NGC6334 - A repro

[cybereye]

Hello everyone!!

Well between rain, clouds and trips to Sydney and Alice Springs imaging time has been a pretty scarce commodity. So with the bit of time I've had I've been playing around with my Cat's Paw data that I took a month ago.

You may not notice too much change from what I posted first time around although I've now got a cleaner (still some noise) and larger image than before. There's slightly more detail evident and the presentation/cropping is different.

Once the clouds are gone I promise to image something else!!

Cheers,
Mario

PS A recap of acquisition parameters: 3x3min & 29x5min subs using an 8" newt on a HEQ5 Pro mount. QHY8L CCD with Baader MPCC and a UHC-S filter. Guiding with a QHY5 and an Orion ST80 using PHD Guiding. Processing with DSS, StarTools and final presentation in GIMP

[Ross G]

Hi Mario,

A good closeup shot.

Nice detail and colour. Good to see the QHY8L working well.

I had mine out imaging under dark skies for the first time in 4 months on Saturday night. Still to process the shots.

Ross.

[cybereye]

Thanks Ross. I'm very happy with the QHY8L and one day I will get mine out under dark skies! As I mentioned before, there aren't any major differences in this image compared to what I've posted before except for some increased detail and the cropping.

I've been playing with some tonal modules in the G'MIC plugin in Gimp 2.8 which really tart up the image and increase resolution. Apparently this should be done on what you consider the final product and from my experience it can subtly lift what is already a good image. Once Gimp 2.10 comes out with 16bit processing it will be right up there with Photoshop, in my opinion!

Cheers,
Mario