Bicolor Keyhole

multiweb (Marc) · #1 18-04-2020, 01:05 AM

Got a good run of clear skies in Sydney and I managed to grab some Oiii. Unfortunately the seeing wasn't consistent so I had to cull a lot of subs and pick and choose. In the end I managed to get nearly 6 hours of it. I blended it with some ~30h of Ha I had from December 2018 and cropped a bit because of the registration in the fields. I got plenty more Sii and Oiii as well but the FWHM is just not there.

I have a 1:1 here [2482x1700 - 1.5MB]
and a HD here [1920x1315 - 1MB]

Blend is Ha HaOiii(50/50) Oiii

Enjoy the views.

h0ughy (David) · #2 18-04-2020, 06:55 AM

Wow what a fantastic capture. I love the subtle details

Placidus (Mike and Trish) · #3 18-04-2020, 07:02 AM

That is truly stunning Marc. One of the things that always catches our eye is the Fickle Finger of Fate. When we try, the star at the distal knuckle of the finger tends to burn out and intrude. You have the Whole Finger.

So Fame and Fortune to you.

And a lovely Ha-OIII blend. It's subtle gentle pleasing colour.

MnT

Andy01 (Andy) · #4 18-04-2020, 08:32 AM

Absolutely magnificent - one of your best ever images imo!

The detail at the FL is truly remarkable

So to borrow your own catchphrase - "One for your Poolroom!"

RB (Andrew) · #5 18-04-2020, 08:42 AM

That's stunning mate.
I'm truly in awe with what you've achieved here.

Congratulations on a magnificent capture Marc.

gregbradley · #6 18-04-2020, 08:47 AM

I agree with the other posters, a magnificent image! Bravo. Your best.

One question though, why is the fickly finger pointing up like that? Are you trying to tell us something?

Greg.

vlazg (George) · #7 18-04-2020, 09:05 AM

Stunning Marc, great colour and detail.

topheart · #8 18-04-2020, 09:35 AM

Well done Marc!!

Super sharp and detailed!!
Cheers,
Tim

Peter Ward · #9 18-04-2020, 11:02 AM

Bravo! Nice to see others testing the narrow-field waters.

An exceptional rendition.

codemonkey (Lee) · #10 18-04-2020, 12:01 PM

Jumpin' on the bandwagon here too, Marc. This is awesome, well done!

Atmos (Colin) · #11 18-04-2020, 12:16 PM

Fantastic Marc!!
The detail in there is exquisite!

It’s just something I cannot achieve with my poxy OSC

multiweb (Marc) · #12 18-04-2020, 03:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by h0ughy

Wow what a fantastic capture. I love the subtle details

Thanks a lot David. Yeah I'm very pleased with the level of details too so far.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Placidus

That is truly stunning Marc. One of the things that always catches our eye is the Fickle Finger of Fate. When we try, the star at the distal knuckle of the finger tends to burn out and intrude. You have the Whole Finger.

Thanks Mike.

Yeah the finger is a classic but I was trying to get the herbig haro jets in the misty mountain. Turned out to be on the edge of the fov after matching the channels.

To be fair I'm only scratching the surface of what this scope can deliver. It is freakishly sharp and because it still has a relatively small aperture it is not affected by seeing as much as a wider light bucket. My mount guiding is pushed well beyond its limit though. So I've come to the conclusion that to access the next level of details under the right conditions I'm going to have to use the starlight Xpress SXV-AO-L that I have. It's going to be a bit of planning with the back focus and mean of focusing but if I want to take up all the mount slack and occasional wind gust that's the only way.

The guide stars in the lodestar are still so pinpoint that in practice I can rely on them in the guider's image to focus the scope. The problem is that it's so sharp that if I move the focuser while imaging or even walk within 1m around the peer I can see the effect on the guide graph. So at the moment that's my problem. I loose a lot of subs. I can't keep that rig steady long enough to get the most out of it. 1st world problem I know.

The AO should take care of this and I can go back to eating cheese and drinking wine.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Placidus

So Fame and Fortune to you.
And a lovely Ha-OIII blend. It's subtle gentle pleasing colour.
MnT

Right now I'd settle for a nice cappuccino and a cake at the local cafe but not for while yet. I miss that the most

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andy01

Absolutely magnificent - one of your best ever images imo!

The detail at the FL is truly remarkable

So to borrow your own catchphrase - "One for your Poolroom!"

Thanks Andy.

Certainly personal best at that FL on the keyhole but the guiding is still the weak point. This scope can still deliver so much more.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RB

That's stunning mate.
I'm truly in awe with what you've achieved here.

Congratulations on a magnificent capture Marc.

Thanks a lot Andrew.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gregbradley

I agree with the other posters, a magnificent image! Bravo. Your best.

One question though, why is the fickly finger pointing up like that? Are you trying to tell us something?

Greg.

Thanks Greg.

No, nothing to tell.

Just tried to frame the interesting central bits to fit in a small 1:1 thumbnail. Just turned out this way.

Quote:

Originally Posted by vlazg

Stunning Marc, great colour and detail.

Thanks mate.

Quote:

Originally Posted by topheart

Well done Marc!!

Super sharp and detailed!!
Cheers,
Tim

Thanks Tim. Glad you liked it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peter Ward

Bravo! Nice to see others testing the narrow-field waters.

An exceptional rendition.

Thanks a lot Peter.

Waiting on your rendition with your light bucket.

Quote:

Originally Posted by codemonkey

Jumpin' on the bandwagon here too, Marc. This is awesome, well done!

Thanks a lot Lee.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Atmos

Fantastic Marc!!
The detail in there is exquisite!

It’s just something I cannot achieve with my poxy OSC

Thanks Colin.

With the OSC you could achieve the same level of details on your Mewlon by using drizzling when you debayer. I do that a lot with the FSQ when I use the QHY8. You dither and get a lot of subs. Works quite well.

Atmos (Colin) · #13 18-04-2020, 03:38 PM

Not sure whether drizzling makes a difference when the FWHM is already 4-5 pixels (1.6-2”).

willik (Willik) · #14 18-04-2020, 03:46 PM

Feather in your hat top image marc
Martin

multiweb (Marc) · #15 18-04-2020, 04:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Atmos

Not sure whether drizzling makes a difference when the FWHM is already 4-5 pixels (1.6-2”).

The more pixels to play with the easier it is to process for me I find. Then you bin2x2 back to native res. I tried both ways and by blinking I can see a difference visually. So here's what I do, and it seems to work for me.

I do all the calibration in CCD Stack, dark/bias/flat fielding/bad pixel map then save the calibrated subs in a directory as FITS 32 bit float.

I then flick through them manually. Depending how many I have in total I decide what "I can live with" rather than filtering the lot based on FWHM or excentricity or background/contrast etc... then pick a "good one" to register everything on.

From there I go in PixInsight and do a StarAlignment/Integration/Drizzle Integration and generate two XISF and FITS combined files for each size. Native and drzlx2.

I load the native res FIT file in Startools and make a TIFF star mask and save it.

I go in PS and double the size of the mask then save as a drzlx2 TIFF mask again. I find startools had a harder time to do a starmask with big fat stars. Maybe it's me (Ivo can chime in) and there's a way to do this but I find it easier to resize the native starmask.

I go back in startools and load the upsized drzlx2 FIT file

I load the upsized starmask and do all my things. Stretching, slight deconv then bin 2x2. Then again do another run of devonv and final noise reduction. Save as TIFF 16bits.

Finally load the channels in PS in layers, do the channel blend. If your SNR is good you might only need a very slight noise reduction. I use Noiseware professional from Imagenomic. I like it because you can do a very tiny noise reduction while increasin the contrast and sharpening at the same time.

If I want extra details I use Topaz(2) Details and if your SNR is good you select the "Micro Contrast Enhancement" preset which is pretty aggressive but can work. Otherwise you use the "Feature Enhancement" which is a lot smoother. Then you make two Topaz layers and apply one as darker color first then the other layer as lighter color.

Then you can tweak your color balance and season to taste, levels, contrast, etc... to something you like. That's how I did this one.