Dragon's of Ara - Astrofest 2019

[Jasp05]

Hi guys,

This is still a bit of a work in progress, but this is my first image from the QLD Astrofest.

35 x 180sec @ 800ISO

Gear used is in my signature.


Link to Astrobin for Higher Res image. - https://www.astrobin.com/418528/

Still trying to get my head around processing in Photoshop. :screwy:

Comments & Criticism welcome. :thumbsup:

[rcheshire]

Nice work Aaron. And a lovely area of the sky.

[Sen]

Looks fantastic. Nicely done!

[RyanJones]

Still my favorite region of space. Great capture. Nicely framed. Well done

[Outcast]

That's really nice Aaron, love it

[Anth10]

Awesome shot!

[ChrisV]

Very nice Aaron and with NGC6164 down the bottom. Colour looks good. What's the halos around the bigger stars?

[glend]

Yeah, I noticed that too, but I didn't want to say anything discouraging. Apparent on the high resolution image, especially zooming in.
Still good effort starting out.

[Jasp05]

Thanks guys.

I believe the donuts are a processing artifact. When trying to reduce the stars one of the actions I use in photoshop tends to do overdo it I find. As I said work in progress :P

Some of it could also be a bit of star bloat as my camera is modified but I don't have the replacement UV/IR filter in. (I only removed one of the filters and left the other UV/IR filter in the body). So the star bloat isn't too bad currently but I do plan on getting a filter to improve the stars.

[glend]

Aaron, what scope are you using? Blue fringing is fairly common in many ED Doublet refractors, which do not colour correct perfectly.

[DJT]

Hi AaronWell done on a very nice wip. Lovely region to image. I did this with a similar in your sig setup a few years back.


As you asked, a bit of CnC for you. The data has been pushed quite hard which you can see when you look at the histogram on Astrobin and at the way the colour breaks down in around the cluster. No harm in that but always better to get more data as it’s easier to play with when processing.


Having said that the last star party I was at I got somewhat less data than you did here for the whole 3 days! Always tricky but if you get the chance to get more data that will help.


Looking at the halos, looks like a bit more work on masks will help. Not sure what processing ap you are using but I get the impression you are masking the stars then upping the hue of the blues to bring out more of the reflection nebulosity around the cluster?


Let us know what you are using and am sure someone will give hints and tricks on star masks.


Like Glen though, wondering if dew might also have been a factor?


As I said, great image and really cool that you got NGC6164 as well.

[Jasp05]

I use dew heaters my imaging and guiding scope so really hope it wasnt dew.

Its a skywatcher evostar 72ed that i image with. I believe its a doublet refractor. So maybe thats a contributing factor.

And being its under 2hrs data i will definately be aiming to try and at least double that time on this object.

As far as processing i use photoshop with the carboni's astro tools action set.

Most of the processing is done using the action sets and levels with a slight curve and saturation increase.

Otherwise i dont touch much else with it. Still getting my head around masks etc and how they work.

So when you say look at the histogram and you can tell the data has been pushed too hard. Are you referring to the histogram not being a smooth curve and having those high and low peaks and troughs as it curves?

This is a bit of a rework. Got rid of those doughnuts which were just a processing artifact. The remaining halo on the stars is UV/IR bloat. It's on all my other images too. https://www.astrobin.com/full/418966/0/

[LostInSp_ce]

It took a little while for the hires to download but it was worth it. The level of contrast gives it a sense of depth a similar to an elevation height map. Looks like you got some good skies during the Astrofest. Well done.