NGC6334 Cat's Paw

[DavidTrap]

My latest offering,

First real image with my TOA-130 - taken over two nights at Leyburn last new moon. I took Ray's advice and pushed this to 10min subs - have lost some of the star colour as a consequence, but there was definitely more data to work with. Processed after attending Rick's PixInsight Tutorial - unfortunately, much of what made sense during the tutorial no longer makes sense... (my fault for not putting it into practice sooner, not Rick's) I did take his advice on rejecting dodgy subframes and threw out a lot of data. The Green & Blue channels were very noisy, so I may add some more data this new moon.

Had a lot of computer issues last month, or was it the port / rum? :question: Have since rebuilt the telescope control PC with an SSD and all seems to be working well in the backyard so far. Hopefully I'll get a chance to do some more testing the weekend, before heading up to Leyburn next weekend. Fingers crossed this weather holds!!!!!

All up, L:R:G:B = 140:70:90:60mins. Threw out another 210mins data.

Comments and criticisms welcome as always.

Link to Astrobin (http://astrob.in/full/199787/0/)

DT

[Atmos]

That's looking really nice, lots of detail, flat from edge to edge :-)

[DavidTrap]

Thanks Colin,

CCD inspector reports ~7% field curvature and almost no tilt - I'm ecstatic.

DT

[Slawomir]

Hi David,

Really nice image :thumbsup:

I am sure as you experiment with PI and data processing and refer to the materials that Rick generously gave us, more and more of this esoteric knowledge will "make sense" again :)

I started working on the same nebula and aiming to create its narrowband interpretation, but only got 30% of data at this stage. Hopefully the skies will remain cooperative for the next week or so.

Looking forward to seeing a new version with added G&B data, that should add a wider range of colouration to the image.

[topheart]

Purrrfectly lovely!

Good one!

Tim

[DavidTrap]

Thanks Tim and Slawomir,

I will devote an evening to some more green & blue subs next week. Nonetheless, I think it's a fairly red object, so the yield might be low...

DT

[strongmanmike]

There is a very small amount of colour variation but largely that's correct, nice image David :thumbsup:

Mike

[multiweb]

That looks pretty neat, David. Well done. Gotta be very happy with that. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[DavidTrap]

Thanks Mike & Marc,

The SNR on the R channel was about 4 times the SNR on G&B - not a lot of signal at all.

I've been looking at a pro-am collaboration image from the ESO - there's actually a bit of blue in the middle of the 3 pads of the paw. Link (https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw1228a/) I did see some vague colour during processing, but thought it was noise and tried to minimise it. Might have to have another go with some more G&B subs...

DT

[Slawomir]

Hi David,

I did test subs in narrowband and the signal is surprisingly strong in SII, which is deep red. Ha is obviously strong too (red again), but not that much in O3 (green)- just around the central section of the nebula. So it might be a bit of a challenge to show other colours than red in an RGB image - but if the colour is not really there then let's not artificially force it into the image :)

EDIT: To my eye your image is heaps better than this one: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap030717.html

[gregbradley]

A very nice start David. The beauty of the TOA optics are showing through. What camera are you using?

Greg.

[Rex]

Really nice details David. Beautiful round stars to the edge as has been said. Great contrast as well. Can't wait to get my system dialed in that good. Great job mate!

[DavidTrap]

Will see what a few more hours produces Slawomir - can't hurt!

Thanks Greg. Still using my QSI583 - can't afford to upgrade to something with more real-estate for a while! The full equipment details are listed on Astrobin.

DT

[DavidTrap]

Thanks Rex - it won't happen over night, but it will happen if you persevere!

DT

[jase]

Yep, colour looks spot on David. Not many amateur images present the reflection nebulosity. The quantity of dust in the area results in interstellar reddening whereby blue light is suppressed. Enjoyed the tight stars and details you've obtained. Good stuff!

[DavidTrap]

Thanks Jase - appreciate your comments.

DT

[RickS]

Looks very good, David! If there's anything specific you're having trouble with let me know...

Cheers,
Rick.

[DavidTrap]

Thanks Rick,

I'll persevere for a while, make some notes, and get back to you!

DT

[Paul Haese]

Processing looks smooth with good detail David. The background looks just a little too brown for my taste but overall its a nice image.

[DavidTrap]

Thanks Paul,

There seemed to be a lot of nebulosity/gas, especially to the left of the frame.

DT

[DJT]

Lovely image. Theres still colour in the stars so maybe play with a star mask and saturation?

[DavidTrap]

Thanks David,

Will do. Am also planning on taking some 30 second subs and doing a HDR combination.

DT

[Stevec35]

I've seen very few pictures of NGC 6334 better than that David. Nice tight stars and incredible detail. The brown bothers me a bit though.

Cheers

Steve

[DavidTrap]

Thanks Steve for your praise. I'm planning to collect some more G & B data and will see if I can tame the colour a bit. I'm wondering though if the "brown" is dust?

DT

[MGTechDVP]

Beautiful and crisp... If I was coming out with images like this I'd be over the moon.