M8 from Barambah... Reprocessed

AlexN · #1 29-09-2008, 07:56 PM

Firstly... Barambah... Wow! Talk about dark skies!!

Over the 3 nights I was there, all bar the first night, I was riddled with issues... Namely, If I had PHD guiding (I finally got my autoguiding working) and I opened CCDCap, PHD would freeze up... On the first night it worked rather well and all was good... From then on, I could have CCDCap running without guiding, or PHD guiding without CCDCap.. Both of situations did not allow for imaging.. which was a big shame..

However on the first night, I got 9x300sec subs of M8 through the C11 before a nearby tree put an end to it...

I've since downloaded updated drivers for my DBK and Toms QHY8 drivers, which allow me to use Nebulosity 2... I will find out if this solves my issues next time I get the scope outside.

Heres the image, Focus seems a bit fuzzy, however I'm beginning to think that it could also be due the scope still being warm during the run...

Thanks for looking

EDIT :: In case anyone was wondering, Gain 50, Offset 125, C11 @ F/6.3
Alex.

EDIT2: Reprocessed version minus black halo's added.

Hagar (Doug) · #2 29-09-2008, 08:21 PM

You certainly have caught a lot of the fine detail in this nebula Alex. Shame about the missfortune you have had with the guiding but just some of the trials that go with imaging.
Looks like the C11 with the FR gives a nice image scale to work with and plenty of appature.
Well done Matey.

AlexN · #3 29-09-2008, 08:36 PM

Thanks mate, Yeah, The C11 gives a stunning field of view, that image has about 2% cropped off the top due to field rotation + DSS.. it had a little white section where the slight rotation of the pics were aligned.. Whilst its a shame I only got that image, at the same time I'm rather ecstatic that I finally caught more than 45seconds of light

Heres a re-process with a bit more contrast... the previous image was processed on my laptop...

Matty P (Matt) · #4 29-09-2008, 08:54 PM

Welcome back Alex.

It is a shame that you were only able to image one object but like you have said at least you have captured longer subs for the first time.

The image looks slightly over sharpened as there are dark halos around the bright stars. Apart from that, the image has nice colour and detail.

Well done.

AlexN · #5 29-09-2008, 09:11 PM

yep... It is over sharpened a touch to counter the fuzzyness caused by thermal distortions...

iceman (Mike) · #6 29-09-2008, 09:19 PM

Imaging at long focal lengths can certainly be challenging. Have you got the 80mm piggybacked or something?

While you learn the ropes of imaging and processing, it might be a good idea to image with the small scope and guide through the C11.

Anyway you're coming along very nicely, a fine image but the black halos are distracting.

dugnsuz (Doug) · #7 29-09-2008, 10:06 PM

Brave - Deep-End work there Alex,
Jumping headlong into longer FL imaging in the field deserves respect!
Well done. Like the 2nd reprocessed Lagoon better I think.
Onwards and upwards eh!?
All the best
Doug

Screwdriverone (Chris) · #8 29-09-2008, 10:38 PM

What? no space junk?

Get with the program man!

Anyone who's anyone is capturing defunct booster rockets in their astrophotos, it seems you havent spent enough money after all!

Other than that,

you are killing me! The photos you are capturing are outstanding, I cant even get my LE mod to work on my crapola webcam and this laptop.

Keep it up, its always a pleasure to catch up with your latest accomplishment. The Bok globules are a great capture too!

p.s. still waiting for my 12" SW collapsible dob, the postman is getting sick of me asking every day. Can you confirm when its going to be here?

Cheers

Chris

Jen · #9 29-09-2008, 11:30 PM

Very nice Alex cheers

Hagar (Doug) · #10 30-09-2008, 08:50 AM

Hi Alex. Just got home and had another look at your image. A couple of questions.
Have you reduced the stars a bit using a min filter as the dark halos can be a result of this filter. To reduce the stars you need to lift the stars onto a separate mask and change it's blend mode to lighten or difference and see which one looks best and doesn't create the halos. Another cause of halos can be sharpening an image to much which will also create some apparent noise.

Don't like being picky but it may help.

AlexN · #11 30-09-2008, 04:30 PM

No no doug, be as picky as you like... The more it gets picked, and the more people let me know ways to get around the picked points, The quicker I'll figure it all out....

I did reduce them a bit, and I also hit it with an unsharp mask with settings somewhere around 30% and 4px radius..