Hi all,
Imaged this one two weeks ago when it was semi clear and the moon was nearly full so only got about 50 mins worth of data before it washed everthing out.
Still got coma but slowly fine tunning the collimation and getting everything square.
Ive just bought a 35mm extention tube so i dont have to rack the focus right out with the coma corrector in.
Still learning startools but im quite happy with the result. Next time i might frame it 90 degrees so im not cropping it as much. Also is it better to mask out some of the stars so it stands out or leave it how it came out??
70x45sec lights
Darks, flats, and bias applied.
ISO 1600
Moded canon 450d
Skywatcher 150mm f5
Unguided
Andy
That’s a great M8 Lagoon for your 1st attempt , we’ll done !
In regard to stars , it’s up to you but all I do in Startools is use Magic after final noise reduction with a fat stars mask and tighten to 1 or 2 pixels or to taste , tones the larger ones down a bit
What colour mode did you use Scientific or Artistic aware ?
I’ve been finding lately I’m getting good colour balance using Scientific especially with galaxies and clusters
Cheers
Thanks Martin,
Ill give the star reduce thing a go .
I used artististic aware and then backed the red off a bit. Because of the camera mod and my inexperience, I find the red hard to balance without being over saturated.
Can't wait to get back outside but this winter it's been pretty cloudy or I'm just too tired or slack to get out there.
Cheers
Andy
Re : Stars. It’s really a subjective thing. I like to reduce mine and the filter I use does a lot of that for me keeping them nice and tight and not letting a lot through. The way I like to produce my images really focuses on the gases in the neb. I process in a Photoshop so I can’t give you any advice on how to achieve this with startools.
Others prefer a starry field. This gives the image a setting and context within its star field. It really is a preference thing in the same way that some like a Hubble pallet vs True colour.
Find the way you like that appeals to you and refine it. Again, great first effort Andy. I look forward to seeing more.
Agree, excellent Andy. Especially given there's less than an hour. Get some more! And don't talk about coma, makes me think I must finish getting my newt sorted
