[AstroFest] Table of Scorpius

[Camelopardalis]

Been trawling through some of my image data from AstroFest and I've found another scene which hasn't turned out too badly...

The Table of Scorpius...(from left) Zeta Scorpii, open cluster NGC 6231, dark and bright nebulae IC 4628, with open cluster NGC 6242 thrown in on the right for good measure :D

This was taken from AstroFest / Camp Duckadang using a WO Zenithstar 71mm riding the EQ6 (unguided) with my Canon 1100D, 15x 4 minute exposures at ISO1600, 20 darks, 10 bias. JPEG compression isn't kind to the detail so I've tried to balance the dimensions and quality within the file upload limit :help:

Many thanks to mental4astro and his encyclopaedic sky knowledge for suggesting this gem during a little photo session one night, as I never would have known it was even there :thumbsup:

[AstroJason]

Very nice Dunk. Really like that field and the colours you have there. Top stuff!

[cometcatcher]

Really nice shot Dunk. It's one of my favourite areas in Scorpius. It needs a wide lens to fit it all in. I think you have the framing perfect.

[SimmoW]

Lovely composition and colours here. Hate the IIS compressed image though, you gotta host the original somewhere decent! Astrobin or Flickr are infinitely better.

4 mins unguided! :clap::clap:

[RickS]

Very nice composition, Dunk!

[Retrograde]

Lovely field with a nice balance of stars and nebulosity. Nice job!

[Camelopardalis]

Thanks for all your kind comments folks! I had expert with the polar alignment :thumbsup: not sure I'm ever going to be able to replicate it :help:

I've been tinkering a bit with the stacking and if I'm brave enough might post an "update" later. I took more frames than this (about another 15 minutes) but they were below the cutoff I used in DSS. Is there a way to use the colour information from these without bloating the stars?

[Camelopardalis]

So this was an interesting experiment...

I've applied the same processing steps to both the original stack and a fresh stack of all my frames, and I'm not noticing any behavioural changes in the stars, just a bit of enhancement in the colours, notably in the nebulous areas as I was hoping...


stack as above, 15x 4 mins
all frames stacked, 21x 4 mins


I didn't quite manage to crop in precisely the same place - I haven't figured out how to do this yet - so that may skew the histograms slightly. But there's ever so slightly more background nebulosity in the all frames stack, with a little less blue overtone than the best 15. This was also cropped less than my original post, so it's going as close to the edges as I dare, to ensure the slight frame misalignment from stacking is chopped off.

Thoughts? Am I obsessing? :lol:

[multiweb]

Great field and colors. They're both excellent. :thumbsup:

[Camelopardalis]

Thanks Marc!

One thing I forgot to mention is that at 100% size the noise is a little less, using the main chunk of nebulosity as a frame of reference.

[andyc]

That's a cracker, Dunk! And very interesting about the extra frames - something I have too many of, given my setup. I've been meaning to find out what proportion of slightly fuzzy frames is too many in a stack before you significantly lose definition. If you find out, let me know, but you've inspired me to add a few!

[Camelopardalis]

Thanks Andy! I'm obsessing/experimenting with flats at the moment so I'll no doubt post an update before too long :D

[LightningNZ]

Smashing image Dunk! I really must have a crack at this region. I love your handling of the star colours. I kept flicking back and forth between the original and your repros. I think I'd go for something in between personally? Maybe process each way and then blend? The first is a little green and the latter appears to be lacking it.
-Cam

[Camelopardalis]

Thanks Cam! I'm currently tinkering with flats, so I'll no doubt be giving it another go very soon :D

[mental4astro]

I'm pleased I got to finally track down this shot of The Table, Dunk. And the pic you've presented is beautiful. It was a great time for me we spent with your scope snapping away at so many different areas of the sky. I'd like to see a few more of those shots too, :)

It is one of my favourite parts of the sky as there is so much happening. I have a couple of long term sketching projects, and this area is one of them. As the field is so large to capture in a single field of view, it will need to be an extended sketch. Will take quite some time to complete.

[Camelopardalis]

Thanks Alex, couldn't have been possible without you :thumbsup: Having seen some of your sketches, I'll be really keen to see what the artist sketches of this one :) So many objects in that area.

I'll whip up a medley of the galactic favourites for the next time I see you!

[Camelopardalis]

Just a little repro...might be a little overcooked, what do you think?

I wanted to bring out more of the golden star field..it's got almost a 3D look to it :D

[cometcatcher]

The stars look great, but the guts of IC4628 Prawn neb is now a bit pale.

[Camelopardalis]

Thanks Kevin - I know what you mean - but aren't the guts of prawns pale? :lol:

Hmmm...it's a tricky one. Maybe I need more subs :D

[cometcatcher]

Beats me, I'm a vegetarian. :P

You have nice prawn guts in the earlier images. What about a merge of good Prawn guts with good stars, something like what we do with the Orion nebula.

[Camelopardalis]

Sounds like a cunning plan :thumbsup:

Watch this space :D

[raymo]

Lovely Dunk.
raymo

[Camelopardalis]

Thanks raymo!

Update...Prawn is served :D

[raymo]

Even lovelier,
raymo

[cometcatcher]

Now we're cookin' with gas, I mean prawn. ;) That's the way Dunk. :thumbsup:

[Camelopardalis]

Woohoo! :D

[Rex]

Wow Dunk these are great. Top image mate, of a really nice area.

[Camelopardalis]

Thanks Rex! I'm really happy with it :D