[richardo (Rich)]

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Yeh that's a bit better.

Actually you know what..? I recon your dust in the lower left quadrant is about as good as I have seen, very 3D, nice work.

Mike

Thanks Mike and cheers for that!

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

An excellent image which is smoothly processed and one I would be very proud of if it were mine. Are you aware that you captured what looks like a galaxy in the image? I really like the fine streaks of gas in the reflection nebula.

Cracker shot.

Thanks Paul!
There's actually two fairly well seen galaxies with another what looks like an edge on right of the obvious one in the lower R/H area.. also with close scrutiny there's two extended minor planets making their way across, you'll see them as little lines. These were captured on Sunday night.
Yes i too think the reflective streaks look pretty cool!

Originally Posted by Garyh

That`s a brilliant rendition Rich! I love this area and this has inspired me in getting more subs!
cheers Gary

Thanks Gaz!

Originally Posted by gregbradley

A very good image. I had no attention on the stars when I viewed the image. But star elongation in one corner may be indicative of focuser sag. Newts are a bit funny that way in the sense of all that gear hanging off the focuser which is at 90 degrees to the tube. Must put more leveraged pressure on the focuser.

The image though seems to lack a bit of punch/impact. I think the data is there though. The central blue neb stars could benefit from a bit of lassoed curves or shadows/highlights and the dust areas a bit more smoothing to reduce the graininess. And more colour contrast or saturation. As I say a technically very good image but to me just lacks that extra kick that it could. Perhaps the colours channels need more.

I am leaning myself to abandon binned colour and do unbinned colour and combine them in the lum channel as well for extra clarity. I was surprised at the difference between unbinned and binned data using an FSQED and reducer. Perhaps the faster the optics the more unbinned data loses clarity and resolution.

Greg.

Thanks Gregg for the comments, observations and critique.
My draw tube lays under the tube so the imaging setup is upside down and always has been, so as to reduce non symmetrical flexure and off balancing in different parts of the sky. When I built the scope I added a 4mm aluminium backing plate that curves up around half the diameter of the inner tube. If anything, it could be the Moonlight focuser, but I can put a fair amount of pressure on it with minimum movement, or what would warrant movement as the scope tracks.
The new designed SX cameras now have the facility to adjust the face plate at the front of the camera: it was never squared up before being sent to me. So I've gone back to rechecking all my mirrors, secondary offsets, so I know collimation is spot. This I had to do before being able to problem solve. I've always religiously used the Jim Fly auto collimator and sight tube for spot on refinement. Needs to be spot at this F ratio.
It is the face plate as that last test run through ccd inspector, things were as near spot on as the seeing was permitting with +/- .1 % tilt in x & y... varying in different areas, far better than when I took these series of test images to compose this image.
I agree that the colours seem a bit mute... i've actually cranked the saturation up fairly well... but there is a point of over done and I pulled it back from this point.
It could be my flats weren't great... This chip is very sensitive in the green and lacks in blue and red... as I found out when I did a G2V cal.. I might have to change my tactics on ratios but this will all come together for ernest when I have full illumination with the larger filters.
Still your thoughts about binning might be worth a try.
All will be revealed.

Originally Posted by Octane

Rich,

Fabulous image. The dust does look 3D and that gorgeous little galaxy is an added bonus. Also, I can see what looks to be a diffuse nebula just to the right of the lower-left dust region; between the blue stars, and just a little under them.

This is a really subjective call, but, I'd love to see a bit more saturation overall. I think I see where Greg's coming from. Personal taste, though. The image still stands on its own.

H

Thanks for the comments and observations H!
It's a hard area to process for sure. Lots of variation. Just trying to get the right balance without clipping, or over stretching..
Yeah like that little emission neb, just seems to set give a variation to the area which draws your eye to it.
(see my reply to Greg on colour) Maybe more colour data is needed. Wouldn't surprise me as the conditions were a little fuzzy. So perhaps extinction came into play here.
Still coming to terms with flat fielding... this could have had an effect when I calculated the background deviation when applying the flats.
Still, when the 2" filters arrive, will only be flat fielding the lum... the colour will be fine... maybe this will make a difference

Originally Posted by TrevorW

Nice Rich

Thanks Trev.

Originally Posted by Peter Ward

All good. Noise well controlled, with great highlight and shadow, guiding and focus are spot on. Nailed the colour balance.

A top shelf image.

Thanks very much Peter!
this is one of my favourites and wasn't going to post this image as I was simply running adjustment tests.. but once I started to put them altogether thought what the hey, I can do something with this.
Really loving having new equipment though, fun to work through the issues!

Once again thanks all for taking the time with your comments and critique.

Appreciated
Rich