The Pillars of M16

[Dave882]

A clear night on ever-popular M16 and Pillars of Creation. Conditions were very poor and everything was soaking wet with dew but managed to come away with 6hrs of data using the L-Ultimate filter. The histogram during capture looked ok but on integration it appears I've lost control of the brighter tip of the main pillar which I was pretty disappointed about.

Processed in APP for stacking and extraction of Ha and Oiii channels, and Pixinsight to finish off. Made use of the Foraxx pallet utility to combine and a bit of extra tweaking for colour. Given the poor seeing and guiding on the night I'm happy with the level of detail extracted (BlurEx / NoiseEx used lightly but made a nice improvement).

Still learning heaps with the beast that is PI and aiming to get to some sort of standard workflow- but currently very haphazard which is leading to inconsistent results. Feedback, comments, critique welcomed please!

Larger image here...
(https://storage.googleapis.com/dso-browser.com/astrophotography/picture-5d66261e5cecc6ad9eb37146196d3225-original.jpg)
Details:
6hrs @ 180sec subs
Celestron OAG
C14 non edge @f7 with the Starizona reducer LF
EQ8 pro
Asi2600mc pro gain 100 (L-ULtimate Fileter)
Asi290mm / celestron OAG
ZWO EAF
ASIAIR pro / APP / PI / GIMP
Binned (scaled) 60% in processing

Thanks for looking!

[AstroJason]

I don't know how to use PI but gee this looks great to me even if the condition were poor! Lovely detail in the pillars mate

[Dave882]

Thanks Jason!

[strongmanmike]

Regardless of your described, less than ideal conditions, this looks really pretty good Dave :thumbsup:... and yes, your use of BlurEx and NoiseEx appears to have been executed in an exemplary fashion, ie, no tell tail signs of their use, nice job :thumbsup: The top of the bright pillar looks ok to me too..? :shrug: were you hoping to see more fine details?

Mike

[Dave882]

Thanks Mike I really appreciate your feedback. Regarding the RC tools, I’ve been taking the approach of multiple tiny applications as opposed to heavy hits- and even then sometimes have to go back if problems emerge later on. I think I’m probably over-analysing the bright pillar but just seems to me there’s something missing there that would otherwise make it look quite 3D. Not expecting to get the HST detail but yeah, something…

[Dave882]

A few more passes of Blur-ex and I reckon I’m almost there. :rofl: