NGC3532 in HDR with 100ED

[avandonk]

I have not done many clusters but gave this one a good go. Nine doublings of exposure gives a dynamic range of potentially 20+ bits.

Large Image 1.5MB
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~fmlee/NGC3532_2.jpg

Details
Canon 5DH. 100ED with AP FR/FF f/6.7, Hutech LPR filter.
250ISO 5x(7s, 15s, 30s), 500 ISO 5x( 30s, 1m, 2m, 4m), 1000ISO 5x(4m, 8m) with fridge at 4C. Converted from RAW to TIFF and corrected for flats with images plus. Aligned with Registar and generated an LDR from this data with EasyHDR.

I have put up a better version.

Bert

[tornado33]

Excellent work Bert, youve recorded the very faint red nebula that runs through the are a and the small, I think its called GN 11.09.9.02 near bottom, middle.
Scott

[Garyh]

Beautifully tack sharp Bert!
yeap faint wispy neb sets it off nicely!
cheers

[EzyStyles (Eric)]

heaps and heaps of stars bert. very nicely done flat image also.

[Prickly]

Bert - awesome! Love the nebulosity traversing the cluster.

Great shot.

David

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Wow! Bert!

Nice round stars right out to the corners
and LOTS of faint Nebula!!!!!!!!

Only a few faint small blue stars in the whole area!

[avandonk]

Thanks all. Your comment noted Ken about the lack of blue stars. Here is a better version. I still have to work out how to get the star colours 'correct'. This method is still a work in progress. I am finding that all adjustments are better made in the HDR image and only finally slightly tweak the LDR image in PhotoShop. It is obvious to me now that when the HDR image is converted to the LDR image a lot of information is lost and no adjustment can get it back. It is worse than converting a 16 bit image to a jpg!

Large image 1.8MB
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~fmlee/NGC3532_2.jpg

I have added an image from the Rho Oph region to show what I can squeeze out now. It is not quite right I need more data.
Bert

[glenc (Glen)]

Thanks Bert, I like the nebulae in both images.

[avandonk]

I collected 14x4min at an ISO of 1600 with the 150mm achro and Astronomik HA filter. The red channel of the resulting HA image was added to the red channel of the colour image. The FOV of the 100ED and 150mm F4.5 are very similar. In fact the 150mm FOV is a bit wider than that of the 100ED.

Large Image 1.8MB
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~fmlee/NGC3532_2.jpg

This has been the aim all along to use a relatively cheap fast achro to collect dim narrow band data and use the 100ED APO to collect colour image data and then blend the two.

I think it works quite well.

Bert

[glenc (Glen)]

The bright nebula NGC 3503 shows up well at the top right with RCW 54 between it and NGC 3532. NGC 3572 is the nebula at lower right. The nebula below the bright star is GN 11.09.9.02.

[leon]

Bert this is pretty special stuff, nice work, however when you mention doubling of exposures, what do you mean, is it using the same exposures and processing, say six copies of the same exposures instead of the normal ones captured.

leon