M17 and M20

[Benjamin (Ben)]

Recent captures with the ED100 and modded 40D. Was planning on using the 8" Newt but it was a little gusty when setting up so opted for something that gave roughly the same image scale and wasn't a wind sock.

M17 9x5 minute subs, M20 20x5 minute subs, both with a CLS filter, processed in Nebulosity (calibration and stacking) and StarTools. Both images cropped.

Colour still an issue with the CLS filter but hopefully it's not too bad. Comments and criticisms more than welcome as always :-)

[John W (John Wilkinson)]

Well done Ben, colours look good to me. Cheers, John W.

[raymo]

You're getting there Benjamin. You needed to take some much shorter
subs so you could prevent the burning out of the bright centre of M17
when processing the image; there is a lot of detail in there to bring out.
raymo

[Benjamin (Ben)]

Thanks Raymo for the input. I really need to build more of a knowledge of what exposure lengths suit certain objects. M42's core I'm aware of but other objects are mysteries to me in this regard. I guess experience is the key!?

[Benjamin (Ben)]

Couldn't resist a reprocess. More detail in the core of M17 now. Less nebuloisty perhaps but I guess the next step is combining them. Not sure how to do that just yet so might just leave it as this for a while :-)

[Retrograde (Pete)]

The repro looks good.

You've clearly got good data there. As your processing skills improve you'll be able to make better images out of them. I'm now finding that I'm able to re-process images I captured 2 or 3 years ago and turn them into significantly better final images.

All in all well done

[Benjamin (Ben)]

I thought I was going to leave this for a while but with a bit of masking I was able to get this, which I'm much happier with. The colour is still a bit odd but really happy I got a balance with surrounding nebulosity, noise, and detail in the core. What I'm finding really cool is that the more I process M17 the more I learn about its structure and detail. Initially it just seems rather chaotic but then you realize there are these tiny features which are really there! Further thoughts on this always welcome :-)

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

The last repo looks really good Ben.

[Benjamin (Ben)]

Where I've ended up with these. Some star colour adjustment (via use of masks) and less saturated. I think these are better than previous versions but welcome opinions on that :-)