First light new scope Askar FRA400 (72mm) F5.6 on Lagoon and Orion

[Robert_T]

Trying out my new Askar FRA400 F5.6 apo refractor - it's a Petzval-like quintuplet which means you don't need an extra flattener and no need for specific back focus which is great. I have a0.7x reducer for it that then required 55mm back-focus but haven't use it yet other than quick test, so these are native 400mm focal length.

Enjoying the width of field possible here with the ASI071MC... just need some more sky time to build up some images in depth.

m42 is a mix of exposures 90, 60 and 30s amounting to 1hr 49m
lagoon triffid is 2hr 26min of 2min exposures

[Saturnine]

Off to a very good start with the new scope, excellent images.

[PKay]

Good job Robert.

Very well processed with lots of detail showing.

With Orion, stopping the core from blowing out (which you have done) is half the battle.

I would try pushing the blue a bit more (in both images).

[Robert_T]

thanks jeff and peter, and yes Peter keeping the core from blowing out takes some finessing and masking in processing. Initially I was managing it by holding top of curves low but found taht introduce circular artefacts to brighter stars. Will have a look at my blue!

[Robert_T]

pushing the blue up a bit

[PKay]

Much better Robert!

More detail has been revealed.

You can play with the colour balance (and saturation) for hours (I do).

The bright star in Orion can be blue as blue, as can parts of the nebulosity.

I think how much colour is revealed comes down to how you manage the exposure. Taking on board gain vs exposure time vs target brightness vs patience.
Once a pixel has saturated (reached 'full well') it's all over.

And then, do the stretching in stages.
It is the most important process.

[RyanJones]

Very nice Robert. You’ve handled both very well. Well done

[Fernando]

Like it. Very nice Robert.

[Robert_T]

thanks Peter this above is advice I wish I had a long time ago. I used to just stretch once and big causing all sorts of problems I could not process around. The penny dropped for me when I watched a youtube video from astro-backyard processing in PS and how he ran around 4-5 smaller stretching stages checking stars etc in between as the first careful step and under rather than over doing it... made all the difference to my shots, but oh so much left to learn!

[RyanJones]

If you’re following Trevor Jones’ stuff on Astrobackyard I can highly recommend his PS per channel processing too.

[Robert_T]

thanks Ryan, I'll check that out. :thumbsup: