a very bad M45 from friday 13th

[h0ughy]

despite having taken over 8 minutes worth of shots with the light pollution the way it was this is all the nebulousity i got with an ed80 and ISO800 on a modded 300D. Had to let Ponders et al post thier wonderful vibrant versions first ;) :whistle: Eh??? this just makes them look better.:P BTW notice I did capture the blue and red on one star in the neb around it:shrug:

[spearo]

Houghy,
well done it's a nice shot, just because it doesnt show the nebulosity doesnt make it any less good a shot. Tracking is good, stars are nicely focussed and I especially like the color difference between the brighter white and blue stars
nice work
keep posting! we dont see enough of your shots !
cheers
frank

[h0ughy]

Thanks Frank, but the benckmark has been set by others, by the end of this "m45 season" I will hope to have nailed it

[Lee]

I know what you mean about the light pollution here.... :tasdevil: :tasdevil: :tasdevil:
Nice shot though....
Whenever I get down about the LP, I think of what Eddie Trimarchi pulled out of Sydney.... then it makes me feel better about the LP, and worse about my image processing skills! :(

[h0ughy]

Might have to show me that, I though Eddie lived on the sunshine coast (QLD). ;) I have a light shour to 25degrees above the horizon, then a "dark hole" and at zenith, it increases back to a dark hole and then 25 degrees full on cant see stars light pollution. thats why I love Lostock, Illford and Duckadang (or anywhere dark!)

[Lee]

I'm sure he used to be in Sydney (maybe I was wrong?).... My LP is similar.... :( Whenever I go to a dark site it rains......

[FOOTPRINT]

Hi Houghy,
Suggest you try ISO-400 at about 4-5 Min. stack 4-8 frames, after conversion from RAW and DF removal do a Contrast stretch in PSP this brigs out the nice blue nebulosity, ill attach a Pix. taken/processed in this manner with the same setup, this is not a top line picture, but at least does show the blue nebulosity.

cheers....Jim

[[1ponders]]

Stretch that curve h0ughy, stretch that curve. Bring out that nebulosity. :D

[h0ughy]

mmm photoshopping processing techniques - must learn that:help:

so whats this stretching bit Ponders:whistle: ?

[[1ponders]]

For a quick and dirty increase in your nebulosity (and faint galaxies for that matter), in PS go into Image>Adjustment>Curves put an anchor point about 1/4 the way up the line and push to the upper left to form a nice even curve without the line flattening out along the top at all. Click Ok and repeat at least once more. Then go into Image>Adjustment>Levels and raise the black point to about 3/4 the way towards the left hand side of the histogram bell.

Go back into curves and try again and then back into levels. It won't be nice and clean in the end and will probably have lots of noise, but it's one way of getting that nebulosity up. Keep adjusting curves and levels until you get the desired result. At some point you may have to put two anchor points in the curves graph. One near the top as well as one down the bottom. This will allow you to form a nice "S" curve. Try it and see.

That is of course if you aren't jerkin' my chain :whistle: ;)