M8 in Ha

[Atmos]

This is my first process of M8 so far, I really do need to go back and drizzle it to round off the stars a lot more. Seeing was quite reasonable on Sunday so I've got squarish stars. I am never quite sure whether I am hitting the limit of what my EQ6 can achieve, I know I can get round stars at 1800s without too much effort (when the gremlins aren't around) but I have a feeling in doing so, it is at the expense of FWMH. Looking forward to the new mount arriving soon :) At that point I'll be able to better differentiate between seeing and mount tracking.

Image Acquisition:
Sky Rover 130mm Sextuplet
QHY22
Modded EQ6
Astrodon 3nm Ha

16x900 (4 hours). Not any serious amount of data but it is a very bright object. I am going to have to do a 10x60s to tone down the very bright core which is just a bit saturated.

Hoping for a clear Friday night so I can grab some OIII and SII. Eventually I'd like to toy with doing a HaOIISIILRGB of the area over the next full moon (weather dependant).

Wasn't too careful as I am planning on drizzling this for the final result, half a dozen of the brighter stars have been mangled, didn't realise that they weren't in the star mask until I'd near finished processing :)

Enjoy! High Res (http://www.astrobin.com/full/249460/None/)

EDIT: Reprocess which has been drizzled and a lot less harsh (http://www.astrobin.com/full/249730/None/).

[strongmanmike]

Well, im out at the observatory so only looking at this on my Samsung phone, so this may be hiding some of the issues you have mentioned..but it looks quite spectacular :thumbsup: and 4hrs on M8 is a lot of exposure.
Bet you are looking forward to getting that cool new mount!? :)

Mike

[gregbradley]

That looks very impressive. I don't know what the focal length is but undersampled squarish stars can be made round with drizzle integration.

Greg.

[multiweb]

M8 season already? :eyepop: Little flat to my taste but I like the details you've got. Nice one. :thumbsup:

[RickS]

Great detail, Colin!

[Atmos]

Thanks Mike, M8 is pretty bright and really doesn't need to be deep. Not much of the field that doesn't have nebulosity.



It is running at 669.5mm so relatively short. Planning on drizzling when it collect more data and work towards a colour rendition.



If it is above the horizon it is fair game ;) You are right, I did flatten it a bit heavily, may have to try to preserve that for the final.



Thanks Rick, just need a better star mask and then figure out how to get nice white stars (no magenta!) :)

[marc4darkskies]

Very cool. Some nice data there Colin! 4 hours is plenty of data for M8 even for Ha. I'll go out on a limb though and suggest you may be flattening the dynamic range a bit too much.

Cheers, Marcus

[Atmos]

I do agree, there is a fair bit of fainter nebulosity in the background that I have no idea how to not basically clip (make black) while keeping the brighter stuff considerably brighter.

[RickS]

Looks like you are using HDRMT for dynamic range compression, Colin? I often blend back some of the original image to prevent the result ending up too flat (take a clone of the original image and use PixelMath with an expression like "0.65*orig+0.35*new").

Cheers,
Rick.

[Atmos]

I did use that blending technique with the IntensityTransformation function as that tends to be quite harsh. I have thought about doing it with HDRMT but just haven't tried it yet (only thought about it this morning).

[Placidus]

Spectacular demonstration of the faintest outer reaches.

[Atmos]

Thanks. There is a part of me that wants to mosaic this area.... Or get a much larger sensor than the tiny ICX694 ;)

[rustigsmed]

looking good Colin, lots of details, as others have said just a bit flat. looking forward to a coloured version! (Melbourne weather dependant of course!)

Russ

[Slawomir]

Nice clean image with lots of detail - great work Colin :thumbsup:

If my eyes do not deceiving me, it looks like perhaps you have not applied flats to this image? Applying flats would help with stretching later on and could bring up the fainter bits even more.

Please let us know when you new mount arrives.

[Meru]

Love it! Sky Rover is awesome :D (as your skills also Colin :P)

[Rod771]

That's awesome Colin!! Love the contrast! :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Atmos]

Uploaded a new version (drizzled and a lot more contrasty, no where near as flat) on Astrobin (high res) (http://www.astrobin.com/full/249730/None/). I am a lot happier with this one.



Totally agree, it was quite flat. It wasn't until I compared my latest attempt with the original that I could see just how flat it was!



Thanks :) I did use flats though, not that I really need to for the most part. An astrograph with a large corrected field and a small sensor, I only have 4-5% vignetting at worst.

You along with everyone else will know when the mount arrives :lol: Looking forward to having a near dead silent slewing session around my lounge room while it rains outside for a week or two :P



Thanks Meru, it is a lovely scope :) I think I just have some tilt to deal with :)



Thanks Rod, the new one is a lot more contrasty!

[strongmanmike]

Looks great, the first version was good but the reduced contrast of this latest version and the drizzling have produced a fine Ha M8 :thumbsup:

Mike

[multiweb]

+1 That's the money shot Colin. Well done. :thumbsup:

[codemonkey]

Loving that final version, Colin, reaaally smooth. Nice work!

[Shiraz]

agree with others, the final version is great - smooth and detailed. There is a huge dynamic range in there and it is difficult to keep it from looking a little flat, but the final version looks great.

[Atmos]

Thanks Mike, I personally prefer the first one :P



Thanks Marc. Your FSQ would eat it up quite nicely me thinks :)



Thanks Lee, hope the next few hours of OIII and SII will be as smooth. I don't have as high a expectation with the SII data though.



Thanks Shiraz, certainly does have a pretty huge dynamic range. Thinking I may try 10 min subs with the OIII and SII to see if I can keep the very core from saturating. I effectively double masked throughout most of the processing on the second one.

[Ross G]

Great looking photo Colin.

Amazing detail.

Ross.

[Atmos]

Thanks Ross, going to be using the best 8 subs to make a better synthetic luminance for the redo of the SHO version.

[traveller]

Great details Colin, well done.
No idea what drizzling is, except when it's raining. I personally like the first one, a bit more moodier than the second.
Bo

[RB]

Oh very nice Colin.
Repro looks great.

RB