Cats Paw and The Lobster

[DavidTrap]

After a positive case at my daughters' school, we've been in home quarantine for the last fortnight.

I've quite enjoyed the enforced break and aside from completing a long list of items on my to do list, I managed to get in some imaging from my backyard.

NGC6334 & NGC6357 framed nicely within the FOV of my AP 130 and QHY600M.

Link to Astrobin (https://astrob.in/hccqm5/0/)

There's about 5hrs each of Ha, S & Oiii through 3nm Chroma filters - 15 minute exposures. The Oiii signal was minimal, so I've taken some 30 minute exposures, but have yet to substitute them into the image.

Would love to hear your thoughts on this image - my narrowband processing skills are rather rusty...

Ta
DT

[gregbradley]

I like it, I like the golden colours and the wide vista. A lot of detail there in the Lobster.

Seems like you have everything dialled in nicely.

Greg.

[peter_4059]

Great image David. Really like the fov. More capture details would be great to see.

[DavidTrap]

Thanks Peter,

AP130 & QuadTCC - 585mm focal length, QHY600M, Chroma 3nm narrowband filters, 15minute subs, 19 frames of Ha, 20 frames of S & Oiii. Controlled with Voyager, guiding with PHD2. Captured over 3 nights this week. Processed in PI and Photoshop.

Will see if the weather clears to allow some more Oiii to be captured, but by the time that happens the moon will be a bit fuller...

DT

[DavidTrap]

Thanks Greg,

Star eccentricity is a bit more than I would like, but I'm pretty happy otherwise. Will see if the 30min Oiii subs make a difference.

DT

[peter_4059]

Those long integrations and long subs really paid off. Are you enjoying the Voyager experience?

[DavidTrap]

Voyager is fantastic.

I've only been using Sequences so far, but am planning to try DragScripts so I can setup notificiations in the event of weather interruptions to allow more overnight unattended imaging.

DT

[RobF]

Very nice going David. Not sure what to be more jealous of - the scope or the camera. :)

Love the FOV, framing and colour palette. Looks like you've put your downtime to very good use.

[tornado33]

Great detail and picked up the background stuff as well.

[DavidTrap]

Thanks Rob,

I spent a fair bit of time adjusting the mix in PixelMath. Eventually swapped over to using LRGB combine with varying channel weights and got a more visually pleasing result.

DT

[DavidTrap]

Thanks,

Yes, lots more background dust and gas than I expected - one of the advantages of widefield.

DT

[h0ughy]

wow certainly a lot to take in there - its pretty cool

[DavidTrap]

Thanks David,

It was nice to step off the hamster wheel for a fortnight and do some hobby time!

DT