Spider season

[rustigsmed]

After having a go at Alpal's mono data I decided there isn't enough Tarantula nebs out there, so had a repro of my Tarantula. I think it is probably my best effort to date in terms of capture and process :D so quite chuffed really.

Plus its kind of Christmassy in colour :thumbsup: (perhaps slightly over done for 1hr of data).

https://www.flickr.com/photos/80336656@N07/16049637565/in/photostream/lightbox/


cheers

Rusty

ps the downsized photo seems to be doing some crazy swirly ... action go to flickr..

[alpal]

Hi Rusty,
I had a look at the largest version.
Looks good except the bright areas are all blown out.
Is that from your stretching or did you exceed the well depth?

cheers
Allan

[rustigsmed]

Hi Al,
Yep well depths exceeded, I only managed 1 hour before clouds concluded proceedings which would have included some shorter subs.
cheers

[alpal]

Good effort for only 1 hour.
OK - what I do is inspect every frame as soon as it's downloaded while I'm waiting
for the next frame.
I check FWHM to make sure I'm still focused & that well depths are not exceeded.
I also watch the guide graph in PHD.
If a wind gust hits & the graph goes off the scale I re-start the sub frame without downloading it.


cheers
Allan

[rustigsmed]

yep thanks Al, my work flow was to capture as much faint stuff as possible and blend into a composite with shorter length subs for the cores. which I still may do Melbourne weather permitting!

I'm still finding my feet with exposure length with my current system particularly struggling with light pollution etc. I have been taking subs way too long and fogging out the background too much (something I hadn't noticed on the subs at the time). this night was much closer to the mark for my sky conditions. I will be getting a light pollution filter in the next few weeks (sold out) and i'll have to start experimenting again on sub length.

cheers for the tips :thumbsup:

[alpal]

OK - that's a good method too:
take shorter subs & blend them in later.
I found with a DSLR that using the native ISO which was 800 for my EOS 1000d
& taking lots of short subs gave me the best results.
I could then stack more to lower the noise.

Scott Rosen takes hundreds of sub frames.

http://www.astronomersdoitinthedark.com/


cheers
Allan

[Slawomir]

Nice photo Russell, I like the colours and also the stars are nice and round, and so plenty of them! :thumbsup:

I have made quite a few attempts at this fascinating nebula, pretty much since I discovered astrophotography about two years ago and I never get bored of having another go at the Tarantula :)

[rustigsmed]

they are rather amazing shots Al :eyepop:



Thanks Slawomir :thumbsup:
I really like your NB renditions, you have managed to show so much of the faint stuff. I have to agree, I'll be coming back to the Tarantula - too hard not too!

[John K]

Nice work there Russell, good to see another 12" Newtonian version of this amazing object.

Although it's bright, not an easy object to image especially from light polluted skies and finding the sweet spot for your DSLR based on conditions and temperatures can be tricky.

Merry Xmas,

John K.