Horsey Autoguided from the night before!

[Garyh]

Hi Folks..:hi:
Well this is my third attempt at autoguiding with my new goodies and what better subject than the good ol horsehead and friends! Set up as the moon was setting below the mountains got my focus and the autoguiding going and waited for the sky to grow dark..
Used PHD for guiding and with some help and comments from other IIS members..:thumbsup: I tried some longer exposures and more of them.
Half way through some dirty dark clouds paid a visit and PHD was flashing red and not happy about it so I took some darks till the cloud had moved on..Lost 3 exposures out of the session but I am a happy chappy. Out of all the frames only one showed oval stars but was still very usable..:thumbsup:
Ok datails are 14 x 7min at iso 800 with 4 DF subtracted, with my 6" newt and canon 300D..I ran out of dark sky with dawn approaching before I could do any more..
Seeing was good as well as transparancy but not cool enough to keep the noise low.
I think this is my best horsehead to date...:)
All comments most welcome!
cheers and CS Gary

[vash]

wow, thats awesome,
I hope to be able to image this soon using autoguiding, once I get the new laptop and a gpusb

[browndog]

That is a ripper image..! That should go straight into the pool room. :thumbsup:
For your 3rd attempt at autoguiding you seem to have mastered the technique very well.

[h0ughy]

get better each time, nice shot

[leon]

Gee that is some horse, very nice, I bet it looks better than the Nags running in the Ballarat Cup in the pouring rain today. :whistle:

Yesterday it was 35 and red hot, today it is 14 and hasn't stopped raining all day, bugger the cup, we need the rain more. ;)

Leon :thumbsup:

[turbo_pascale]

Gary,

Is this from a reasonably dark site? I'm getting disheartened with my efforts so far. This is only my 3rd night out with autoguiding (PHD is cool), so I appear to be on a similar learning curve also.

I'm struggling against light pollution to get a half decent horsey pic.
I've put an Orion Skyglow filter in the mix now which is helping the images, but obviously requiring longer exposures too.

To give you an idea of what I'm fighting, see the comparison with the filtered image. This is just a RAW converted to JPG and then shrunk down for upload.

My B33 effort is 60 minutes (12 x 5min) with an 80ED and unmodified 350D, using the Skyglow filter.
I think I just need to continue to throw more exposures at it, or go to a dark site.

Turbo

[iceman]

Wow Gary, that's bloody beautiful. I wish the flame fully fit in the composition though - that'd be an entry for next year's Malins!

[jase]

Lovely image Gary. You've managed the colour tones and balance well. Histogram also looks clean. This image is a real credit to your dedication and processing vision. I would go as far as saying you've raised the bar for other DSLR users to follow. Well done.:thumbsup:

[Ric]

Top value Gary, you really nailed that one. Lovely colours and detail throughout.

A fine job.

[Geoff45]

Great shot Gary. A 6" scope and unmodded DSLR seems to work pretty well. With my 4" I really have to have ideal conditions to get a decent shot. I agree with Mike about the framing. The head has to go up and to the right, so that the flame gets into the pic. You can use the bright star (zeta orionis) to aid in the framing, now that you know the FOV.
Geoff

[Lee]

Beautiful Gary.... belongs in a frame that one :thumbsup:

[Tamtarn]

That's a fantastic image Gary. You've really nailed it. Settings, exposure and focus are spot on and the processing is just perfect :thumbsup:

As Jase has said you've really raised the bar for all DSLR users

[Garyh]

Thanks Vash! you will love this autoguiding stuff...:thumbsup:



Thanks browndog! I did some research on settings etc for PHD on the net as well as some help from IIS members to get me close to the mark!
Thanks for looking!! :)



Thanks Houghy ...:thumbsup: I do try to out do my last attempt sometimes I do and others, well I don`t post those.:lol:
cheers



Thanks Leon I am glad that hot break has finally finished and you are getting some rain! One thing is after the rain has stopped and the sky clears you should get some nice clear dark sky...:thumbsup:



Hi Turbo, yes I have a rather dark sky which really helps with such faint object like this region. With my 7 min subs there is only a slight lightening of the background and I don`t use any filters at all. I think a dark sky site would make a lot of difference especially that you are using a unmodded camera which is cutting your Ha down to only 10% or so and you will have to go deep to get good data.. You could always get a Ha filter and use this as your red channel and LP won`t be a bother?
Best of luck..cheers Gary



Thanks Mike..:thumbsup: I really didn`t even worry about the flame neb but looking at it now I wish I had framed it a bit better!
cheers



Thanks Jase! for that lovely comment!:thumbsup: I am always learning with the processing side and I hope to keep on improving. I wish I could take the next step and get a nice Sbig ccd or similar but I think I will be stuck with a DSLR for a bit yet, so I shall push it as hard as I can..
Thanks again..:)



Thanks Ric I am very happy with it...Only wish it was a cold night as there was a bit of noise to remove and that lost the finer details!
Thanks for the comments....:thumbsup:



Thanks Geoff...next time I shall get them both framed a bit better..:)



cheers Lee I am glad you liked it.:thumbsup:..hopefully I shall get a chance to do a longer run at it before things warm up too much



Thanks Barb and Dave..:) ..good seeing really helped as well on the night and my nice dark sky really helps with shots like this...
Thanks again....:thumbsup:

[iceman]

Hi Turbo
Don't forget Gary's 300D is modded, so it's going to let in a lot more horsehead light that your unmodded 350D.

[iceman]

This incredible image now adorns the IceInSpace Homepage (http://www.iceinspace.com.au)!

[g__day]

Wow!

[Carl]

Great shot
What are you stacking in and are you processing in photoshop?
Keep up the good work

car

[Terry B]

Turbo
Did you add or median add the images?
For dim objects you will get more signal with a simple add.

[turbo_pascale]

I tried a few different types of median (sigma reject etc), but didn't really think to try a simple add. Might give it a go to see how it goes. I have to admit that most of my reading discourages this, but then again, some compromises need to be made from a bright suburban site!

Thanks for the pointer!

Turbo

[Garyh]

Thanks g__day for that.:thumbsup:


Thanks Carl...:), stacked in Deepskystacker (I think it was meridian combined) and the rest of the processing was done in Photoshop..
cheers



yeap you can certainly add them but your noise will not be reduced...if you can get enough images, say 25 total. what you can do is average stack say 5 images and have 5 stacked images then add them together to get a smoother result.
The best thing you could get is a 2" UHC filter to cut down your LP..
cheers Gary

[xelasnave]

Sorry to be late but that is really something to be proud of Gary.
alex

[Garyh]

Thanks Alex , very happy with it. Can`t wait till we get some clear skies again to play with this autoguiding some more!
cheers