Hi All,
I think the last time I posted an image here was back in December 2013. Aside from becoming a father and tied down with other things non astro related, I have been plagued by imaging equipment troubles some of which remain unresolved. I am positive a clean streak of hassle free imaging is ahead. I decommissioned my 12.5" RCOS at SSO and replaced it with a tricked up 16" ASA. The pristine dark and steady skies at SSO make astrograph imaging very attractive. The system still needs some further dialling in but no point doing the tweaks until camera repairs are complete. The good folks at Andor provided a loan camera until the Aspen CG16070 is repaired. Whilst not the optimal imaging train configuration at present, I'm just pleased to see the data flowing again having not processing anything for over six months.
Anyway here's my rendition of the elephant trunk nebula of the south,
RCW75.
Image details are on the page. Processing is rusty. I had forgotten how overpowering star fields are with a fast instrument. Very easy to wash out the extended object. 'Cant see deep space for the stars' comes to mind alas the forest and tree
analogy seems to work better. I hit a balance that worked for my tastes on the third repro, making use of the Ha master as a luminance blend which helped tone down the stars while still embracing them. I'm looking forward to getting a few mosaics done with this set up.
Thanks for checking it out.
Cheers