Full Moon Imaging.. 3 Targets. High res images added.

[AlexN]

Despite the full moon, I've been imaging all night until about 4am when the clouds came and said it was image processing time...

Throughout the night, I captured:
M16 - 7x1200sec 7nm Ha
M42 - 5x300sec + 5x20sec 7nm Ha
IC434 - 3x1200sec 7nm Ha.

All are calibrated images..

Thanks go to Robin (Tandum) for building my flat-box, and for loaning me his Ha filter and OIII filter. I hope to catch some OIII data of M16 and IC434 to make up some bi-colour NB images..

Captured using MaximDL, PHD Guide.
Stacked in DSS, Processed in PS CS4.

Cheers for looking!! (High res images coming after I get some MUCH needed sleep... although probably not of M42... not enough data to even bother really :D )


EDIT
High Res Images Uploaded.. (Warning: Approx 2mb each)

M16 Ha (http://www.darkskyau.com/cm/displayimage.php?album=15&pos=22)
IC434 Ha (http://www.darkskyau.com/cm/displayimage.php?album=15&pos=23)
M16 HaRGB Composite (http://www.darkskyau.com/cm/displayimage.php?album=15&pos=21)
IC434 HaRGB Composite (http://www.darkskyau.com/cm/displayimage.php?album=15&pos=10)

[dugnsuz]

Really like the detail you've got on the M16 image despite the bit of noise there. 20 minute subs are good going from the HEQ5 - doesn't look like there's any star trailing from the small pics.
That one will look very nice with the addition of the OIII data. All that faint nebular extension in colour!! Lovely.

The Horsehead image is great too - I never tire of looking at this area in Ha.

Doug

[gregbradley]

Great looking Ha images Alex. You've got your setup singing.

Greg.

[RB]

Nicely done Alex.
Good detail there, looking forward to the hi res versions.

So these are with the Orion Starshoot Pro I assume ??

[AlexN]

Thanks guys...

Doug - Yeah, I've been really shocked by the HEQ5. Its taken everything I've thrown at it without missing a beat.. Next time I wont hesitate pushing out to 30 minutes to see what happens.. I must say I think tracking accuracy is due to the fact that my guide setup has a higher Arcsec : Pixel ratio than my imager.. so sub-pixel guiding is less than 1/4 of a pixel in the final image... This does make for very nice looking stars.

Greg - Cheers mate, Yes finally I think Im getting somewhere with all of this! :)

Andrew - These were taken with the Starshoot Pro.. My only little quarrel with the camera is that it is a little noisy.. Darks help, but more exposure, as always, helps more... :) I'll get it eventually :)


Now... Onto something I think is rather interesting..
I took the 2 hours OSC data I got last new moon, and combined it with the 2 hours Ha data from last night giving me a HaRGB image that I'm fairly pleased with.. Looking for input though..

12x600sec OSC + 6x1200sec Ha, Manually aligned then processed in Photoshop CS4

Will add links to high res images in under an hour..

Thanks again for the kind comments so far.

[AlexN]

High Res Images. (Warning: Approx 2mb each)

M16 Ha (http://www.darkskyau.com/cm/displayimage.php?album=15&pos=22)
IC434 Ha (http://www.darkskyau.com/cm/displayimage.php?album=15&pos=23)
M16 HaRGB Composite (http://www.darkskyau.com/cm/displayimage.php?album=15&pos=21)

[AlexN]

Aaaaannnddd...

Here is the horsehead Ha image combined with an RGB image I took on the 6th of december 2008...

This was rather difficult as the horsehead image was taken with a different camera, and different focal length telescope...

Details:
Luminance : 3x1200sec Ha, Orion SS Pro, TMB/LOMO 80mm F/6 triplet.
OSC : 10x300sec, QHY8, WO Megrez 102mm F/7 doublet

I think this one has come together nicely too... Looking for other opinions/suggestions.

High Res (http://www.darkskyau.com/cm/displayimage.php?album=15&pos=10)

[renormalised]

Nice shots Alex...little too much read in that HH one.

[AlexN]

Thanks Carl.. Funny you should mention the red... I realised it myself after uploading it.. I'll have another look at it in the next day or so and see what I can do...

[marki]

Nice pics alex. I think most of us underestimate the HEQ5.

Mark

[AlexN]

Indeed Mark.. I know I did...

I think it all comes down to you not expecting too much from your gear.. A lot of people have trouble with HEQ5's when imaging with 8" newts, guide scopes etc etc...

My imaging rig, the whole lot - scopes, dovetails, rings, cameras, extension peices correctors etc weighs in at 6.6kgs. thats it. and thats essentially what people need to remember when considering what mount to buy... How much weight do I plan to have in total, What mount will hold 2~3x that weight? The HEQ5 will carry 17kgs... I have 6.6kgs on it and I run 20 minute exposures all night long without losing a single exposure to a guiding error... It ain't rocket science.

[multiweb]

Very cool set of pics Alex. The HH is my favourite. Nice Ha blends too :thumbsup:

[AlexN]

Cheers Marc. I'll be getting some OIII data this week and on the coming weekend.. Hopefully I can create some nice Bi-colour images..

[Hagar]

Veery nice Alex but as you said I think a bit more data is warranted.

Keep at it Mate.

[Screwdriverone]

Hi Alex,

Those Ha pics at the beginning of the thread are great! Normally, I don't go for Ha as it's not my cup of tea, but those really drew me in.

Nice work buddy, very impressive.

Cheers

Chris

[AlexN]

Thanks guys...
Doug - Will be going at them again this weekend weather permitting.. Hopefully double the amount of subs on M16 giving 4hrs total Ha, and going to move my setup so that I can image the horse head a little earlier in the night.. I feel If I can get another 7x20min subs on the horse head it should be looking mighty fine!

Chris - Cheers mate.. I happen to be a big narrowband junkie myself.. I love the wild colours of the hubble pallete, and as such I see the black and white images as the green channel in an upcoming project haha..

Cheers.
alex.

[strongmanmike]

Some nice stuff going on there Alex :thumbsup:

Although they are a bit noisey, I do like the Ha only images.

The colour blends don't really work for me as they aren't natural looking nor do they have that full narrow band look either, which can work, still, an interesting exercise I am sure and nothing wrong with a bit of experimenting huh? :)

Are you really colour blind? if so how do you colour blend?

Mike

[AlexN]

I am whats known as colour deficient. I can see most of the spectrum, but the in between shades are a bit iffy for me... it makes colour blending VERY difficult... Essentially, what I did was as follows..

Process Ha data to the point where it looks at its best (this is easy, black and white.. not much can go wrong here)
Process the OSC data to look like other images of the horse head I've seen, this usually gets me close, but not always close enough.. I copied the OSC data as a layer on top of the Ha data, applied a few transforms to line it up (the OSC data was taken at 714mm F/L, the Ha at 480mm.. this part took some time to get right)
Once they were lined up, I set the Ha blend mode to Luminosity, the OSC layer to Colour. I applied slight blur to the colour image to reduce the noise a little and there you have it... HaOSC blend. Probably not the best way to do it.. but it did work.. and that image compared to the Horsehead OSC data on its own is 1000x better..

I personally both prefer the look of tri-colour narrowband images, and think that for me it will be the easiest way to get pleasing results.. Nobody will tell me "your colours are wrong" :D haha.. Have a dig through my image threads.. people are always pointing out colour issues, or background green biases etc that I simply can not see... Makes life tricky...

I personally prefer the Ha only images too Mike, despite the noise brought on by lack of total exposure time... I think they are quite effective... I have an OIII filter here to try out in the next few nights.. and hopefully do some NB colour images either H O O or O H O pallete... who knows.. and as you say, an interesting exercise no matter what the result...

[multiweb]

Funny I have a mate with a similar color problem and he loves doing NB processing. To him the contrast is easier to work with rather than standard RGB.

[DavidU]

The geegee is great

[AlexN]

Thats my thoughts exactly Marc.. I've found processing up the black and white images exceedingly easy in comparison to processing OSC images.. and with narrowband, you cant be wrong, its just a different interpretation of the processing.. Also, to my eyes, narrowband images in hubble pallete look more appealing than visible light images... I would imagine that has a lot to do with my vision, and my love for extreme contrast! :D


David - GeeGee?

[RobF]

Really nice work Alex, particularly the Ha images. I love the soft nebulosity in the widefield view of the Eagle, and the Horsehead area is showing some beautiful faint strands coming out above it. Whatever you're doing, do more of it!

The colour in the composites is a bit glaring for me (purplish?), but I've no experience with composite so not fair to be bagging.

Interesting commets re the HEQ5Pro too. My view has always been that they are often underestimated. I agree you wouldn't want to be putting much more than an 8" newt on though with guiding gear - shorter focal ratio helps those in my situation too I guess.

Glad the Starshoot Pro is proving itself and looking forward to more (after you've topped up on sleep :lol:)

[AlexN]

All topped up on sleep Rob.. provided the weather is good, tomorrow night I'll be out under the stars attacking M16 again with more 20 minute subs, and also hitting the horse head again, both tomorrow and saturday night.. I want to have as much total exposure as I have time to capture on the horse head..

I agree about the colour blends.. It was pretty much an experiment.. I will try again another time following Dietmar's guide on blending NB and OSC data together.. I might have more luck that way than with my hotch potch approach.. :D

Thanks again for the comments Rob.. Will you be joining us up at Barambah for new moon mate?

[RobF]

Not looking good at this point Alex - don't think I'll be able to get away this time. I'm actually still digesting pics I took at Astrofest. Barambah is a great spot for sure - know you'll all be having fun :)

[Octane]

Alex,

My favourite of the bunch is definitely the M16 hydrogen alpha.

It has an almost surreal quality to it.

I was going to suggest adding a bit of contrast so that the pillars are defined, but, then, it'd lose the surreal quality it currently possesses.

Keep at it!

Regards,
Humayun