NGC2070 -The Tarantula Nebula

[cjr (Cody)]

Hi all,


First time poster here, I've been imaging for about a year now. Slowly making progress i feel looking back to earlier this year. I've always been hesitant to show anyone my images as I know they're not really the best, but they are mine and I'd love to keep improving.

So i thought hey I'd jump in the deep end and start putting them online as it's probably the best way forward to get some constructive feedback for improvement in terms of capture, processing etc. So here i am no more hiding in the dark! I'm reading and learning so much but I'm sure someone will come up with an area of improvement I'd never even think of.

A few things i already know is that i need to work on my coma corrector spacing as corner stars aren't the best. I needed dark frames on this one & i made a dogs breakfast out of the star reduction (please don't zoom in haha ) Processing probably a complete mess too but here we are

Attached is an image of the Tarantula nebula i captured last night.

I managed to get just under 5 hours of data on it.

Equipment

Equipment list is as follows
Skywatcher EQ6R-Pro
Skywatcher 130P

Nikon D5600 (I've removed the stock IR Filter)
ZWO IR Cut Filter
Baader Coma Corrector
Guiding I'm using a Skywatcher 9x50 finder scope that i made up a sensor housing for with an IMX291 sensor

Acquisition

Capture details were as follows (Using BackyardNikon)

28 x Light Frames 600 seconds @ 200 ISO


I am hoping to get more data on the subject so i used an existing BIAS set and flat set that i had. I did have to do some gradient removal as the flat set didn't match up perfectly due to what I'm assuming is camera rotation since i took it.

Stacking

I have used DSS to stack the images using 2x Drizzle (I have dithered in PHD2)

Processing

Post stacking i put the image into gimp, cropped & scaled it. Stretched the levels > white balanced the levels > did a star reduction by fuzzy selecting the stars and using the value propagate function > performed some curve adjustments > removed gradients > added a little bit of saturation > final white balance tweaks.

Any comments/feedback would be much appreciated. Would love to improve where i can.

Cheers,

Cody

[Nikolas (Nik)]

There is so much more data you can extract from this with the amount of data you acquired. you image is great in sharpness but there is a magenta cast. The nebula itself has regions of H-alpha and O3 so there is more green in there that is not coming through. Great first image for this forum well done!

[cjr (Cody)]

Thanks for the great reply Nik, that helps a lot.

I will have a look at working on the magenta hue and trying to bring out a bit more data without over-saturating the image (i always worry about going over but I'm glad you think i can get more out of it due to the total integration time).

I must say this was surprisingly tricky to process i wasn't sure what was nebulosity or as you said just a hue in the background and the star field is so dense. It's a really great target though I'm looking forward to getting many more hours in on it.

[xelasnave]

Great image but I suspect there is more in it...do yourself a favour and get StarTools.. it does not take long to learn it, and it is good for the money....??? $60 I think but it's worth 5 times the price in my opinion..a few here use it and will say the same...a lot go for Pixinsite but it is pricey and takes a long while to learn...years I believe...but you are really doing well...and welcome ..I hope you can become a regular poster.
Alex

[Startrek (Martin)]

That’s a great first effort
Well done !!
I’ll second Alex’s comment about Startools. I’ve been using it for nearly 4 years , very easy to use , very powerful , great for noisy and clean data and no need to worry about histograms levels and curves , black points all that stuff. Check their main site on ( Startools) Silicon Fields

[cjr (Cody)]

Thanks for the replies guys, appreciate the help.


I'll definitely check out StarTools and some tutorials and try a reprocess.


I have seen Pixinsight too it looks great but a fair mountain to climb, although most certainly worth it. StarTools seems like a good start.