M20 with Repro at the end.

[Hagar]

Last night started out looking quite poor with a reasonable amount of high clouds floating through. I couldn't knock back a half decent night so this was the result. Guiding was not as good as I had hoped for but I think it may have been a balance problem after working on the mount during the day.

The image is of M20.
7 X 10 minutes Luminance binned 1x1
5 X 10 minutes each RGB binned 2x2
Captured with QHY9 and QHY LRGB filters
Telescope: GSO RC8" at F8

Processed using CCDStack and PS CS4
HiRes image here: http://www.darkskyau.com/cm/displayimage.php?pid=259&fullsize=1

Thanks for looking, comments welcomed

Not real sure about this second image but it shows a bit more of the reflection nebula that was missing in the first image.

The final image is the final repro I will do it is a combination of both images with a few tweaks.

[h0ughy]

nice looking image Doug

[desler]

Plenty of detail in there Doug, Really spectacular star colours!


Nice.


Darren

[TrevorW]

Very nice Doug maybe balance your star colour as appear to be too many red ones IMO

Yet to do myself

Cheers

[Hagar]

Thanks David



Thanks Darren, Maybe a bit to much colour but never mind.



Thanks Trevor, perhaps I need to do a bit of selective saturation on the stars.

[gregbradley]

Nice image Doug. The red part of the Trifid looks great and you captured the large extent of the blue reflection neb but it doesn't look very blue.

Perhaps curves on the blue channel will bring it up as the image overall may be skewed a bit too much to the red and a tad too much to the green and not enough to blue.

I don't think the star shapes affect the image that much.

Greg.

[Bolts_Tweed]

Nice stuff Doug. Nice detail especially.

I imaged this on the weekend in widefield with the Televue and was amazed at the amount of golden background stars surrounding it once you get away from the opaque'r part of the neb (should've expected it knowing where it is I suppose).

You've captured it well mate - congratulations

Mark

[Hagar]

Thanks Greg I will have a look at that and see what I can do. I had really expected a bit more of the blue for the overall exposure time.



Thanks Mark, The golden stars do make it a very pretty nebula indeed.

[toryglen-boy]

you gotta be happy with that Doug, its excellent

thanks for sharin'

:)

[TheDecepticon]

Hi Doug! Good detail for sure, and good colours! Love those GSO's and the 8300 chip.:thumbsup:

[Hagar]

Thanks Duncan.



Thanks Gray, They do seem to work well together. The CCD size fits the 2" focuser and baffle tube without vignetting, can't say the same for bigger CCD's

[Octane]

Another beauty, Doug.

Agree with Greg, though, would look much better if you can tease the blues out. : )

H

[CoolhandJo]

Great shot! The colours are rich and the detail is good. Lovely to look at.

[Paul Haese]

Doug I reckon somewhere between the two is the right balance. I like the blue of the one on the right and the deep red of the one on the left. This is a target I want to re-image with the QSI. It begs long exposure time I think. Although the bright star on the upper right can be troublesome.

The stars is my only real criticism. Stars have been my bug bare too. I know how frustrating getting stars round is when imaging in longer focal lengths.

I reckon one more decent crack at this and you will have it nailed.

[multiweb]

Plenty of neb in there. I agree with Paul. 50% blend in between the two and you got a neat shot. :thumbsup:

[Hagar]

Thanks Mate, It is so hard to know which way to go with the processing. I will give it another try and see what I end up with.



Thanks Paul, it's all a big learning game and I feel I am starting to get the feel of it.



Stars! I am starting to hate them, at least when you add a bit of focal length to the equation. I will give this another go when it sits on the opposite side of the meridian. Maybe even get a bit longer exposure next time.
Thanks Paul



Thanks Marc, I will give it a go when I free up the laptop with the files on it. At the moment it is busy building a dark library.

[Phil Hart]

nice work doug.. M20 is a lovely object to work with. somewhere in the fainter outer parts of this there is i think even supposed to be some green. quite deep to get that though i think? otherwise i agree with most of the other comments too.

and one day you'll have to tell me what drove you back towards mono imaging ;)

phil

[Hagar]

Thanks Phil, More exposure may show this up but quite a bit more would be required I think. I have returned to Mono by popular demand. It seems to be almost the standard for imaging, at least very deep resolution. I decided I would give it a serious attemp this time and with the aquisition of software like CCDStack and of course learning how to use it I don't find the processing quite as demanding as I originally found.
I have now sold my OSC and now purchased another mono camera so there is no going back.

[TrevorW]

Doug much much better of the star colour in the second image, maybe cut back on curves

[Hagar]

Thanks Trevor but I think it still needs some work and some more exposure but it ain't going to happen. I have a new camera that I need to come to grips with.

[Hagar]

This is my final fiddle with this image. It is somewhere between the first image and the hugely overprocessed last edition. Asthetically it seems OK but I am still unhappy with the stars overall.

[Jeff]

Love the dust and the stars Doug. Beautiful!

[Hagar]

Thanks Jeff, This must be repro no 6 which I hope has taken into account most of the constructive comments I have received.

[mill]

Doug that is looking good to me :thumbsup:
But then again, some people will like it and others wont.
Do it the way you like it most and be happy ;)

[Hagar]

Thanks Martin, I understand what you are saying but it can be very useful to run someone elses eyes over an image and get a fresh look at the image. It is amazing the amount that can be gained from a fresh set of eyes and in some cases the constructive comments give you some ideas to improve your image.
I am reasonably happy with this image now and feel this whole process was worth while for me at least.

Good constructive comments are always welcome and at least worth a look. This image has changed for the better as a result of the advice and changes made.