Ic 2948 2

[beren]

Gday I had another go at IC 2948.... I was hoping to have a nice number of lights/darks but had some difficulties first up with the camera and some strange shutter operation. I switched from 12vDC to AC and the symptoms disappeared and everything was sweet, very strange my battery is a 70amp type and fully charged. With the delay I only managed to grab 5x10 mins lights and darks with bias and flats using a FSQ-106 and ST-4000xcm. Little bit frustrating with the delay :P I was also keen to try this plugin for CCDsoft for auto-dithering http://www.pk.darkhorizons.org/AutoDither.htm

Thanks for looking and clear skies :thumbsup:

[pgc hunter]

very nice aesthetically pleasing shot of the "running chicken".

[multiweb]

Very nice. Great colors and details. Well framed :thumbsup:

[spearo]

well done Beren
tracking and focus are spot on
nice image
it may be my mnitor but it might benefit from a slight adjustment of the black point? to darken the background sky? or perhaps select highlights (stars) inverse selection and adjust the curves slightly?
just a thought
cheers
frank

[atalas]

Hi Beren,very nice shot !

[jase]

Nice image, however I think you've still got a little work to do to get the rig really dialled in. When looking at the higher resolution image on your website. Stars show a nipple at the 5 o'clock position. This may have compounded the resolution of the image as it looks as though its lacking some punchy details. It would be a good idea to graph your guider x/y correction is Excel to see if the corrections are quite aggressive or over correcting. Its good practice to do what ever you can to reduce the amount of guiding corrections. The less corrections, the better as it means your mount is tracking the object well. If possible, tune PEC and review the scope's balance. Its can sometimes be the little things that are over looked making the guider work overtime. Dithering...yep its a marvellous thing for reducing random noise with combine algorithms, just make sure you're dithering enough to be of benefit, but not too much where you knock the guide star off the internal guide chip (if you happen to be using a camera with such functionality). As others have said, raising the black point would boost the contrast and colour. Looks a rather washed out at present. Keep at it. Look forward to seeing more as you get the bugs out of the system.

Cheers

[beren]

:thumbsup: Thanks for the feedback guys....Thanks Jase for tips, I did notice during capture the auto-guiding working harder then normal :P at that stage I was overcoming some frustration figuring out the shutter/power issue but the subs looked ok and I didn't notice the spike until later on while processing DOH :doh:

[Tamtarn]

Very pleasant widefield image Beren

[RB]

Stuart, that's a very nice image and once you get everything ironed out, you'll be rock'n !!

As was stated earlier, adjusting the black point slightly will bring up the contrast nicely.

It's stange to read about your power problems with the DC and AC.
I assumed you checked for any loose connections, I assume it's the same cable you used for both power sources?

Looking forward to more from your wonderful setup mate !

Cheers

[iceman]

Lovely work Stuart, i agree a tad more contrast but a lovely image.