2nd Attempt at the Tarantula Nebula

Matty P (Matt) · #1 30-01-2008, 10:46 PM

While I was waiting for Saturn to rise, I decided to have another go at the Tarantula Nebula.

I set up the capture software and everything looked sweet!

No clouds... no wind, what else could I ask for?

Before I could look through the finder a heap of scattered cloud was heading my way.

I quickly set up the DMK on Tarantula Nebula and started imaging before they had a chance to get any closer.

Details:

Celstron 8SE SCT f/10 - 2000mm
DMK 21AU04.AS
Processed with R4

1st Image:

5 x 4 second exposures
Gain = 100%

2nd Image:

1 x 30 second exposure
Gain = 100%

As you can see in the 30 second exposure hot pixels are evident.

edwardsdj (Doug) · #2 30-01-2008, 11:01 PM

I love the Tarantula!

Excellent work for a second attempt Matty

At least hot pixels can be dealt with using darks.

Matty P (Matt) · #3 30-01-2008, 11:13 PM

Thanks Doug

The second attempt always looks better than the first.

I am a newbie to DSO stuff, What's darks?

Ric · #4 31-01-2008, 12:17 AM

Some nice detail is starting to emerge in that second image Matty.

A dark is basically an exposure taken with the telescope cover on of equivalent length and temperature to the light exposure. It will show up all the hot pixels and when subtracted from the original image it will remove the hot pixels from the images

Well done with the image.

MrB (Simon) · #5 31-01-2008, 02:37 PM

Hi Matty, nice work.
Here's an IIC article: Flats and Darks explained

Matty P (Matt) · #6 31-01-2008, 06:34 PM

Thanks for the link MrB,

I was just wondering... Would I be able to make a colour image by taking an exposure of RGB and combining them together? Or is there a more complicated procedure?

peter_4059 (Peter) · #7 31-01-2008, 07:06 PM

That's how it's done with the DSI Matt. You need some software that can do the RGB combine though.

Bassnut (Fred) · #8 31-01-2008, 08:13 PM

Matty, you need to expose for a few mins to get the nebulae. I see you have an 80 tube too, is it mounted on the Celestron?, can you use that to autoguide?. And yes, of course with the RGB filters you can build a colour pic ;-). Get your self an Astro application, itll stack and process darks and make it easy. Photoshop is de rigure then for tweaking, a must.