Running Chicken in Narrowband IC2944

[alistairsam]

hi,

Feeble attempt at the Running chicken from my LP backyard.
Managed to get 4 hours in one night. Good thing about this target is that it transits after 5am and rises after 9pm, so you can get a full nights worth without a flip.
Need to try this again from dark skies and the seeing was horrible that night.
Do Dark skies make any difference with narrowband?

Colours might be a bit overdone but its a start. still learning.

I thought I could do with binning S2 and O3, but the stars didn't turn out too well, so will change to 1x1 for all filters.

LRGB mapped as Ha:SII:Ha:OIII

STF8300M mono, 10inchF4 Serrurier Truss, NEQ6Pro
Guiding - Lodestar, OAG, phd,
Processed in Startools

7x10m Ha 7nm 1x1
8x10m SII 8nm 2x2
7x10m OIII 8.5nm 2x2

Comments welcome.

Full res here
http://www.astrobin.com/74205/

Cheers
Alistair

[pluto]

That's a really nice image!

Dark skies definitely make a difference even with NB filters but on bright targets I find I can get reasonable results with LOTS of data :D

Unlike some I don't mind red stars in SII/Ha/OIII images but I would personally try and shrink the stars in the red/SII channel with Startools a little bit so that they balance a bit better with the other channels.

[RickS]

Nice work, Alastair. Looks good! I don't mind the magenta stars either though my preference is to tone them down in my own images or replace them with RGB stars.

Cheers,
Rick.

[alistairsam]

Thanks Hugh,

I did try that in startools and it has made a difference but issue is that the module to shrink stars isn't enabled when tracking is on and once you turn tracking off, you can't reverse stretching.

So on s2,O3, you need to stretch, turn tracking off, mask, reduce and then you can't reverse the stretching.
so what I did was generated a mask without any stretching,turned tracking off, reduced, saved and then combined. so not as effective as reducing stars after stretching but it still made a difference.
another issue i have is with focus. should be fixed after I finish the sharpsky autofocus and I will bin S2,O3 1x1.

Cheers
Alistair

[pluto]

Why do you need to reverse the stretch at the end?
What are you using to combine the channels into an RGB image?

I'm curious as I've never wanted a linear image out of Startools...?
I feel like I'm missing something important! ;)

My workflow for NB is DSS -> Startools -> PS.

[alistairsam]

I'm using Maxim to colour combine.
My understanding is that you start with a linear image in startools to extract the amount of data you need.
since we're trying to reduce stars in Just two of the 3 stacked subs and then combine to LRGB, you'd want to combine linear images.
Else Ha would be linear, S2 and O3 non-linear or stretched. not sure how you'd combine after that. I'm intrigued as well.

Cheers
Alistair

[pluto]

I normally process and do any fix-ups in Startools for each image separately and then export them. I make sure that each image is developed so that as much information as possible is brought out. So even though an object may be much brighter in Ha than say OIII I make sure both images are of a similar 'brightness'.
Then I bring the 3 images into Photoshop and then copy the OIII image into the B channel of my Ha image and copy the SII image into the R channel of the Ha image.
Then per channel curves, levels, etc.

I'm still very much learning but this fits in with my day to day experience of working with images (I work as a VFX artist). Sometimes I use Nuke to combine my SII/Ha/OIII into RGB as it's much more efficient at colour correction and dealing with channels, of course I still use PS to finish it off though.

Also as I have got into LRGB imaging I have been using Startools to combine the 4 channels but, unlike with NB imaging, I haven't found the need to shrink the star sizes in any one channel of an LRGB image.

I haven't used Maxim yet but I'd like to give it a go, I hear only good things about it.

[nebulosity.]

Cool image Alistair :thumbsup:

Why are the diffraction spikes not at 90˚ to each other :question: have you got a three vane spider?

Cheers
Jo

[Tony_]

Nice image Alistair.
I like to see these LP backyard images - because it's similar to the crappy conditions I deal with and it's good to see what others are achieving. I am considering taking up cloud photography because there will be a lot more imaging time available.:lol:
Some nights my backyard almost has enough light to read a book.:(
Most of my images only rank a 3/10 but I still get a lot of satisfaction out of it and to me it's all relative.

Regards,
Tony.

[alistairsam]

Hi Jo,

That was me not fixing the guitar machine heads at 90degrees or equidistant along the UTA. Mine is a string spider similar to Rolf's with guitar strings.
I'm rebuilding the UTA so will get it proper this time.





yep, that's why I try and make use of every clear night I can get and got the NB filters.
My FWHM has been bugging me so will need to see how it'll fair from darker skies under better conditions and what else I can do to improve it.

Cheers
Alistair

[scagman]

Hi Alistair,

Great looking image. Like the colors too.

Cheers

[SkyViking]

That's looking awesome, a very pleasing image and with nice colour tones. You've also brought out the dark globules nicely, great work :)
What's the image scale, and what was your FWHM here? Still more than 4 as discussed in the other thread?

[alistairsam]

Thanks John, Rolf,

I think my scale is 1.11. 10inch F4, kaf8300.
Yep fwhm was 4.8 or something. Cant help but wonder what results can be obtained with 2.5 or so.
I'll try measuring it while focusing or look at what I can improve with guiding and mount performance.
I am getting small stars and the image barely shifts over 4 hours other than dithering so might just be seeing.
Have to try from somewhere else.

Cheers
Alistair

[Meru]

Stunning Image Alistair, top stuff!

[Shiraz]

nothing even slightly feeble about that - great image. regards Ray

[Ross G]

Great looking photo Alistair.

Amazing detail.

Ross.