[pvelez (Pete)]

Originally Posted by RickS

Nice detail, Pete. I'd tweak the colours around and up a bit but that's me I often sharpen the stars and galaxy or nebula details separately using masks. They will usually benefit from different settings.

Cheers,
Rick.

Thanks Rick

I usually receive comments suggesting I've been too heavy with the saturation so I toned it down a bit. I'll take your post as an invitation.

I need to go back to the drawing board with sharpening. Each time I sharpen up the stars, the background goes all blotchy and I have grubby looking halos around the stars.

I'd best watch hose videos again.

Originally Posted by SimmoW

Lovely,spectacular image. It looks a bit noisy for a dedicated CCD? Maybe due to processing? Still, a great image.

Yes, its the processing that adds the noise - sometimes I feel like one of those hamfisted restorers of Renaissance paintings - no matter what I do, it seems to degrade the original.

Thanks for the comment. I think it is one of my favourite targets.

Originally Posted by Shiraz

nice one Pete. FWIW, I prefer the scale of the JPEG - it seems to hold together much better at the smaller scale. Maybe the seeing was not quite good enough to support the larger size? In any event, there is a lot of detail there.

Cheers Ray - the JPEG compression hides a multitude of sins. I think this is another waiting for a repro come Full Moon.

The seeing was so so. The data was taken over about a week. I set my rejection FWHM at 3.3 arc seconds. I could drop it a bit more but then I'd lose half my data. Its the usual trade off.

Originally Posted by DJT

Really nice image Pete. Making the most of that setup I see.

For me the stars are just a bit blown. Maybe a masked stretch with a bit of Local Histogram enhancement?

Can't comment on the detail in terms of processing though. Still got L plates on.

Thanks D

The set up is great - reliable and, importantly, available. I also have my PI L plates on. Can you explain the process you suggest with a masked stretch? I'll take any tips I can get

Pete