M17 test

[ReaPerMan]

I have just upgraded my secondary Mirror from 88mm to 104mm. This is now hanging from a fancy Carbon Double Spider! I got a great opportunity to try the system out last night with some of the best conditions that we have had for quite some time. FHWM after focusing with FocusMax was reported as 2.44! Anyway here is a test shot

M17 or NGC 6618
LRGB 20,20,20
Atik 11000M,12" GSO Newtonian F3.6
Large version http://www.pbase.com/paulstorey/image/155960338

This is always a tricky target as there is a wide range of bright and dark features as well as it sits in the middle of a dense star field so lots and lots of stars to contend with. Still it's nice to have a bit of a challenge and it was a good test of the system. Still some fine collimation to do and a little bit of tilt to fix! The other interesting aspect is that the double spider is supposed to act like a focusing tool. In the picture and certainly in the bigger picture there is a 'dash' like appearance to the star spikes. It is most noticeable in the Ha images. This may be due to being slightly out of focus but FocusMax says its OK? I'll have to play with this one. As a test image the guiding wasn't perfect so sorry if a few stars are eggy here and there.

All the best

Paul :thumbsup:

[multiweb]

Great field. Spot on colors. Bit heavy on the deconv though. :thumbsup:
PS: love that spider. DIY or commercial?

[ReaPerMan]

I'm still learning how to use PixInsight so I did hit the decov harder than I would have liked I didn't worry about it too much at the time as I was going to blur it all out to add the Ha. The spider is a Teleskop Express product. The ripple effect in the star spikes might be due to the carbon fibre. I had a sudden insight when I looked at my picture and realized that the reflections of the carbon fibre pattern were similar to what I was seeing in the picture of the spider. If that's the case then maybe all I need to do is blacken them?

All the best

Paul

[multiweb]

Nice. Yeah a little black matte paint would do if you're worried about reflections or may just sand the edges a bit if it's a gloss finish.

[LightningNZ]

Funky spider - pretty nice result too, though I think with the decon it comes out a little "flat" looking.

[ReaPerMan]

Thanks for that. I'm still trying to get to grips with PixInsight and Apart from selecting deringing and setting the number of Iterations (8) I didn't adjust any of the other settings. I'll have to go back in and do the tutorial to try and tweak it a bit. I'm sure there are a million things that I could do to improve the picture. There are however quite a few things I like about it and as a test of the overall system it wasn't too bad. I like the star colours and for only 4 X 300 secs in each colour it didn't come out too bad. The attached pic is the 8 X 600 secs Ha that I have to add to it.

all the best

Paul :thumbsup:

[ReaPerMan]

Added some Ha to the pic. Not sure if it's better or not. might just have to redo the original LRGB with less decon. :question:

[LewisM]

Tis a good light bucket that one. The detail is super.