A Quick Tarantula

[Startrek]

After capturing NGC 247 the other night , the Tarantula had just cleared my rear roof line so gave it a go as I hadn’t imaged this object in Sydney for 2 years. I only had an hour or so before a massive council tree would eventually obstruct it. Down at my Obs on the South Coast I have an clear view to the NSEW from 25 degrees to zenith

Managed to capture about 45 minutes of usable data ( 15 x 3 minute subs ) with neighbours lights blasting my yard again ( For the life of me I don’t know why folk have their backyards lit up like downtown Las Vegas and no one is out there )

6” f6 Bintel GSO newt
Skywatcher EQ6-R mount
ZWOASI2600MC set in Ascom to highest dynamic range Gain 0 , cooled to -10C
Optolong L Extreme filter
15 x 3 min dithered guided subs
30 x Flats
30 x Bias
Tracking and Goto EQMOD and Ascom Stellarium
Captured in APT
PHD2 Multistar guiding ( 0.62 to 0.70 arc sec error total )
Stacked in DSS
Processed in Startools V1.7 Compose Bi Colour OSC Linear data set

Due to the small amount of data I had to use quite a few methods / modules to mitigate the noise

RGB ratio CIELab version
SHO version

Comments welcome

[Stephane]

Very nice photos, Martin. I personally prefer the one on the right. It’s amazing what can be achieved with skillful processing even with little integration time. Will you be adding data to this shot? Or moving on to another project?

Stéphane

[Startrek]

Thanks
My window of opportunity for the Tarantula is only an hour in Sydney, so it’s hardwork and a bit of luck with the weather capturing 3 or more hours
I’ll wait until I’m down south at my Obs where I have uninterrupted views
This object is still around for a few more months yet
This one was an experiment and a bit of fun combined
Cheers Martin

[Nikolas]

One on the right for me as well. You did well with that small window of opportunity.

[Startrek]

Thanks Nik

[gregbradley]

I like the first one. I know you have not much data there but I wonder if the central areas where the signal is strongest could take some more sharpening of some kind.

Greg.

[Startrek]

Thanks Greg,
I didn’t spend much time on processing as I only had 45mins
Just some noise reduction and colour
Like you mentioned a bit more sharpening and maybe some contrast would have helped
Cheers
Martin