Finally a new M17 from me.

[Hagar]

I have finally got my mount guiding again after a major gearbox replacement job. The new gearboxes supplied by Losmandy were worse than the original boxes so I ended up making the step to McLenan Gearboxes. A fair bit of mucking about but finally a mount that guides again.

This was the test image and the guiding worked quite well. A few minor adjustments needed but it's getting better.

The Image: M17 in LRGB
Camera: QHY9 with Baader LRGB filters.
Scope: Takahashi TSA120
Seeing was rubish but at least there was stars again.

Image details: L = 120 minutes, R = 50 minutes, Green = 50 minutes, Blue = 50 minutes.
Aligned and combined in CCDStack, fiddled with in Photoshop CS4

Hi Res version HERE (http://www.darkskyau.com/cm/displayimage.php?pid=324&fullsize=1)

[multiweb]

Very nice. Tak sharp. :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Yeh, nice shot Doug, M17 is really a cool object to iamge, good job.

MIke

[jjjnettie]

awwww, it's a dead swan Dougie. :(

She's smooth as though. :)

[RobF]

Great shot Doug. Glad you scored some good weather.

[gregbradley]

Great shot Dougie.

Greg.

[Ross G]

An excellent photo Doug.

Very sharp, great colours and such smooth tones.

Thanks.

Ross.

[Hagar]

Thanks Mark. It's a nice scope but I do have to fit the flattener but it can wait while the sky is clear and dark.



Thanks Mike. It'd deceptively hard to process without totally blowing out the OIII areas in the core.



Thanks JJ. Doubling the exposure from the one I showed you last night definitely smoothed things out a bit.



Thanks Rob, the weather had to improve but then again it is winter.



Thanks Greg



Thanks Ross.

[desler]

Wow mate,


Really is some very nice detail in the nebula, smooth too! I like it.
The lo -res really doesn't do your work justice!

The hi - res versions is one of those few that you can just sit and look and let it all soak in! Nicely done!

Darren


Ps I'm Tak jealous!

[Stevec35]

That's a quality M17 Doug. It could probably benefit from a little more blue though.

Cheers

Steve

[richardo]

Looks Like the new gear boxes are doing the job well Doug!
Nice round stars.
Aint it a pain when you expect something to do as it's suppose to and it don't.:mad2:
Almost seems like every thing I buy needs to be fixed... way of the world these days...

I'm not a huge fan of M17, I don't know, something about it that just doesn't do it for me......(maybe cause it doesn't have any reflection in it;))
BUT, this is very nice Doug:thumbsup:.

Rich

[Hagar]

Thanks Darren.



Thanks Steve. I will give it a go with more blue.



Thanks Rich, The gearboxes have made a real difference but it is disappointing to have to complete upgrade after upgrade to get things to work properly but it seems to be the way of the world now.

[mill]

Very nicely done Doug.
Pity about the gear boxes :(

[Hagar]

Thanks Martin. At least it happened now and I have been able to fix it before I go away as when I come back I am off to BSG. At least I have a mount for that.

[Hagar]

Repro added. A bit more care selecting sub frames to use.

[RobF]

Looking nice Doug. It really is a beautiful object isn't it.
I wonder what Ha would add to the mix? I planned to try some NB on M17 but my camera's misbehaving at the moment. Good to see you're having fun.

[Hagar]

Thanks Rob. Worth looking at some Ha in the future but in this case I am stll just getting a feel for the new scope and exposure time when imaging with it.

[Lester]

Outstanding image Doug, revealing the outer regions well. Thanks for the view.

[atalas]

Love the detail in the high res shot and nice color in the repro Doug!

[Ross G]

Good sharpness and detail Doug.

The colours look nice and natural.


Thanks.


Ross.

[Hagar]

Thanks Lester.



Thanks Loui, I should update the hi res version to the repro version.



Thanks Ross.

[Paul Haese]

Nice image Doug. I like the repro better but blue stars are still not showing too well. The repro has shown more of the depth in the data too. I found that I had to do several repro's of this image before I got it look good. The star shapes look so much better in this image over the stars in the trifid. I would like to see you add some Ha to it too.




Adding Ha to it is quite hard, it took me several weeks to get the image looking correct and as I recall a lot of help from others here on getting the blend right. However and this is not to hi-jack Doug's thread here is what Omega looks like with Ha blended at 29%.

Click here (http://paulhaese.net/M17SwanHargb.html)for Omega with Ha blended.

[peeb61]

Very nice Doug! As been said, some very nice detail.

Paul

[Hagar]

Thanks Paul, If I can get you to talk to the weather Gods I will be only to happy to capture and add some Ha to the image but unless you can pull some strings it aint looking to good.



Thanks Paul. this is a nice data set and does deserve a bit more work to bring out it's full potential.

[Paul Haese]

If I could do that mate I would have them looking after me too.;) Might be waiting a couple more weeks yet. Been bucketing here. Loving this climate change.:P

[RobF]

Yes, thanks for the Ha info Paul (and a fine image too). I haven't done a lot of HaLRGB, but enough to know how tricky it can be to avoid the dreaded salmon overtones and look natural. This may well be a good object for some more education. Doug, I don't see any sign of it in your "tak stars", but I struggled with blue ringlets on my stars. I might try a bit of deconvolution on the blue images in a repro, and would be fun to try and get some Ha (not to mention the rest of the NB palette).

Hope the weather is kind soon. Look forward to seeing more.

[sjastro]

A fine image Doug.

Regards

Steven

[Hagar]

Thanks Steven