M20 - Trifid Nebula IISAC - 12th April

[Screwdriverone]

Hi All,

Well, I stuck to the objects I am familiar with, in order to gauge the difference in my camera for a truly dark sky at IISAC.

This is 40 mins of the Trifid, taken on Friday night while dodging variable seeing due to the hazy clouds that kept annoying all of us. Darks, lights and bias were used, stacked in DSS, processed mainly in Nebulosity and PS CS3.

Uncompressed version here (https://www.dropbox.com/s/l7n5sd9u2rdc82u/trifid%20PS.png)

Cheers

Chris

[Larryp]

That's a nice result, Chris! Have you an image taken from your normal spot for a side by side comparison? Got to get me an Atik:thumbsup:

[gregbradley]

A great result and the dark skies make all the difference don't they?

The main problem with dark skies is the fact you have to travel to get to them and the weather can deny you their beauty!

Greg.

[Screwdriverone]

Hi Laurie,

No, not yet with the Atik. I havent had access to Sagittarius since the camera was purchased late last year. I should be able to soon, take some from home for a comparo with the same exposures etc.

Cheers

Chris

[rustigsmed]

Awesome shot! Love the dark gas in front of the blue!

[Larryp]

:thumbsup:

[Deeno]

Gee, that looks good.
Very interested in your setup...

[pluto]

Nice :D

[DJT]

Nice one Chris. Looks like a nice set up on the go.

[Screwdriverone]

I was surprised that came out. Thanks Russell



Its a corker this one, Deeno, after I got the alignment sorted on Friday evening I got some nice subs. :)



Thanks Hugh, I am going to look into the ED80 subs soon for some blended Ha action......yummo



Thanks David, its a great bank for your buck rig, seems like I am getting the hang of it now... ;)

Cheers

Chris

[Rod771]

Thats nice Chris!

You beat me to it :) , I'm still working on my Trifid data.

Well done mate :thumbsup:

[Screwdriverone]

Thanks Greg, yes, the niggles with the brain doing the drift alignment in a foreign spot meant Thursday's fantastic sky was somewhat wasted. But I did get something and the view looking up was worth it while the steam came out of the ears. :)

Cheers

Chris

[Screwdriverone]

Thanks Rod, I look forward to yours.

Cheers mate,

Chris

[RB]

Beautiful detail and nice colours mate, love the image scale too.
The uncompressed version looks even better.

Well done !!

[Screwdriverone]

Aww shucks Andrew, you are making me blush....:thanx:

Cheers

Chris

[E_ri_k]

Awesome! One of my favourite objects. Really nice colours.
Erik

[Screwdriverone]

Thanks Erik,

I am processing my ED80 version of this one now, but only half the subs and 2/5ths of the aperture of the BD200N, not as pretty, but we will see.....

Cheers

Chris

[multiweb]

Gotta be happy with that Chris. Very nicely done. :thumbsup:

[David Fitz-Henr]

Yes, nice shot Chris! So this was taken with your DSLR then?

[strongmanmike]

No all of us have too :whistle: :P Not a true dark site :sadeyes: but not bad :P

A pretty good result Chris with nice colours...is it just a tad out of focus do you think, or is that the seeing..? :confuse3:

Mike

[Screwdriverone]

Thanks Marc, yes its quite a good result for the night. Some of the other night's subs arent as nice as the ones in this stack, which is disappointing.



No David, the Atik 314L+ did this through the 8" reflector. Thanks! :)



Hi Mike, Yes, I see what you mean, the Atik tends to bloat the stars when the subs are stacked, or more to the point, DSS does. There is a little bit of coma also, but I deliberately didn't oversharpen or tighten the stars too much as I preferred the smoother feel to it. Also, there was a lot of subs ruined due to cirrus type clouds on Friday night, which were VERY hard to see and the lack of streetlight glow meant the subs came out dark instead of washed out like I get from home. I think some of them had some clouds pass by which overall, didnt affect the brightness, but could have softened the stars somewhat.

I'm getting there, so I am happy with the progress so far. Currently trying to also process the ED80 version of this, taken on Saturday night, but the star colours seem to be undersampled? as they come out greeny splotchy and not true white, blue, or red etc....I think that's why, or maybe the subs are too short at 5mins for the ED80 to fully saturate the CCD? Perhaps 10min subs would have helped this.....I dunno?

Thanks for the comments :D

Cheers

Chris

[Screwdriverone]

Here is the DSS stack of 20mins (4 x 5 mins) straight out of the program, on the Trifid using the ED80, you will see what I mean about the stars. This set was from Saturday night and I didnt have much scope time as Anthony was piggybacking the 550D and driving the scope while I waffled with Hugh and Steve and Rod and drank....Hee hee

Some strange things there, maybe its just lack of practice with the ED80, I am not sure.

Just a JPG for now. See what you think? I think the focus may have been a tad off too, as I dont have a bahtinov for the ED80.


Chris

[Ross G]

Great looking capture Chris.

Nice colours.


Ross.

[Screwdriverone]

cheers Ross,

I am glad you liked it.

Chris :)

[csmi98]

Very nice picture Chris. I will have to google Trifid to learn about it. Just new to all this...

[Screwdriverone]

Thanks Craig, :)

Cheers

Chris