IC2944 in Ha

[cventer]

For your review: IC2944 in Ha taken from burbs of Melbourne under decent seeing last night.

First full automated run. Set it going a midnight and went to bed.

I spent a little time trying to get dynamic range right. let me know your thoughts.

Scope: Takahashi FSQ at f5.6 (official 2nd light)
Subs: 15 x 8 min through 5nm Astrodon Ha
Camera: SBIG ST2000XM
Mount: Paramount MX

Processing: Calibation, Alignment, Normalisation, Data Rejection, Stacking in CCD Stack. Finishing in photoshop with, levels, curves, shadows/Highlights,Multi Layer High pass for large and small frequencies, Noise Ninja

I bought Adam Blocks Photoshop tutorials which arrived over xmas. These are awesome and come on 3gb usb stick now. learned heaps of new stuff I tried to apply in this image.

I love the sharpness of this scope right to the edge of the frame :D. I have not cropped this even 1pixel.

Will add LRGB to this one of these days

Full size image here: IC2944 Large (http://www.dslrfocus.com/gallery/IC2944.html)

[batema]

I think that looks fantastic. Could you have a crack at answering this question for me as I am in love and have been for ages the FSQ but if you took exactly the same shot but instead used my EQ^Pro mount would the image be roughly the same or would there be a noticable difference?? Probably an impossible question to answer.

Mark

[Paul Haese]

Looks like the MX working well Chris. Heaps of detail there too. Very nice contrast.

[Hagar]

Very nice Chris. Great detail. I like the way the Ha gives some great detail.

[cventer]

Mark

Thanks Mark. I think the answer to that depends on your guiding and image scale.

This image scale is roughly 2.8 arc sec per pixel. So to get detail your mount needs to be able to guide to that level of accuracy. I have never used an EQ Pro so not sure if its capable of this. from the images I have seen here though I would say it is once PEC is enabled. My polar alignment is also VERY good. I can keep a star in a 30 x 30 square box for 30 - 40 minutes easily which helps as your guider has less work to do. You can allways use a bigger pixel camera like STL 11000 or 16803 which have 9um pixels which puts the image scale at around 3.5 arc sec per pixel.

[cventer]

Thanks. I am enjoying some Ha imaging lateley. I do like the dramatic look Ha images in greyscale give.



Thanks Paul. I am very happy with the Paramount MX. Its a dream imaging rig. I can now roll off my roof and from focus to guider calibrate to image is around 10 min. An best of all, everything. (mount, camera, robofocus, dew heaters, fans etc..) all controled from 1 usb cable to the mount.

[midnight]

Lovelly detail. And to not have to crop with that scope + the MX. Quite a nice setup there!

Darrin...

[multiweb]

Wow! This is really nice. Very contrasty. Top shot. One of the best I've seen. :thumbsup:

[atalas]

Congrats on some splendid work Chris!

[RickS]

Great image! Are you sure your FSQ-106 isn't f/5?

[TrevorW]

Nice detail

[cventer]

Thanks.

Yup you are right. F5. Scope is new for me so still learning it.

[richardo]

Yes this turned out well Chris!
Some nice detail showing with good contrast with this a favourite object.
Love those little bok globules!
Don't know about the spikes though.... especially with a lovely FSQ...
But it is all personal taste..

Rich