M20 & Helix Nebula

[MGTechDVP]

Hi Everyone,

I had another chance to play with getting the auto guiding working properly on PHD and still had no real success. I gave up on PHD and gave MetaGuide a go... MetaGuide actually worked!!! even though my polar alignment was a bit off, MetaGuide still kept the star in exactly the same place.

I exposed the M20 Trifid Nebula for 47 minutes 37 seconds (1, 30, 60, 120 & 180 second subs) then just before I packed up I gave Helix nebula a go, the result is 20 x 120 second subs and heavily tweaked curves in GIMP.

Stacked using Nebulosity 3.

Clear Skies,
Mariusz

[loki78]

Your M20 looks great, very smooth congrats. Helix looks a bit stretched or overworked in processing. Shrink it down in size it will probably look fine

[scagman]

Hi Mariusz,

They look really good, esp M20

Cheers

[astrojase]

Beautiful images well done!

[MGTechDVP]

Thank you all for the kind words.

I agree that the Helix Nebula was WAAAY "overcooked", but I did only have 40 minutes of subs and according to google this nebula needs a couple of hours at the very least of having a chance to get anything to be proud of.

That said, this M20 is the best I achieved so far... so I stoked with this one. Next time I get a chance to get out I'll have another attempt at the Helix, I'll aim for 2 - 3 hours of subs.

[loki78]

Yeah I agree if you can produce that with limited data you must be excited about what you can do with a few hours of stuff.

What are the skies like where you are taking these?

[MGTechDVP]

The skies are OK for a populated area, not as dark and crystal clear as in Coonabarabran but I have seen a lot worse.

I went out last night and tried to get 2 hours of 3 & 5 minute subs of the Helix nebula. Only 90 minutes were usable and I used 2 5 minute subs that were showing a little bit of drift. Posted here is what I got after tweaking in Nebulosity and PS.. not the best I've seen, but better then my first.