Now I'm getting the hang of it!

[bloodhound31]

Loving this it tell ya!

This one took me hours to set-up, photograph and process, but I am extremely happy with my little ED80 and Canon 400 D set-up.

Lagoon Nebula 17 minutes at F/7.5 ISO800 Darks and offsets removed blah blah. Processed with Deep sky stacker.

Manually tracked using an illuminated reticule on fork mounted C11 (polar aligned on an equatorial wedge)with the camera on the ED80, piggybacking on top.

Baz.

[[1ponders]]

Ha! He's hooked :lol: Nice shootin' Tex.

Have you played around with some of the sliders in Deepsky Stacker? For 17min you should be able to pull a bit more out of it in the way of colour and highlights. It is more successful in Photoshop, but the DSS sliders do an ok job when you get used to them,

[little col]

wow that is impressive , i would be very happy with that result , definatly worth all the time you spent on it :thumbsup:

[ballaratdragons]

:eyepop: That's beautiful Bazz. :thumbsup:

[Ric]

Excellent Baz, you really nailed that one. Lots of lovely detail as well.

Well done mate.

[iceman]

Well done Bazz, a huge improvement to the first shots. What a ripper.

[spearo]

Very nice Bazz
you're definitely getting the hand of it and then some!
well done.

frank

[shaneaust]

That is absolutely beautiful, Baz - just awesome!

Congrats on a fantastic image!

[Tamtarn]

Fantastic Baz :thumbsup::thumbsup:

What a big improvement from your earlier images. Gee it's a big learning curve isn't it. We're a bit like you just beginners into astrophotography and like yourself it's very frustrating trying to get the alignment right first off then once you've taken the shots the next biggest hurdle is the processing. :mad2:

Looking forward to some more great images from you keep posting :)

[DobDobDob]

Top shot Baz, I'm glad you listened to everything I taught you :thumbsup: now to find 5 minutes to update your website, I sense a whole heap of great images are on the way, this is just the beginning :P

[RB]

Wow what a wonderful effort Baz !
A great improvement.

Well done.

[h0ughy]

Well done Barry, top effort rewarded with a nice result

[jase]

Great work Baz. Imaging at shorter focal lengths isn't as demanding (certainly compared to your 2900mm C11). Look forward to seeing more as you begin to develop your own personal style. :thumbsup:

[Garyh]

Yeap...a nice result there Barry..you have done a great job of focusing and guiding!!
cheers

[jjjnettie]

Very professional result.
Beautiful work.

[montewilson]

Barry ! Well done on this one. Good results usually produce even better results. Don't forget what you did right, you need to keep doing it.

IMO you have some red data available that you are not using. That would bring up the nebulousity a bit more. I am not an expert but thats what I think is there.

[bloodhound31]

Wow! Overwhelming response!

Thanks Monte for the advice. Yes someone else also mentioned to me that the colour was a little too blue. I will have to take that under advice and adjust the colour to the red end.

BTW, how DO we know what colour a deep space object is SUPPOSED to be?

Baz.

[DobDobDob]

I dug this up somewhere Baz, it might help a little.

It may look black, but the correct answer is that space is predominantly green. And sometimes red, blue, and purple as well.

During an ESSL lecture on April 11, HAO’s Stan Solomon broke down the physics of the aurora borealis in an informative, entertaining fashion for a crowd of staff from across UCAR/NCAR/UOP. Drawing from sources as diverse as The Onion and medieval European art, he addressed basic questions about the aurora: Where and when can one see it? What causes it? What color is it, and why does it sometimes have different colors?

The aurora borealis (called aurora australis in the Southern Hemisphere) intensifies following coronal mass ejections—that is, explosions in the Sun’s corona that spew particles into the solar wind. When the charged electrons and protons encounter Earth’s magnetosphere (the area of space around Earth that is controlled by Earth’s magnetic field), they travel along Earth’s magnetic field lines to the polar regions, colliding with atoms and molecules in the upper atmosphere. The atoms and molecules become electronically excited from the collisions. As they relax into their normal state, we see this release of energy in the form of colored light.

The color of the aurora depends upon the composition of Earth’s atmosphere at the altitude of the aurora, since different gases at varying levels in the atmosphere give off distinct colors when they are excited. Oxygen atoms about 100 kilometers (60 miles) high produce the vivid green light for which the aurora is best known, while oxygen around 200 km (120 mi) high emits a red glow. Nitrogen molecules produce blues and purples.

“The predominant experience is mostly green,” Stan said.
When a magnetic field line loops downward directly above an observer, the visual effect of rays beaming out in all directions is called an aurora corona. “It’s almost overwhelming to be underneath an aurora corona with it whirling around,” Stan said.