xelasnave]

Update.
I made the mistake of not blowing up each sub and looking really critically at it...a standard thing but one of those things that is easy to overlook...they looked ok but some, most had trails of a millimetre sometimes more...how I ended up with rounded stars after processing is unbelievable...and although the stars got fixed the other stuff must have had detail badly corrupted....anyways that what I have been doing since my last post and maybe 75% went in the bin.
Lesson..don't expect decent results when the mount is not up to carrying the scope...and most important...check your images as they come in regularly to see if focus and tracking are holding up and most of all look at every image blown up and make sure it is as close to perfect as possible...this batch I still let a few by that really were not acceptable but in the case of my S11 I near ran out of images..I just need heaps more data let me five hours more..now all I have is about an hour and a half ...anyways I will process what I have and see if I can get better even though most of my subs have been dropped in the bin.
So I continue to learn by mistake ..the biggest mistake was not remembering what I have learnt and waste all this time being reminded.
This is so much like archery ..you have a check list and failure to address one single point results in failure.
Hope others may benefit from this.

edit addition.
I reprocessed with only 15 at 90 second for S11 AND 20 for O11 BUT everything with not trails or poor frames..well somewhat poor but the best and the result seems better even though very limited data..the reprocess is in post number one.
Alex