RHO from the Burbs - Mrk2

[Tandum]

It's been cloudy for a couple of days so I've spent some time trying to join up the 2 panels of this mosaic and this is as good as it's going to get.

A dark site would improve this a lot, joining gradient ridden panels and maintaining colour is a real pain.

The final Tiff for this was 106meg making this 200K job pretty rank, so I uploaded a 50%, 3.2meg Jpeg here (http://starshed.net/images/RHO-Big.jpg).

Tak FS-60 @ F6.2 + Atik11000 2 panel mosaic with approx 6.5hours per panel.

[White Rabbit]

Looks pretty good to me, I'm looking on an iPad and can't spot the join.

Nice work,

[jsmoraes]

It seems to be a good work! I did not find any evidence of bound between the two pannels. What software you used ?

"... joining gradient ridden panels and maintaining colour is a real pain ...", that is an absolute truth !

I could not identify the region you imaged. Where is it ?

[peter_4059]

That's a great result from the burbs Robin. I'm surprised you got so much colour. Well done.

[RickS]

That turned out very well, Robin! You picked a difficult one to do from home :eyepop:

[jjjnettie]

:) Excellent work joining the two together Robin.

[Tandum]

It runs left to right, mid way down the image.


If you scroll down the large image you'll see where the stars change colour. I ended up getting a trial copy of Photoshop CS6 and used the photomerge function on auto which looks to have blended the panels together. I'm no mosaic expert but that's the only way I found to get a decent join. It's the Rho Ophiuchi Cloud complex near M4 cluster.


I think the top half is too Yellow Pete. If it stays cloudy I might have another go at the colours :)


The FOV of view with this combo is so big Rick, it's hard to find targets large enough to fill the view. I did have a go with the NB filters in the wheel last week, but the little 60 just doesn't seem to get enough light to produce a decent NB image. I have also stripped and rebuilt the RC8 focuser so it's back in the dome for another go ;)

[Tandum]

Shhh, don't tell anyone, but I pressed a button in CS6 and it did it :)

[jjjnettie]

You're secret is safe with me. ;)

[MrB]

Nice work Robin!
I'm going to have to give mosaics a go if it is that easy in PS! :)


Hi Jorge,
The bright yellow star is Antares in Scorpius.

[Visionoz]

Wow! Robin - pretty cool from the burbs with that one! :thumbsup:

See that you're really flogging the Atik11000M CCD thru its paces - I still haven't seen first light with my QHY11 yet, still waiting, waiting, waiting .... (you get the picture :P) for my adapter to mate the TSOAG25 to the SX-FW! !:sadeyes: - anyway I console myself with the fact that the weather over here has been shyte!!!!!

Cheers
Bill

[RickS]

PI has a very nice tool for joining mosaics. Just sayin', Robin ;)

[mithrandir]

Hugin is specificly designed to merge mosaics. And free.

AutoPano is probably the best, but Kolor do know how to charge for it.

[strongmanmike]

Hey Robin, that's pretty decent from a light polluted sky, good on you for tackling it. I want to shoot this area with the AG12 but kinda feel it's a waste of time from suburbia...buuuut after seeing your effort I'm thinking about it again :thumbsup:

Would be a much better result from a good dark sky of course

Mike

[Tandum]

Hey Simon, that's a new feature I think, not sure when it appeared. I've done a couple of mosaics before in CS3 with smaller sensored cameras and so long as the backgrounds are the same, transform distort usually lines up the stars pretty quicky and the result is almost seamless. The photomerge option seems to auto align the images in landscape and then blends the backgrounds together. I couldn't get it to work on mono images though?


The camera seems pretty stable Bill, no issues at all. I got an M54 F-F tube to connect it to the motor side of a qhy wheel leaving the other side 50mm from the sensor and flat with an M54 thread for adapters. I'm sort of missing my 7x36mm filter wheel though. Swapping glass is a pain in the arse :)



Cheers guys.


That's just a 60mm scope Mike, your howitzer would do a lot better. I kept looking at Jase's 8 panel monster from a couple of years ago and there's a lot missing in mine. I thought I'd still have another go at it from Astrofest. Won't need as many subs from out there to get a result :)

[midnight]

Lovelly image Robin.

Nice field too which shows the dark "legs" nicely.

Darrin...

[jsmoraes]

Thank you, Robin and Simon.

[Ross G]

Great photo Robin.

Really good colours.

Ross.