Atik 314L+ first light

[codemonkey (Lee)]

Finally, after all the issues I've had, I now have a camera with which I can take > 30 second subs, and it's a ccd to boot. I'm blown away at the detail I was able to pull out of these short (some 90 seconds, some 60) exposures, particularly with the Eagle.

[Amaranthus (Barry)]

Excellent start! No turning back from the dark side now...

[Eden (Brett)]

Nice work, Lee -- looking forward to seeing more of the same!

[codemonkey (Lee)]

Thanks guys! :-)

Had another crack at processing M16 and NGC 5128, which brought out a bit more, particularly with M16.

Wish I had PixInsight now so I could see what I could pull out of it in that. This is all done with DSS and Photoshop CC.

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

Great shots Lee. Maybe a little soft. Just wondering, are you using a UV / IR cut filter?

[codemonkey (Lee)]

Originally Posted by cometcatcher

Great shots Lee. Maybe a little soft. Just wondering, are you using a UV / IR cut filter?

Thanks mate :-)

Yep, using an UV / IR cut, the softness is all software induced :-) I find it really easy to over cook things and turn them into something weird by making small adjustments that accumulate into something silly. I like to think that usually when I come back and look at it a day later I realise what I've done and will then do it again and make a better job of it.

Here's some new versions. Not happy with NGC 5128, I'll redo that one for sure. Maybe M16 too. M20 I'm reasonably happy with though.

M16: http://astrob.in/108364/E/
M20: http://www.astrobin.com/108363/C/
NGC 5128: http://www.astrobin.com/108360/D/

Ended up buying PixInsight, even though the money was probably better put towards guiding. Those new versions were done with PI. Loving it so far, but there's so much I need to learn before I can make the most of it.

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

The repos are super! Really like Cent A.

[raymo]

Great job Lee.
raymo

[LightningNZ (Cam)]

Nice shots Lee, really quite impressive. Enjoy PixInsight. I should get myself.
Cheers,
Cam

[Draco (Draco)]

really nice .. if only i had the money to own one of those puppies

[codemonkey (Lee)]

Thanks everyone :-)

Originally Posted by LightningNZ

Nice shots Lee, really quite impressive. Enjoy PixInsight. I should get myself.
Cheers,
Cam

It's definitely a very powerful tool, but not something you can really use without some guidance, I think, unless you happen to be in the field of image / signal processing. I'm no doubt telling you what you already know though :-)