[jase (Jason)]

Originally Posted by Phil

Great shots Jase well done the colour is spot on nice and sharp to. I tryed the colour balance you have with my photos and worked great in Maxlm.
Phil

Thanks Phil Just a note on colour balance - this is specific to my imaging configuration. If you are using the Custom Scientific LRGB filters with the STL-11000M then you'll come close to the right balance. Even if you had the exact same combination (filters and camera), you'd still need to do you're own G2V star calibration as the NP101 would have different light transmission characteristics to the FSQ-106ED. By all means, go ahead and use RGB ratios I use, but be careful as it may not provide the right balance. If you're using Astrodon's or Astronomik filter sets, I wouldn't recommend you use this balance.

Originally Posted by Dr Nick

Fantastic pics!

Thank you Dr Nick.

Originally Posted by Garyh

Jase,
You have a fantastic widefield shot there!!! Stars are pinpoint sharp and I think the colors are spot on!!
Well worth all your effort in obtaining and processing!
A big WELL DONE!!
cheers

Thanks Gary. The more I work at reprocessing my images the greater pleasure I get out of this journey. Collecting the data at the telescope is cool, but seeing it all come together during image processing is a real buzz. Working with luminance and chrominance information is amazing.

Originally Posted by 2020BC

Jason, this is a magic shot. I followed the links around your great website. The setup you have there with your observatory in Gippsland looks ideal. Congrats all round.

Thanks Bill. I really enjoy your website too - you've got some incredible images. Keep up the good work. Imaging from a dark sky is very beneficial when collecting chrominance information as it minimises contamination from light pollutant sources. My only problem is distance. Take two hours to get to the observatory from where I live! So I need ample planning and good fortune that the skies will be clear.

Originally Posted by iceman

Beautiful images, Jase. A lovely pairing very well captured.

Thank you Mike. The two objects indeed work well together.

Originally Posted by montewilson

This is great stuff. I know from experience you can certainly get a lot more with the Ha with our set-ups. I aslo know from experience including an Ha-L in a colour image is not easy. So you have done well.

Thanks Monte. The FSQ suits these rich star fields very well. It has taken me sometime to get computer controlled focusing to work well through the 13nm Ha filter. Though I did have some success over the weekend. I needed to significantly increase the exposure time in FocusMax. I managed to take only 30 minutes of data through this filter of another object. I will work on collecting an hour or two more Ha info before I consider adding the chrominance components.
Yes, Ashley from Precise Parts is a good guy. Really hanging out to get the right adapter for the FSQ as the optical train at the moment is producing some serious camera x/y tilt. Not really noticable in the recent images, but its there and its bugging me a little.
Combining the L or Ha luminance data with chrominance data isn't too difficult. There are many techniques available to ensure you don't wash out the colours. Sometimes I blend, other times I layer or do both at the same time. Different nebula types responded in different ways so there is no right or wrong. The trick is to make small adjustments in curves to the luminance data. Don't immediately stretch the data to its final level. Slow and methodical until you reach the right balance.

Originally Posted by Ric

Hi Jase, what stunning images, very nicely processed and presented.
Cheers

Thanks Ric for the positive feedback.

Originally Posted by richardo

Hi Jase,
man, .......cooking!!
Takes a bit to get new setups tuned, but this setup of yours looks like it's right there.
'Tak' sharp stars,( as we expect from Taka's) saturation to them looks excellent and very well processed.
You'd never know the conditions you spoke of...
Love the wide field giving us all an example of where these two favourite objects are situated from each other.
The M8 shows heaps of very fine detail as well.
I'd say you'd be rather ecstatic with the new scope ..... lucky man
Look forward to more of your images with this setup.
All the best
Rich

Thanks Rich for the encouraging comments. If there is a refractor made for imaging - its the Takahashi FSQ. Nothing compares to its super flat field. No field flatteners required as its integrated into the modified Petzval design. Something the TV NP101 and NP127 can't compete with. This simplifies the imaging train and accommodates large format cameras with an image circle of 88mm in diameter - massive. Yeah, you could say I'm stoked . I only wish Takahashi made a larger aperture version...
I'm still working on the set up. Not totally tuned as yet, but as you can see its more than capable of pumping out nice images. Still working on the processing skills - wide fields are a pain with gradients.


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For the record, having another look at The Lagoon nebula image (with fresh eyes), I'm not entirely happy with my processing efforts (looks a little "overcooked" in processing. The open cluster stars have become too sharp and harsh when I was bring out more detail in the nebulosity. I will reprocess this image using a different technique when I get a chance. I'm not searching for perfection (as this doesn't exist), but I feel I could have done better on this object.

Thank you again for your comments.