A eye on the Helix

[Garyh]

Hi Folks,
Well between the clouds and the wind I managed to get 3 descent nights imaging :thumbsup:. This night the transparency was average and so was the seeing and only a few small patchy clouds, so after that moon had set I aimed at the good old Helix neb....
Done 26 subs at 6min but only 22 were usable due to naughty clouds...
Overall I am quiet happy with it and if tonight is good I shall add another 2 hours..fingers crossed there!
Some minor processing work in PixInsight then the rest in PS CS.
Still learning the best way to stretch the data with the 20D as I find it slighty different to the 300D.

Image resized to 50% and cropped to post..
Cheers and thanks for looking...:)
Gary

[Dennis]

That is an excellent image Gary, a really lovely portrait of the Helix in a nice wide setting. Top stuff!

The background might be a little too dark? If so, then lifting it a little may help display more of the fainter nebulosity, provided colour noise doesn’t begin to creep in.

Cheers

Dennis

[Lester]

Top image Gary. I enjoyed viewing it.

Could you go longer than 6 minutes to help bring out the outer nebulosity?

[bluescope]

Nice Helix Gary !

As Dennis said if you bring the bottom end of your levels up a bit it reveals some more faint details around the edges and the tail ( as I think of it ). You could apply it as a duplicate layer if you like to have more control over effect and then flatten the image when you are happy with it. Try applying as a hard light layer about 50-60%, gives added contrast and deep colour.

I like your effort anyway so don't take this as a criticism.

:thumbsup:

[Ric]

A fine image Gary, nice colour and detail.

[tornado33]

Very nice, youve recorded the Northeast arc. a very faint part indeed.
Scott

[Garyh]

Thanks Dennis, :thumbsup: It was a quick process and I shall spend a little more time to see if I can get some more detail from it..
cheers



Thanks Lester, I should have used longer subs as the originals are rather dim. I might try 8 min subs the next run and see how I go? But with my setup I start getting some rejects with the longer subs.
Thanks for that...:)



No worries Steve, all comments welcome (actually I like some good criticism!) I have ever tried blending with the hard light option, might have to give it a go! I shall redo this and see what I can get out with a bt more tweaking! :thumbsup:



Ta Ric!...:thumbsup: like always, glad you enjoyed having a look!
CS Gary



Thanks Scott..Was hoping to capture those cometary bok thingys towards the center which I have just managed but yes that fainter outer ring is just showing its self...
Thanks for looking.
cheers Gary

[jjjnettie]

Love it!

[beren]

:thumbsup: Top image Gary,very nice colour.

[Tilt]

Great image, top notch guiding.

Michael.

[peeb61]

Very nice Gary! Just love the colour.

Paul

[dugnsuz]

Nice image Gary.

Overall looks very smooth, with very little in the way of background noise - maybe a tad too much noise reduction?? Would that be fair?:shrug:
Shoot me down if necessary - perhaps I've just grown used to seeing so much of it on my images, but when it's not there I miss the old noise!!!:lol:

Love the image
Doug:thumbsup:

[Kevnool]

Very Nice a pleasure to see...cheers Kev.

[jase]

That's some sweet looking work Gary. Colours look spot on. Well done.

[Garyh]

Thanks Jeanette, Beren, Michael, Paul, Doug, Kev and Jase...
Have reprocessed the image and have brought out the fainter arc better and a little more detail in the neb itself but just a tad noisier.

Doug... Just a very small amount of noise reduction done on this, it was a real cold night with plenty of frost! and this 20D has low noise compared to my old 300D :)
Thanks for looking!

[h0ughy]

lovely image Gary, it is great to see what you have achieved

[EzyStyles]

yes, you've got a rare lower noise 20D as opposed to the other 20D's out there ;) excellent image Gary .definitely a hard object can see the faint lines from the outer edges as well as the red arch.

[strongmanmike]

Noise?...did someone say NOISE?..where??..whyyy I orta, DOH! :doh:

Just kidding Gary, this is a really nice looking Helix with nice vivid colour, the outer faint arcs showing through nice and subtly too... I would love a 20D :D

Mike

[gregbradley]

A very nice image of a difficult object.

The Helix is an extremely dim object and to get the outer nebulosity without using an Ha filter would be a very big ask.

Greg.

[Jeffkop]

Thats a nice image Gary .. Im always impressed how people can get such noise free images with that amount of data. Ive just added another 2 hrs of luminance to 1hr I already had of the veil nebula, and I cant come up with ANYTHING that comes close to the amount of noise in this picture.

Well Done

[marc4darkskies]

A belated well done Gary - a lovely image, spot on colour, great work! :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Cheers, Marcus