Helix with RC10 and Atik11002M Data added

[Hagar]

This has taken me a couple of nights to get 40 minutes of each colour and Lum. Both nights I have been troubled with what initially appeared as a shift in focus.
With Helix being almost overhead focus was achieved quickly but with the first move of the mount I have discovered the focuser draw tube was moving in a sideways direction. A couple of small wooden wedges clamped the side of the focuser to the draw tube and made imaging possible.

My Feathertouch arrived today and seems as solid as a rock. I intend capturing quite a bit more data on this target includind some Ha and OIII that I hope to blend into the final image for a bit more detail and depth.

Weather permitting this should happen in the next couple of days but it won't be tonight, I'm sure.

Image info:
Camera: Atik 11002M mono CCD with Baader LRGB filters.
Scope: GSO 10" RC with the stock focuser.
Guiding: QHY5 in a William Optics 70mm refractor
Mount: Everything sitting on a Losmandy G11 with Gemini.
Frames: 40 inutes of each LRGB in 10 min exposures.
Cropped to remove the corners.

Comments welcome.

[marco]

Very nice Doug, it seems this optic is very sharp, I am intrigued by these very competitive china made RC!

Thanks for sharing
Marco

[DavidU]

That's a stunner Doug !!!!

[h0ughy]

nice looking shot Doug

[John Hothersall]

Great colour for little data and even getting the fainter arc above and with Ha this will be superb. Your helix is a fine site.

John.

[Alchemy]

Ahhhh wooden wedges, essential imaging equipment, that's where ive been going wrong all this time..........

Solid detail for such a limited amount..... Isn't it funny only a few years ago we would have thought this was a long exposure. The knots are starting to show up in the inner ring. Add to it and see what shows up.

[desler]

Wow!, nice image and a bit of woodworking! love it.


Darren

[mill]

Looking good Doug :thumbsup:
But going from a QHY9 to a Atic is jumping ship :P
just kidding it is a well done capture :)

[leon]

Beautiful Doug, crisp and clean, well done.

Leon

[lacad01]

Top image there Doug :thumbsup::thumbsup:

[RobF]

Yes, looking great Doug for RGB. I was amazed how much detail was brought out by Ha on this sucker too, as has been said....

[TrevorW]

Nice one Doug

[gregbradley]

A very impressive image for so little exposure time. Nice to hear of some Aussie ingenuity, a real bush solution!

Enjoy your Feathertouch focuser they are a delight.

Greg.

[Hagar]

Thanks for the comments everyone. Very happy with the result so far. Now all I need is some sky to finish it off.
Martin, not jumping ship, just changing tack.

Greg, it's a thing of real beauty but boy is the 3" FT big and heavy. I will be up for a re balance for sure but as smooth as a babies bum with no lateral movement at all.

[multiweb]

Beautiful shot Doug. Very nicely done. You got some serious details for such short integration time. Top work. :thumbsup:

[Shiraz]

Beauty Doug - that's a really fine image.

[Lester]

Very nice image Doug. All the best.

[alexch]

A very nice image indeed!

[jjjnettie]

Just beautiful!:)

[Martin Pugh]

Looks like all of your equipment (despite the wooden wedges) is working just fine.

A very nice image Doug.

cheers
Martin

[Tom Davis]

Nice image!

How do you like the Atik 11k camera? How are you taking dark frames since it does not have a shutter? What image capture software do you use -- Maxim, CCDSoft, etc? How the cooling?

-Tom

[Hagar]

Thanks Marc. Hopefully I can add to it yet.



Thanks Shiraz



Thanks Alex


Thanks Jeanette.



Thanks Martin. Wedges gone and a new Feathertouch in residence. Now all I need is the field flattener and a light box for some flats.



Thanks Tom, I am very happy with the camera overall. It's operation is straight forward and I didn't have any problem hooking it up with my other gear. I use Maxin as capture software and do the rest in CCDStack and Photoshop. As for darks I now have a library which were taken with the camera sitting on the kitchen table. It has a nice screw on aluminium cover for the CCD window which works just fine for darks.

The biggest letdown with the camera is the cooling wich only has a delta of 38 degrees C it works as it should but with hot weather it may struggle to maintain -20, but it also has provision for water cooling which I have yet to try.

[Hagar]

With 3 nights of exposure and 100 minutes of each LRGB this is the final outcome.

Still waiting for a field flattener to assist with star shape and noticing that all the bright stars are saturated fully while using 10 minute exposures it looks like I still have quite a way to go with this scope/camera combination but I feel I am starting to get somewhere.

The extra exposure hasn't really made any huge increases to the image other than to smooth it out a bit.

Comments welcomed.

Hi Res version at http://www.darkskyau.com/cm/displayimage.php?pid=282&fullsize=1

[desler]

I really like it Doug, I wish I could of got some data last night, but ended up packing up and having a couple of drinks.......hopefully tonight!

Darren

[Hagar]

Thanks Darren. Weather permitting I may even spring for some Ha and OIII data tonight. That will test my limitted processing skills a bit.

[Alchemy]

Filling out, the loop is showing, I think tonight will be good.... It is here so far, but I'm exhausted from last nights effort.
As before.... Watching.

[astroron]

Very nice Doug plenty of detail in there :thumbsup:

[Hagar]

Stop watching I give up at the moment. I have about 90min of each Ha and OIII which when processed up seems to be lacking something. Inclined to think the focus may have shifted with something I did but I cannot think what or when. Not good enough to blend with the RGB see below.



Thanks Ron.

[desler]

Wow, that looks angry!

Keep at it, I've got a pile of rubbish subs you can add to it.
This is just the shake down leading to Sv....... Is it November yet???

Darren

[dpastern]

Very good shot Doug, plenty of potential there. Was this using a GSO RC? (edit I'm going blind, just saw that you mentioned GSO 10" RC in the first post in this thread, doh!).

Dave

[avandonk]

Doug try using the the HA and O3 this way

HA to red 1
O3 to green 0.5
O3 to blue 0.5

Since O3 is a cyan colour it actually effects the green and blue channel of a OSC equally.

The detail in the nebula is very very good. This optic looks like a very good one. The problem with F10 is that the stars very quickly saturate even with a sixteen bit sensor way before you get a decent nebula signal.

If you look at the dimmer stars they have very good colour because they are not saturated. Your bright stars are also far bigger due to massive overexposure. There is nothing wrong with your sensor or optics it is just the laws of Physics.

If you have time and you feel so inclined can you collect RGB at a quarter of the exposure of the RGB image. Send me a tiff crop of each different exposure set of the same area and I will do a HDR for you.

See the picture below it is a line profile done with Images Plus. Even the blue star in the centre of the Helix is saturated. HDR would overcome this.

I am only trying to help. You are well on the way to producing stunning images. The Helix Nebula is very dim and you have got very good nebula signal and detail in your image.

Bert

[Hagar]

Nearly November, Just the wedding to go.


Thanks Dave and yes it was all shot with the 10" GSO RC.



Thanks Bert it has been something of a learning exercise with a new scope and a near new camera. Hopefully I can capture some shorter data with some nice star colour that can be blended int this image. I will have to see what the weather does. We are again expecting very heavy rain over the next 3 days with a flood warning already posted.



I have included a blend of NB and RGB images comprising:
Lum Channel = Ha,OIII and standard lum
Ha,OIII,OIII blended with RGB data.
Doesn't look to bad.

[strongmanmike]

Yeh this last version is really quite nice. The OIII radiating lines are even starting to show through a tad, nice :thumbsup:

Mike

[Hagar]

Thanks Mike, I feel I now know this target very intimately. I must have reprocessed this one a hundred times and am only just getting happy with the blended image.
If I keep imaging like this I think I better buy a couple of new hard drives for storage. This directory is now around the 6GB mark and growing daily and the calibration files are in a separate directory.
It's a great learning target with some very trying aspects.
I wish the FF would arrive so I can get some adapters made before the weather improves.

[Alchemy]

The last one is quite good, nice smooth transition across the image, plus some nice detail in the middle of the ha sections..... It's all coming together. I would like to go to the mono camera at some stage, looks like I have a lot to learn.

[Hagar]

Thanks Clive, I am starting to come to terms with the mono camera but it does take quite a bit longer to get an image but then again you can do more with it. 6 of 1

[strongmanmike]

Tell me about it (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/helix_nebula)

And that's only a fraction of'em too...lets pool our data and crash the internet :lol:

Mike

[spearo]

very nice !
frank

[Octane]

Awesome, Doug.

There is so much potential in this winning setup methinks!

Look forward to you compiling a 100+ hours on this one. :D

H

[Stevec35]

Looks very nice to me Doug. Good colour and detail.

Cheers

Steve

[marki]

Getting better with each iterration Doug. Really like this latest version, the loop is showing well :thumbsup:.

Cheers

Mark

[Hagar]

Thanks Guys. I think I have spent enough time on this one for now but I may well add to it in the future, who knows.

[Lester]

Beautiful image Doug, one to be proud of. All the best.

[danielsun]

Beautiful work Doug !! The new set up is definitely producing the goods!:thumbsup:


Cheers Daniel.

[Hagar]

Thanks Lester.



Thanks Daniel, Pretty happy with the setup at the moment I just wish the field flattener would arrive so I can finally get some full frame images without having to crop so much.

[Jen]

:thumbsup::thumbsup: nice pic Doug :thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Hagar]

Thanks Jen, NEARLY NOVEMBER JUST A WEDDING TO GO.

[Jen]

;) woohoo yes less than 3 weeks to go now :D

Hope u have a good time at the wedding, wanna see pics xoxoxox