2 hours on M8

[bluescope]

Hi All

I finally got out in my observatory the other night before we were due for weather change and shot the Lagoon Nebula. This is the longest exposure of any object for me so far. I'm not sure my processing is the best. I stacked the .fit images in DSS and processed the Autosave 32 bit 4800x3600 file in PS CS3. Didn't do too much really. Anyway hope you like the result.


20x360sec @-16 ( total 2 hours )
SW 254mm F4.7Newt
SW EQ6 Pro
SBIG ST2000XCM self guided with CCDOPS
MPCC,UV/IR,IDAS LPS2


:astron:

[jase]

Processing looks good Steve. The 2 hours of data has done this target justice. Looks almost too smooth.;) Keep up the good work.

[bluescope]

Thanks Jase .... it makes a big difference working with the .fit files I think. Glad you like it !

:thumbsup:

[renormalised]

Great piccie, Steve:)



Capt Kirk: "What's all this red mist around here??!!! Will someone explain"

Spock:"That Sir, is a nebula, the Lagoon Nebula to be precise"

Kirk: "Rubbish, Spock. Someone farted in here and they've got hemmorrhoids....the person responsible better see me in my ready room"

Spock: "Yes, Captain"

[bluescope]

Cheers ... not quite sure who I'm replying to Spock or Kirk ! :whistle:

:thumbsup:

[Matty P]

Beautiful image Steve. The two hours of exposures has really help bring out this nebula quite nicely.

Excellent colour and very smooth.

Well done.

[bluescope]

Thanks Matt !

:thumbsup:

[Bassnut]

Steve, very nice, but the level was way out on the histogram.. (high background)

A level tweak and slight curves.

[skeltz]

excellent image steve,you are really getting the hang of things now,your tracking and guiding look good:thumbsup:

[bluescope]

The levels didn't look that bad on my computer Fred but I guess it comes down to personal taste in the end. I do actually like the look of your tweak as well.

:thumbsup:



Thanks Rob, things are definitely getting better with practice. Long way to go still !

:thumbsup:

[Tandum]

Gee that big newt really has some reach doesn't it.
This crappy image is off my SW 8" DOB, there's a big difference in FOV.
What's the focal length of the 10", 1200mm?

[bluescope]

That " big DOB " is an F4.7 Newtonian actually Robin .... very similar I agree .... it has 1200mm focal length. The difference in FOV is probably also to do with the SBIG camera mounted in a 2" eyepiece holder as opposed to your DSLR probably mounted at prime focus. I wish I could get a wider fov but in a dedicated astro CCD that costs lots of bucks and I'm not up for that sort of expense at this time. Also a big difference between your image and mine is probably the total exposure time. I also have a 200mm SW F5 Newt and it's a great scope, it just needs more time to gather the same amount of light as the 254mm. I see you have a HEQ5 so you should have no problems doing long exposures as long as you have a guiding setup. The SBIG guides itself with a second inbuilt chip which is very handy.

:thumbsup:

[Tandum]

I edited my post to newt, I didn't realise they made such a big one till I looked it up.

RE the FOV difference, I don't really understand this but the really crap images I have from my DSI camera are way narrower than this canon. I just thought the sensor was smaller and didn't see as much. I'll hit up my brother in law the optician for info on the weekend :)

I got 5 hours worth of M20 here -> http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=33082 but it didn't impress me at all. The gradient was really hard to remove, see the red haze to the lower left. I now have a CLS filter installed and I do have a BCF filter coming from honkers for the camera with a view to getting a HA component to these images.

I am guiding 17.5Kgs on that HEQ5pro. I have an eq6 on order :)

[bluescope]

No worries about the newt reference Robin. The chip in the SBIG is considerably smaller than a canon 1600x1200, same size pixels though ... you can find details here :
http://sbig.com/sbwhtmls/online.htm (http://sbig.com/sbwhtmls/online.htm)

Another thing that helps with the SBIG is the cooling .... up to 30 degrees below ambient with fan and a bit more with water, although I haven't used water yet, I may next summer.

I bought GradientXTerminator to deal with sky gradients US$49.95 from Russel Croman's site :
http://www.rc-astro.com/resources/GradientXTerminator/ (http://www.rc-astro.com/resources/GradientXTerminator/)
I just looked at your M20 images I don't know what's going on with your colours there ... the red area may be amp noise. DSLR's have the signals amplified whereas astro ccd's don't .... but I'm no expert mate !

You should find the EQ6 handles your gear better. My scope weighs in at 14.6kg plus probably another 1.7kg for camera and mpcc, electric focuser etc. They are a very sturdy mount .... enjoy.

:thumbsup:

[2020BC]

Really nice image, Steve.:thumbsup:

[bluescope]

Thanks Bill !

:thumbsup:

[Robert_T]

2 hours well spent from what I can see... makes a difference with noise reduction and smoothness... great pic!!!

[bluescope]

Yeah Robert, until you do these things you don't really get it ay, no matter how many times you read tutorials seeing is believing. I wish I could get CCDSOFT working so I could set and forget ... at the moment I am setting up shots manualy between each indivdual frame ... a bit tedious ... but worth it. I have to wait for clear skies here to do maybe M16 for a couple of hours next.

:thumbsup: