Imaging session @ Golden Grove Friday the 11th of April 2008

[cwjames]

Hi All,

Had a chance to take a few images from Golden Grove last Friday night.

I first did the Jewel Box, which I did on my last session but it was out of focus. I made a mod to the LX200R and the focus control is heaps better now.

Jewel Box
I still am not happy with this one, althou it looks like what you see thru the eyepiece, it needs to be more like the out of focus one with some more exposure.

http://www.cwjames.info/astro/gallery/starcluster/starcluster-004.php

Centaurus A
Better than my first attemp, but looking at some of your posts, I have a long way to go yet. This is my first Galaxy image !

http://www.cwjames.info/astro/gallery/starcluster/starcluster-004-thm.jpg

Sombrero Galaxy

http://www.cwjames.info/astro/gallery/galaxy/galaxy-003.php

Trifid Nebula

http://www.cwjames.info/astro/gallery/nebula/nebula-009.php

Lagoon Nebula

http://www.cwjames.info/astro/gallery/nebula/nebula-010.php

Not sure what went wrong here, maybe my unmodified 20D is can't get enougth H-alpha photons,. I will need to redo this one and add a focal reducer to widen the FOV.

I need to work on my image processing skills as the process used are sometimes quite diferent to normal daytime digital photography.

Thanks for looking and for any coments

Chris

[gbeal]

Hi Chris,
there is a good selection of favourites here, and all look very nice. Sombrero would be my pick, but the Trifid is very good as well.
Not sure what happened with your Cent A shot, when I click on it, it is VERY small, maybe check the link.
Perhaps the 20D could be modified, I have been too scared to have mine done, instead I bought an old 300D and am getting that modified.
Gary

[iceman]

Nice work Chris, a good selection of objects there.

It'd be better to attach, say, 800px wide images to the post. The current images attached are only 125px wide.

Next time, perhaps try spending more time on each object and only capture 2-3 in a night instead of 5. The more time you spend on an object, the better it will turn out.

[cwjames]

Hi Mike & Gary,

Yes the link to Centaurus A is wrong, it should be

http://www.cwjames.info/astro/gallery/galaxy/galaxy-002.php

Mike, I hav'ent work out the correct format here. I have been attaching a thumb nails as previews with a link to the main object. What is the normal method of posting ? As you say if I spend more time on each imagine I would get more data and improve the results. I have still got other factors as well limiting my results as well, like processing. Still we are slowly getting there.

Thanks for the comments.

Chris

[cwjames]

Hi Mike,

I think I have worked out how I should posted the images.

Thanks
Chris

[iceman]

Hi Chris

Once you have a web-size image (800-1000px wide under 200kb jpeg), just use the "manage attachments" button and upload them from your HDD. The forum system will then show them as thumbnails with a clickable version to the web-size image.

You can of course still link to your website for full (or larger) size images.

[cwjames]

I finaly worked out how I should post the images - Thuumb nails should now work.

Thanks
Chris

[Garyh]

Very nice Chris, the Trifid neb came out really nice and I like that jewel box one as well. All very sharp and a nice color balance..just more data to smooth things out..
Look forwards to the next round! :)
cheers

[cwjames]

Hi Garyh,

Yes more data can only be better.

Just when thougth I had the image posting bit under control I see I got one wrong still.

I see this image is just too large and I did not see the error message letting me know.

http://www.cwjames.info/astro/gallery/nebula/nebula-009.php

http://www.cwjames.info/astro/gallery/nebula/nebula-009.jpg

I will have to do some more posting so I learn these things.

Thanks for the comments

Chris

[erick]

:thumbsup: That's the way! M104 is so 3-d! Nice images, Chris.

[iceman]

I love the detail in the dust lane of Centaurus A!

[rogerg]

Nice shots Chris.

The lagoon - shame it has trailing, I think that's it's biggest downfall.

Centaurus A - very nice detail, but over-sharpenned in my opinnion. The stars are standing out too much with too-sharper edges and a little ring of black around the brighter ones. I'd back off on the sharpenning. Other than that, I think it's a great shot.

Jewel Box - it's hard to make the Jewel box look nice in a photo I find. Best I've got is where I've done long exposures to get a nice star field around the object together with short exposures for the jewelbox. Processing to merge the two sets of exposures (easy HDR for example). A Diffuser filter can be used to retain some colour on the bright stars too, not sure how it'd work for the jewel box.

:thumbsup:

Roger.

[Ric]

A nice collection of images Chris, Centaurus A looks very 3D.

Well done

[cwjames]

Hi Roger,

Yes I reckon I have over sharpened the imagine as well. I hav been learning some new processes to dothe sharpening, so I may redo the processing.

As far as the Jewel Box is concerned, you are right when you say its hard to take a interresting photo of this target. This was my second go at it, the first was out of focus, however it sort of made it a more interresting shot as it brought out the star colours.

http://www.cwjames.info/astro/gallery/starcluster/starcluster-003.php


Thanks for the coments

Chris

[cwjames]

Hi Roger,

I have taken your advice and back off the sharpening on the Centaurus A image.

The re-worked image is now posted.

http://www.cwjames.info/astro/gallery/galaxy/galaxy-002.php

Thanks again for your feedback.

Chris