SMC Narrowband - HaSIILRGB

[SimmoW (SIMON)]

The second test shot for the new camera. I started pretty late in the morning (weeks ago, no my filters aren't that good with clouds!), so didnt have many good targets left, so just pointed the scope to the smc and thought 'what the heck'. What an amazing area that has been revealed.

This is 53 minutes' worth of LRGB data @ 40 secs each, gain 139, as well as 14 shots of 5 mins each Ha, and 10 shots of 5 mins each SII. So just under 3 hours all up. Guiding was poor, shocking seeing too. Every time I try to test my guidecam focus, it's.....cloudy!

Very challenging to combine all the data, as usual learned lots from a few attempts. Produced an artificial OIII channel, gotta get that later.

http://www.astrobin.com/full/264915/0/

[Tony_ (Tony)]

Good one Simmo!
Lots of rich Ha regions.

Tony.

[RickS (Rick)]

The SMC is pretty interesting in NB, Simmo. Looks like you've gone a little far with noise reduction or something?

[Atmos (Colin)]

Love how much fits into your FOV! I do agree with Rick, looks like it has been hit with a tad too much noise reduction but the data looks good!

[SimmoW (SIMON)]

Thanks for the feedback guys, I'll take a look, don't remember using too much NR, but as I say the guiding wasn't the best, so I probably lost a bit of resolution. Will definitely revisit once I sort it out. My OAG isn't focusing properly yet, but I can't resolve until the skies clear or there are at least gaps in the clouds.

[SimmoW (SIMON)]

Quick update, I reviewed the processing, no improvements to resolution possible, so it's got to be the bad alignment and guiding I experienced, mushing around the neb detail. Got more practice blending in NB data at least.

As an experiment I tried stacking the 300sec Ha subs with and without darks. A minor improvement with darks, worth using but it was surprising how small the improvement was.

[topheart]

Hi Simon, That's a very nice view.
Cheers,
Tim