Hello all...
A couple of weeks ago while visiting Craig_L, testing out my Canon 1.4x Extender on his Tak 90, we hit upon a great idea - we both love those high contrast LRGB/HaRGB images but lacked the expensive high end gear (and locations) to produce the necessary H alpha images needed for their composition.
I suggested that it might be possible to fork out a little cash to acquire the Ha data via one of the easily available GRAS scopes...
http://www.global-rent-a-scope.com/
This way we could obtain high quality Ha data taken on equivalent/similar focal length scopes to our own. We would then be able to merge/blend this data with the RGB images from our own setups - Simple!!!!
Operation and acquisition of images from the GRAS scopes is straightforward. They even give a discount for imaging under moonlit conditions - this proved very economical for Ha imaging!!
Craig_L is now hooked I believe!!!!!
I'm sure he'll soon post a stunning Running Chicken Nebula done with this method which is excellent - almost time for it to come out the oven Craig!?
I got 11-12 10 minute shots using a Tak FSQ106 (GRAS 012) with a H alpha filter of Eta Carina to combine with the RGB image posted here a few weeks previous.
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ight=eta+repro
The alignment and rescaling of the FSQ Ha shot with my 280mm lens shot proved to be the biggest pain and processing in PS was a bit hit an miss too - stumbling around in the dark, finding my way with this method I'm afraid! Because of the disparity in the fields of view, I've cropped my original widefield drastically! Something I loathe to do!!! Viva Widefield!!!
Still not that happy with the result - stars take on ghostly blue halos, colour balance is tougher and I seem to have lost a bit of the finer background nebulosity on the edges of the image at the expense of gaining slightly more detailed contrast in the body of the neb...Still, it's been fun trying on these crappy rainy nights!!
I really can't afford to regularly go down the GRAS path for acquiring Ha data so I've been considering purchasing an Astronomik 13nm Ha EOS Clip In filter for the 40D - any thoughts/experiences?
Low Res images...
image 1: Ha Data
image 2: RGB data
image 3: Ha/RGB blended data
Higher Res of Ha/RGB blend...
http://s327.photobucket.com/albums/k...current=8b.jpg
Cheers all
Doug
