Barambah Dark Sky Camp - Images.

[AlexN]

Heres some of what I got done at Barambah the past 3 nights..

Firstly, I wanted to get some colour to add to my M8 - M20 Ha Luminance... What I actually ended up with was 54x5min (4hrs 30min) of data...

I have posted 3 versions of this shot.

#1 - OSC Data only - 54x300sec, 24x Darks, 13 flats.
#2 - (R+Ha)GB image - 54x300sec RGB, 18x1200sec Ha, full calibration
#3 - Ha(R+Ha)GB - Data as above. (Cropped, the camera angle of the Ha image did not match that of the RGB shots.. so I cropped out the areas that were not boosted by the Ha.)

I personally think the 2nd one is the best, although the nebulosity looks the strongest in #3, and the star fields look nicer in #1.... I suppose, Work in progress...

Next Up, M33.
This one is a mix and match..
13x5min + 5x20min, 24x5m darks, 5x20m darks 13 flats

M45.. This one had to be cropped down, as the camera rotation was changed slightly on night one.

26x5min, 24x darks, 13x flats.



Still to come :
NGC 253 - 18x600sec.
IC434 - 24x300sec RGB + 12x1200sec Ha (Processing Nightmare.)

Thanks for looking - Higher res images will become available.. After I get some SLLEEEEP!!

[gbeal]

Stunning, nice and sharp too.
Gary

[renormalised]

Nice shots, Alex:D. Like #3 of M8/M20, and the Pinwheel looks good. M45 is good but there seems to be a lot of background noise.

[multiweb]

:eyepop: What a set! I'm jealous. Sounds like you guys had wonderful skies. Well done! :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Hey Alex they are great. I like the first Lagoon/Trifid actually, I like the misty glow it sports, looks nice and natural.

Good to capture M33 too.

Mike

[suma126]

ALL OF THEM LOOK SPOT ON AND NICE AND SHARP :thumbsup:

[dpastern]

Good shots Alex, I like #2 from M8 (#3 is a bit too strong, #1 a bit too weak colour wise, imho). M33 is very good, I believe it's a fairly faint target. M45 is a bit noisy, but lots of good nebulosity there. Were these taken with the RC?

Dave

[Hagar]

Very nice collection Alex. I tend towards the lovely detailed galaxy (M33). It looks great out in the inky black of space.

Well done.

[AlexN]

Thanks guys..

Gary - Yes very sharp indeed... FWHM on most of the subs is below 1.19... Would you expect any less from the 80/480 though ! :)

Carl - Cheers, I was VERY happy to be able to attack these northern targets.. M45 and M33 are both quite inaccessible from my back yard due to the neighbours house and a pesky street light..

Mike - Thanks mate.. I am really happy with all 3 of the M8+M20 renditions.. Each has its positives and negatives I think.. I definitely appreciate your marathon images more after this weekend... The M8+M20 shots were taken Friday and Sunday nights, 27 subs per night... getting it lined up so that it was all in roughly the same spot was VERY difficult.. And none of my images required a meridian flip!! Dont know how you did it! :D

Shane - Thanks

Dave - Thanks, Agreed on the M8 shots, if I had to pick one I liked best it would be #2, for the same reason as you mentioned.. M33 is rather dim, however I think most of the problem with imaging it is how low it is to the horizon. If I had my time again, I would not have bothered with the 13x5min subs at all, and spent as much time capturing 20min subs as possible.. Probably should have skipped M45 and flipped the mount to keep imaging M33... Oh well... Next month! :D

[dpastern]

I probably agree with M33 - it is low on the horizon (saw it on Friday night). Why not have a crack at Tarantula nebula as well :) It's my fave neb at the moment.

Dave

[AlexN]

Thanks Doug - I Couldn't believe the sky background in M33 being so dark given 20 minute exposures... from home, 20 minutes exposure = totally green image.. Barambah is DEFINITELY worth the 3.5hr drive from home! :D

Dave - NGC 2070 is on the "To-Do" list. With this little 80mm scope I'm using I will get quite a lot of the LMC in the shot too.. Should be interesting to say the least!

[dannat]

congrats on the capture of nebulosity surrounding m45

[dpastern]

I'm looking forward to seeing NGC 2070 :)

Dave

[RobF]

Great work Alex. Looks like you've milked some serious photons there! My favs are M8/M20 and.....

Heck - they're all favs! - looking forward to seeing more work on them.

Rob

[jjjnettie]

Really nice work Alex.
Though I must say that your M33 has really lost a lot of detail. Probably due to compression? The original was much much better.

[marc4darkskies]

Nice images Alex. I like #3 - it has the best colour, but it would look better with the same framing as #2. M33 is looking pretty darn good too! Nice work!

Cheers, Marcus

[Tandum]

I like framing on 1&2 and colour on 3.
So this was the first Barambah without equipment problems?
You must have bags of data :)

[David Fitz-Henr]

Great shots Alex ! I vote for #3 - nice detail and colour.

[AlexN]

between compression and noise reduction the m33 shot did lose some of its sharpness and extension in the arms.. Will repro the data and see how i go..

[TheDecepticon]

Definitely all great shots!!:)

[ozstronomer]

These are great shots Alex, you should be very happy with them
all the effort last weekend seems to have paid of nicely.:)

I'm looking foward to seeing the rest of the shots especially your Horsehead image.

Thanks for your company each night, your advise will be put to good use.

Geoff

[[1ponders]]

Nice shots Alex:thumbsup: But where are those 'other' shots? ;)

[AlexN]

Geoff - Thanks mate, happy to have helped!! The Horsehead shot is being a REAL pain to process... I should have run 10 min subs at least rather than 5mins.. and blending it with the 7.5hrs Ha I have is NIGHTMARE!! :D These ones were relatively easy to process... M8/M20 especially... It required two iterations of curves and levels followed by some slight sharpening and a 10% boost in saturation...

Paul - the "Other" shots will be posted in the Barambah thread in the Star Parties section! :) :D

Cheers guys.. Was great to have people to talk to while imaging!

[Buddman]

Great shots Alex, the second version of M 8/20 is my pick I have just posted my version of Pleiades, nearly didn't. If you thought yours was a bit so-so check out mine. Had a great night.

Adam

[AlexN]

Glad you had a good time mate.. I did as well... I'll check out your M45 in a few minutes, from the images that were downloading onto your laptop I would have thought the image would have turned out nicely!