IC434/B33 - My first horse.

[AlexN]

After a rather successful nights imaging, I have here my first pic for this morning... its sort of a rushjob edit as I just wanted to see what I had...

This is the first time I've had the QHY8 working with autoguiding, and I must say, guided shots are much better than unguided..

Heres the Horse Head.

Details
6x600sec + 1x1200sec
Megrez 102 + QHY8
Offset 127
Gain 13

I have NO idea what to do with Alnitak... its out of control and im a bit lost... but, im still happy with my very own pony!

Alex.

[Kirkus]

That is so nice, Alex. I'm just a beginner and very inexperienced, and the Horse is one of those things that fascinates me. I hope to someday capture it myself.

I really like this shot of it.

[multiweb]

Good picture. Do you use flats yet? They make a big improvement with dust motes and vignetting. Depends on the OTA but in my case I can't do without them on bright objects. (i.e. Alnitak)

[AlexN]

Thanks guys..

Kirk, ever since I got into astronomy, (March this year) I've wanted my own image of the the horse head... I'm pretty happy with this shot, however I'll probably go it again tomorrow, add in some more data and hopefully smooth out the details..

Marc, Unfortunately, My lightbox is 0% of the way through construction :) so no, no flats yet... I do have to do it though.. and soon! :)

[multiweb]

Sky flats work very well for me. You should give it a go. Take 10-15 then stack them. Keep your max ADU under 20000 and you're good to go. Just divide your subs by the master flat.

[kinetic]

Alex,

well done mate....
Looks beautiful..

I was reading your M42 post and wondered where your Horsehead
image was...just found it :)

Ditto about wanting your own horsehead!
I've been at this game way longer than you and the horsehead
has always managed to frustrate me....
Keep them coming man!....now I'm off to check out your Eta C :)

Steve

[AlexN]

:) Now I've had some sleep im going to go back over the data for a 2nd attempt at editing.. :) should be a bit better :D

When I first got into astronomy, all I wanted to see was the horsehead, then I found out that to "see" it, you need mass aperture, dark skies, a Hbeta filter etc etc.. and still you only see black sky, with a hazy grey patch that has a little thumb print of black in it...

At that moment, I started saving towards the photography gear I use now. I figured If i was going to spend heaps and heaps of cash to see the horse out of my equipemnt, you can be damn sure im seeing it in full color and detail :D

Alex.

[Kevnool]

Really nice.....cheers Kev.

[bluescope]

HI Alex

Good start mate ... not an easy target ... needs lots of data to bring out the finer details. Here's a tweak of your post ... hope you don't mind. It's not a great job I'm afraid ... just messin' around.

:thumbsup:

[AlexN]

Steve, You should know by now, I always appreciate others having a stab at fixing up my images :)

I was hoping to spend another hour or two on it tonight, but was defeated by clouds...

Im starting to wish I hadnt spent so long on M42 (my continued semi-megadata project) and spent a few hours on the horse..... Next time... Theres always next time :)

[bluescope]

No worries mate ... I'm being really slack lately with my astronomy because I'll be moving to my dark sky location in 4 weeks time and I figure why keep fighting the light pollution, it won't get any better so I'll wait.

Keep at it !

:thumbsup:

[Matty P]

Awesome image Alex. Lots of really nice detail showing. Great to see some guided images from you.

:thumbsup:

[winensky]

Lovely first pony. Alnitak is always a challange. Others will be able to better explain using shorter exposures and then aplying masks to balance the beast. Check masks in ps help.

[AlexN]

Thakns guys..

Matt - I know how to use layer masks with shorter exposures, I just didnt think of it in this case.. I'll give it a go next time with some 2 - 3 minute exposures...

[iceman]

Flats flats flats! You'll never go back.

Mighty fine effort, Alex. Big improvements in a short time!

[jjjnettie]

:thumbsup:
Very nice work Alex.

[AlexN]

Thanks JJJ... my 8 month long wish has been fulfilled in this image... Now.. to better it with 10x20min subs! :D (and a different UV/IR filter to get rid of that halo)

[jase]

Yes, sound advice from others re Flats...it will certainly step up your image quality.

You've capture the scene well. With different objects in the one fov with varying intensities, it can be beneficial to layer these for controlling the contrast. Its is important however to keep the objects relative. DDP stretches don't work very well in these situations, so typical levels and curves will deliver the best result. Nice work. Keep it up.

[winensky]

Sorry Alex, I should have looked at your number of posts but I'm still fairly new to the forum and don't know everyone that well yet. Good luck!

[AlexN]

no no, Thanks for the advice, as I said, I had not even considered it for this image.. :)

Dont let my number of posts fool you - I've only been around since March this year... :) Im just a bit of a post-a-holic :)

[atalas]

Hi Alex

This is a great first go at the Alnitak Region mate!congrats.

[Octane]

Alex,

Well done on your first go. As others have said, flats will help!

I know all about what Alnitak can do to your image.

This (http://www.pbase.com/octane2/image/88835068/original.jpg) is what I had to contend with. And, this (http://members.optusnet.com.au/mrozycka/Magellan_Observatory/Magellan_Observatory_20071112_Alnit ak.html) is what the final image looked like.

Regards,
Humayun

[Omaroo]

Nice image Alex :)

Sorry, but I couldn't help myself - here's my take on your image. Alnitak's flare is usually too severe to do much with, and I think that we should all sign a petition to have it moved ou of frame.

Well done! :thumbsup:

[AlexN]

Thanks Humayun & Chris,

Humayan, That horse head of yours is fantastic! :) SNR looks perfect!!

Chris, That redo looks great... Can you tell me what you did to achiece the better contrast without losing too much of the nebulosity?

I will gladly sign that petition! :)

I was saying on the CN forums just the other day.. Alnitak is perhaps one of the worst placed objects in the sky (although if it wasnt for Alnitak, the horse head would be virtually unlit..)

3 Most poorly placed objects in the sky..
1 - The Flame Nebula... It would get so much more attention, if it were not near the horse head,
2 - The Running Man Nebula, It to would get heaps of attention, if it was not placed right next door to one of the most recognizable deep sky objects
3 - Alnitak, If it were mag 4/5, it would be less hated by astro photographers :)

[Omaroo]

Alex - I first upsized it (yep!) to 2048px wide. I then did a Gaussian Blur to atificially remove some noise. I then adjusted levels to bring the mid tones down a little towards black. Curves next - added some linear contrast and then finally adjusted saturation up just a tad to bring out the colour in the nebulosity. The last step was to then downscale it back to 800 px wide and adjust brightness up a little because this forum tends to darken images a bit for some reason.

Have you got a link to the original? I'd like to see what I can do with it for a bit of fun if you do :)

[AlexN]

i could upload the unedited tiff if you'd like to have a go at it for me, that'd be great..

Its 35mb, 16bit 3014x2000px If you're cool with that, let me know and I'll upload it


Alex.

[Omaroo]

No problems with that - go for it! :)

[AlexN]

uploading now....

[AlexN]

It doesn't like the Tiff.. uploading a zip...


Anyone else who feels like having a go at it, feel free..

[Jen]

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup: very nice Alex keep em coming :D i want a poster size copy in the mail thanx :lol::lol::P

[AlexN]

finally...

http://users.on.net/~kooliez/alexnastro/Autosave.zip

Thanks

[AlexN]

I had another stab at processing..

Using a few of the techniques that Chris pointed out earlier in the thread, I also copied the red channel, converted it to grey scale and added it as a synthetic luminance layer (blended into the red and blue channels at various levels of opacity/fill)

I think its got more detail that the initial post.. I think the best answer here is capturing more data! :) :D

Next time its clear, I'll try and get 12x10min subs and 6x20min subs and see how it goes... :)

[Jen]

:thumbsup: nice Alex lets hope for some clear nites this weekend cheers :thumbsup: