Horsehead

[casstony]

I've got lots of images comprising one hour of exposures and I'm trying to get a few hours worth on each. I got an hour last night on this one making 2 hours total - can see an obvious increase in detail over the previous effort.

[RyanJones]

A beautiful effort there Tony. Considerably more data than the last one. well done.

I can't help but feel that both this one and the last are a little black clipped. This could be just an artistic choice and the blackness of the sky does give a really strong contrast with the nebs.

Good work Tony

[casstony]

Thanks Ryan. Yes all of my images are black clipped to varying degrees. My processing is very basic - I adjust levels, saturation and curves in Photoshop.

I'm going to look at PixInsight when I get time.

[RyanJones]

I tried a trial of PI and yes the way you use it is a little bit odd but what a piece of software. Amazing ! Not cheap though ( although what in this game is ? )

I tried Startools last night and to be honest, I feel I've got more control with Photoshop. Yes you have to do every thing yourself but it gives you an understanding of what you're doing.

[mynameiscd]

Really good image you got here Tony. You haven't let Alnitak take over which is really hard to do.
Also nice stars over the wholie field and both the horse and flame are real standouts and i like ths full rich reds you have.
Cheers
Andy

[Outcast]

Lovely shot, I really need to sort out what I'm doing & go after this one. The images of it always blow me away...

Not sure if it's achievable with my setup or not...

[casstony]

Thanks Carlton. You could get the flame or horsehead individually with your setup, but obviously the FOV is limited by the focal length.
Given that you're doing ok with a SCT, you'd get amazing images with a shorter focal length refractor.

I want to do some imaging of smaller objects with my Edge 8, but I've still got a long list of unfinished projects with the TS115.

[Outcast]

Hi Tony,

Yeah, I'm beginning to wish I hadn't sold my 80mm APO but, MofW&F stipulated something had to go if I wanted a solar scope... so.....

I'm currently hunting for an 'cheap' HEQ5 Pro or similar to mount my solar scope on & perhaps invest in a small APO later down the track.

I now have a couple of focal reducers, still working them out as well as learning more about the camera's I have, might have to give this one a crack... people will tire of me constantly posting M42 I suspect...

Cheers

Carlton

[casstony]

Thanks Andy. I use a WO Flat6A II set at 4mm with the TS115 and the stars look quite good. I like the Flat 6A as it's adjustable to suit different scopes and it's not too expensive.

Lately I haven't bothered polar aligning and the stars are still fine. I've been getting away with positioning the tripod feet on marks on the ground and I've got a mark drawn on the mount base/tripod which gets lined up.

The only guiding setup I've used is my current MGEN but I like it a lot - very easy to use and effective (but not cheap).

[xelasnave]

Great shot Tony.
alex

[Karlzburg]

Looks good Tony, the horsehead is sharp.

[Ukastronomer]

Show off :)

[casstony]

Hoping to show off more tomorrow - testing my new TS72 fpl53 doublet at the moment :)