Orion Mosaic

[bluescope]

Hi All

I finally got back home for a few days and had a clear night ... time to remember what I used to do before my accident ... believe me I couldn't even remember how to operate my mount controller etc. Anyway I can't spend too long sitting with my leg down these days so I decided to do 2x20 minute exposures of Orion and Running Man and mosaic stack them for fun to see how it would look. This is my first attempt at mosaic stacking and I had to clone the joins in CS3 but it's not too bad I think. As usual I burned out the core but then that's what you get with a single 20 minute exposure. Also for some reason DSS produced a greyscale image ... which I quite like actually. Anyhow I have to go back to the city tomorrow so this is it for a while.

:thumbsup:

DETAILS :

1x1200 sec exposure of each object mosaic stacked
WOFLT110 Triplet Apo Refractor
SBIG ST2000XCM selfguided with CCDOPS
EQ6 Pro
Stacked in DSS adjusted in CS3

[Mighty_oz]

Very nice, was this done with a lens ? Glad to see u back if only for a short time :)

[bluescope]

It was done with my WOFLT110 and SBIG ST2000XCM ... glad you like it !

:thumbsup:

[CoolhandJo]

Nice clear shot really!

[bluescope]

Thanks Paul !

:thumbsup:

[bartman]

I like the shot in grey scale too!
May I ask what accident you were involved in?
Bartman

[bluescope]

Cheers mate ... I slipped whilst photographing a local waterfall and fractured my right ankle in 3 places ... 2 surgeries and almost 5 months later I am almost back to normal ... although I may never be back to how I was :shrug:

:thumbsup:

[Jeffkop]

Great result Steve. There are mono images that happen along from time to time that always remind me to keep that door open too ... this is one of them. Thanks for showing.

[TrevorW]

Ripper Steve in mono

[mithrandir]

Steve I reckon ankles injuries are the worst, apart from spinal.

There are programs specifically for creating mosaics and they do a much better job than CS - but they do have a learning curve.

Iceman and I both use Autopano Pro. http://www.autopano.net (http://www.autopano.net/)
Hugin is free. http://hugin.sourceforge.net (http://hugin.sourceforge.net/)

You can do whatever CS processing you need to do on the individual frames.

Assuming they were all shot with the same setup (f-ratio, camera) don't resize, just let the mosaic software do the rest.

[bluescope]

Thanks Jeff
:thumbsup:



Cheers Trevor
:thumbsup:




I actually used DeepSkyStacker in mosaic mode Andrew but thanks for the links to other software mate ... I will take a look.

:thumbsup:

[Hagar]

Nice image Steve, Good to see you back on deck.

[Tamtarn]

Great image Steve particularly with just two exposures. :thumbsup:

Looks like DSS did a good job for the mosaic. Love to see you redo it in colour :)

[richardo]

Hi Steve,
good to see you're on the 'come back trail' !
You were lucky you only broke your ankle in 3 places... could have broken your neck mate....

Good to see your making your way out to the observatory again...
Keep at it and hope you're feeling a hell of a lot better now.

All the best for now
Rich

[bluescope]

Thanks Doug ... good to be back imaging !

:thumbsup:



Thanks guys ... I may redo in colour one day but I actually like the greyscale result ... colour can sometimes distract the eye from the structure of an object ... some of my favourite images are greyscale or Hydrogen Alpha.

:thumbsup:



Thanks Rich ... it's been a long wait, I've been trapped in the city glow for too long. I was lucky as you say, I could have cracked my head open on the rocks or worse ... I saw guys with a lot worse in hospital during my two week stay in there. Not an experience I want to repeat :( " HOUSE OF PAIN " ... glad it's all behind me :)

:thumbsup: