Leo triplet

[Geoff45]

Taken over the weekend 3 May.
William Optics ZS110 on Losmandy GM8 autoguided by PHD.
Unmodified Canon 350D
17 x 10 min for a total of 170 min exposure at ISO 800.
Raw reduction, dark frame calibration and alignment done in ImagesPlus, Remainder of processing in Photoshop.
Geoff

[RB]

They have a ghostly look about them.
Nice image scale and good detail in the dust lanes.

Very nice shooting Geoff.

[Garyh]

Looks like you have gone quiet deep there Geoff and pushed it hard. :thumbsup:
Looks like the guiding needs some more tweeking but a nice result!
cheers Gary

[Geoff45]

Thanks Gary, actually I think something wasn't as tight as it should have been and there was some movement between the guidescope and the main scope
Gff

[iceman]

Wow, lots of exposure and great image scale.

But why no flats? In my opinion that's the only thing that lets the image down.

[Geoff45]

Yeah, I've been putting off taking flats, but I guess the time has come...

[iceman]

Since I started taking flats I'd never go back now.. It only takes 5 minutes at the end of the session with a lightbox, and it really helps smooth out the data and allow it to be stretched a little more.

Just do it!

[Geoff45]

Hi Mike
Do you use the lightbox described IIS projects and articles?
Geoff

[peter_4059]

Nice image Geoff - is that the scale of the scope camera or a crop of a larger image?

Peter

[Geoff45]

There is a bit of a crop, because I took the image over 3 nights, so when I put them together, I cropped out the non-overapping bits
Geoff

[h0ughy]

fantastic image, well done. the detail for the 350 is wonderful

[Ric]

Great triplet Geoff, I always enjoy seeing imges of this trio.

Cheers

[strongmanmike]

Nice work Geoff, the FOV is perfect for these three but as Mike Salway says you need flats to finish it off. You sound like you may make your own but for what it's worth I have had great success with my new LightRing from AstroHandy if you were planning on a purchase:

http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/astrohandy_lightring

Great clear nights we had at Wiruna huh? Couldn't believe my luck first time around:eyepop:, planning the next trip allready :thumbsup:

Mike

[tornado33]

thats the deepest DSLR shot ive seen of those.
Scott

[Zuts]

Hi,

Good detail on the triplet. I think everyone is right about the flats. Just my opinion but maybe pushed one iteration with curves too far and consequently lost some of the colour.

Paul

[Geoff45]

Yes, maybe I tend to get a bit greedy about trying to extract too much from the pic.
Geoff