Starting on Orion.

[xelasnave]

It comes up around 2.30 am..I am not sure anymore I am so sleep deprived

I am trying to get the narrow band approach now..its over many many nights...
anyways gear was playing up first night so I thought short exposures to head off blow out...individual frames showed the trap but so far its getting lost in processing.
So ironically having gone after the central detail with short exposures (went up to 30 seconds on second night) so far I cant bring it out..no problems I can fix it in time...but what surprised me was the detail and outer dust regions...so this is luminance which I figure one uses like the foundation..I got some RBG but it was a little outta focus ..but in truth I have yet to look at it...anyways here is what I have so far.
alex

[glend (Glen)]

Alex, what camera? What settings? I find with my ASI1600MM-C that the Ha can blow out pretty easily unless you keep the subs shorter than a normal narrowband target object where say 300s is a good length. I drop down to below 60s on the Core, and play with the gain setting. The 1600 max well depth is at Gain 76, you may have to go lower. M42 is just so bright in Ha that you need to layer mask using a combo of short Trapezium subs with longer cloud subs. As i said elsewhere M42 is one of the hardest objects to image well.

[xelasnave]

Hi Glen
I am not thinking clearly so please forgive my lack of detail.
I, thru the f5 8inch, used the zwo 1600 cooled to -15.
Luminance so far as I must reject the colour rbg as they are not acceptable.
A group of about 30 @ 15 seconds and a group of about 100 at 30 seconds.
Gain was 50 for the 15 seconds and 100 for the 30 seconds.
I did some ha at 30 seconds which was surprising.
All I can seem to do is adapt to what the equipment allows...I have no mount control via ascom at the moment and no guiding so short exposures until I sort the mount.
I am using my old eq 6 mount..at one stage it connected but I changed a port from 3 to 4 why I dont know...I have to sort that...
But as I only have an hour here I am trying to capture what I can and build maybe over months even years☺ and fabricate the best image I can do from all I have captured.
I stuffed up my flats and dark flats and have to make a light box...the focuser is becoming a real problem I am going to have to put in a shim or tap in more screws? add more bearings...but it may come round.
Hopefully over the next couple of darks times up North will get me good data but at the moment I am storing it all☺
My bigesr problem is memory if I am not doing it every day I forget little things you should do...like I forgot to turn on the mirror cooling fan...could not work outcwas it was so clear and the seeking was terrible☺
The cube lets me leave it all set up but still so much to do there ..permanent power points a light ..place to put the lappy when I sit there with it...as I currently have to do because of various problems in the focus department...the to do list is getting longer☺
Alex

[raymo]

WOW!!! Work of art.
raymo

[Lognic04 (Logan)]

Amazing Alex!!!! Your processing is quite awesome!!
I can't wait to image something good - my mount is in the process of being pulled apart but should be done soon!

[xelasnave]

Thanks Raymo thanks Logan.
Hey Logan hope your mount gets fixed soon.
I just rebuilt an old mount it is amazining how little things like cleaning and just putting together correctly helps.
I dont seem to be able to get to long exposures but these short captures have various benefits.
Alex

[xelasnave]

Got some more date but I lost track of it something terrible..marking blue files as red not marking captures...short exposures to try and get the core...Colours had a mind of their our so I tried adjust colour based on detail..if the particular colour gave detail that is how it was selected ...so I have read that colour is a personal choice so I claim that.
alex

[xelasnave]

I know rings around the stars..they crept in on blue set but I did not realise such I that I thought I will just leave them there for effect
alex

[xelasnave]

That was not the last one this is.
alex

[xelasnave]

Final play on the phone.☺
Alex

[raymo]

MAN, you should put them all in the main forum. Let's see what they think of them.
raymo

[xelasnave]

still Learning but thanks.
This is another that I fixed the core.
alex

[raymo]

I've run out of superlatives.
raymo

[mynameiscd (Andy)]

Really good Alex,
Looks like you are getting the narrow band together.
You have nailed the trapezium!
I've spent hours on the core and still cant get the balance right but you have got good levels all over.
Cheers
Andy

[xelasnave]

Thank you Raymo and thank you Andy.
To "fix" the trap I go over the area with the burn tool in photo shop and when it is darker use the dodge tool set to small diameter to highlight the stars..not proper but only you and me know☺
Alex

[ChrisV (Chris)]

Nice Alex. I'll probably follow you down the narrow band path one day.

[sil (Steve)]

nice work though i dont quite understand it. Its good to see the structure and stars that are normally hidden.