So what does 6h 39min get you on M20?

[h0ughy]

Not much - when I meridian flipped I didn’t match the image properly so when I eventually combined the images I was left with this sad image. Despite being clear the seeing wasn’t all that good and the guiding was questionable because of gusty wind - the seeing was soft -very soft.

Anyway living with the ridicule now from the wife for staying up all night. This was just the first repro, only took 10 minutes in Pixinsight to get the mess. Stacked in DSS. it is made up of 133 x 3min shots iso800 cooled canon 40D ed127 on the g11 with a hotech field flattener thrown in for good measure. because of the flip I had to crop the image to attain the maximum data. Sad really. did two sizes but because of the amount of data I couldn’t get enough into the image jpeg wise to stop it being grainy - sorry? :shrug:

[bmitchell82]

Not a bad effort at all there Dave. The 40d does hit it quite hard especially with cooling, you should try and nock up the ISO to the next level if you have cooling! that way you can take nice short subs, with the cooling subduing the thermal noise.

The only other thing i could say about the processing i dunno if you touched up the dark neb or not, but it looks overly black considering the sky around the weed, if you have given it a little pep, you might want to try this method in PS.

make a duplicate of the layer and sit it above the back ground,
change the layer mode to soft light
put a layer mask Hide all
with the paint brush on white (25% opacity and 25% flow), and the layer mask selected, start brushing the areas to be darkend/contrasted.

Be light handed with this method as too much will bake the image, also keep flicking the layer visibility on and off to see what you have done and how far you have pushed it. I find it always makes those nice little dust lanes pop out without looking stupid :)

Good luck and hopefully your wife will congratulate you once you pop out a award winning image!

[suma126]

colors look really good.:thumbsup: i had ago at m20 last night but my guide scope froze up at o degrease. i for got to plug the dew heater in :doh:

[jjjnettie]

For a first run of processing it's pretty good. Looking forward to the repro's though.:)

[bluescope]

Looks to me like 6 hours and 39 minutes gets you an awful lot of stars :lol:

I would have thought you would achieve a bit more depth of detail to the nebulosity after that long an exposure ... colours are good and guiding etc ... will you be doing an all nighter again Dave ?

:thumbsup:

[h0ughy]

maybe, but light pollution kills long exposures:sadeyes: at a dark site there would be a whole lot more:D

[Bassnut]

Yes, more subs/less exposure time is the go for urban RGB, although 5 mins might have improved things, to get outer neb above read noise per sub (and 1600iso?).

Anyway David, its a good pic, the stars particularly look nice indeed.

[allan gould]

Dave - there is still Astrofest to do an all nighter in dark skies but be that as it may I still think you've done well. Good colours and focus.

[h0ughy]

Thanks Shane

Thanks JJJ will do that later

thanks for the tips

[h0ughy]

Thanks Fred, i did have some problems as set out in this (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=62233) I did have some light pollution problems

Allan how can one survive on 9 allnighters....:lol: Thanks for the comments

[bluescope]

I'm so glad I got out of the city ... light pollution used to drive me nuts so I sympathise completely mate !

:thumbsup:

[h0ughy]

actually should send you the full res file to remove the stars Fred to see what it looks like:D

[Lester]

Very nice image David.

[Bassnut]

You mean like this :P ;). (not flash, sml jpeg).

[h0ughy]

yes like that:D

[Bassnut]

OK, well, flick me a hi res, thatll be fun :thumbsup:

[David Fitz-Henr]

That doesn't look too bad to me Dave - colours look pretty good. Stars are a little soft, but what can one do about the seeing !?!

[gregbradley]

I quite like it David. Nice subtle hues.

If you want to sharpen up the stars perhaps deconvolution in Images Plus.

Greg.

[h0ughy]

Thanks David. I should make a gif file up showing the animation fio some stars throughout the whole night, you can see the seeing change from good to bad to worse then back.

Thanks, the image does offer a lot of Repros:lol:. I might try what you suggest

[h0ughy]

and I think this is a work of Art Fred - thanks for doing that:thanx::thumbsup:

[h0ughy]

well mate here is a closeup of the region not affected by jpegging it to death. make your own mind up.

oh and a repro V1

[gregbradley]

I think you've nailed it now David. Looks like you've got everything nicely worked out there. Pretty image.

Greg.

[bmitchell82]

Im with Greg, its got that little lift to it which is really nice! I also like how the repro has made the bright stars really shine with a nice glow to them! Well done and tell your wife that everbody thinks your image was Great :):thumbsup:

[RobF]

Yep - that's a fantastic triffid from surburbia really. Your wife is probably just worried you're going to move a bed out to the observatory next David. Long live the new observ.

[h0ughy]

thanks Greg

[Hagar]

Nice one David. Lots of nebulosity and a nice background.

Well done.

[h0ughy]

thanks Doug

[DavidU]

Very nice shot Dave. With a LP problem that's great work.

[h0ughy]

Thanks David -

[Prickly]

Di David,

I think it looks sensational. Its very impressive the amount of faint nebulosity across the image away from the main object- never seen that before.

You will encourage Fred! (only kidding Fred - the starless shots do look really good)

Cheers
David

[h0ughy]

Thanks David - as for Fred - he is good value:thumbsup:

[multiweb]

Shame about the registration because the data's good. Have you tried to align with registar?

[h0ughy]

it was all my fault - i didnt set the second image run properly and i was out a bit