Hi Folks,
Well between the clouds and the wind I managed to get 3 descent nights imaging . This night the transparency was average and so was the seeing and only a few small patchy clouds, so after that moon had set I aimed at the good old Helix neb....
Done 26 subs at 6min but only 22 were usable due to naughty clouds...
Overall I am quiet happy with it and if tonight is good I shall add another 2 hours..fingers crossed there!
Some minor processing work in PixInsight then the rest in PS CS.
Still learning the best way to stretch the data with the 20D as I find it slighty different to the 300D.
Image resized to 50% and cropped to post..
Cheers and thanks for looking...
Gary
That is an excellent image Gary, a really lovely portrait of the Helix in a nice wide setting. Top stuff!
The background might be a little too dark? If so, then lifting it a little may help display more of the fainter nebulosity, provided colour noise doesn’t begin to creep in.
As Dennis said if you bring the bottom end of your levels up a bit it reveals some more faint details around the edges and the tail ( as I think of it ). You could apply it as a duplicate layer if you like to have more control over effect and then flatten the image when you are happy with it. Try applying as a hard light layer about 50-60%, gives added contrast and deep colour.
I like your effort anyway so don't take this as a criticism.
That is an excellent image Gary, a really lovely portrait of the Helix in a nice wide setting. Top stuff!
The background might be a little too dark? If so, then lifting it a little may help display more of the fainter nebulosity, provided colour noise doesn’t begin to creep in.
Cheers
Dennis
Thanks Dennis, It was a quick process and I shall spend a little more time to see if I can get some more detail from it..
cheers
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lester
Top image Gary. I enjoyed viewing it.
Could you go longer than 6 minutes to help bring out the outer nebulosity?
Thanks Lester, I should have used longer subs as the originals are rather dim. I might try 8 min subs the next run and see how I go? But with my setup I start getting some rejects with the longer subs.
Thanks for that...
Quote:
Originally Posted by bluescope
Nice Helix Gary !
As Dennis said if you bring the bottom end of your levels up a bit it reveals some more faint details around the edges and the tail ( as I think of it ). You could apply it as a duplicate layer if you like to have more control over effect and then flatten the image when you are happy with it. Try applying as a hard light layer about 50-60%, gives added contrast and deep colour.
I like your effort anyway so don't take this as a criticism.
No worries Steve, all comments welcome (actually I like some good criticism!) I have ever tried blending with the hard light option, might have to give it a go! I shall redo this and see what I can get out with a bt more tweaking!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ric
A fine image Gary, nice colour and detail.
Ta Ric!... like always, glad you enjoyed having a look!
CS Gary
Quote:
Originally Posted by tornado33
Very nice, youve recorded the Northeast arc. a very faint part indeed.
Scott
Thanks Scott..Was hoping to capture those cometary bok thingys towards the center which I have just managed but yes that fainter outer ring is just showing its self...
Thanks for looking.
cheers Gary
Overall looks very smooth, with very little in the way of background noise - maybe a tad too much noise reduction?? Would that be fair?
Shoot me down if necessary - perhaps I've just grown used to seeing so much of it on my images, but when it's not there I miss the old noise!!!
Thanks Jeanette, Beren, Michael, Paul, Doug, Kev and Jase...
Have reprocessed the image and have brought out the fainter arc better and a little more detail in the neb itself but just a tad noisier.
Doug... Just a very small amount of noise reduction done on this, it was a real cold night with plenty of frost! and this 20D has low noise compared to my old 300D
Thanks for looking!
yes, you've got a rare lower noise 20D as opposed to the other 20D's out there excellent image Gary .definitely a hard object can see the faint lines from the outer edges as well as the red arch.
... Just a very small amount of noise reduction done on this, it was a real cold night with plenty of frost! and this 20D has low noise compared to my old 300D
Noise?...did someone say NOISE?..where??..whyyy I orta, DOH!
Just kidding Gary, this is a really nice looking Helix with nice vivid colour, the outer faint arcs showing through nice and subtly too... I would love a 20D
Thats a nice image Gary .. Im always impressed how people can get such noise free images with that amount of data. Ive just added another 2 hrs of luminance to 1hr I already had of the veil nebula, and I cant come up with ANYTHING that comes close to the amount of noise in this picture.
. This night the transparency was average and so was the seeing and only a few small patchy clouds, so after that moon had set I aimed at the good old Helix neb....
excellent image Gary .definitely a hard object can see the faint lines from the outer edges as well as the red arch.
