A quick few frames from last night - before that blasted moon made itself seen.
Tak FS-102, 350d 5 frames @ISO800, 2 minutes per.
Sorry about the noise, it happened when I downsized.
EDIT: A new repro - with star halos reduced a little and CA also reduced. Amazing how much CA exists at pixel level - even from a top APO. I've done a colour replacement for each star affected (individually) by hand, and I think that the second version is better. I've also adjusted the crop a little to include the lower nebulosity. Cropping is about 90% over the originals' 80%.
Pic 1) Original
Pic 2) Reproduction
Last edited by Omaroo; 16-01-2009 at 08:59 AM.
Reason: Added repro
I think that this is one of the reasons I haven't had my camera modded for Ha yet. I personally think that they create images that are too red. I like to see colour variation, even it may be slightly false.
A quick few frames from last night - before that blasted moon made itself seen.
Tak FS-102, 350d 5 frames @ISO800, 2 minutes per.
Sorry about the noise, it happened when I downsized.
That is so beautiful to look at Chris when I do a full screen
view on my CRT monitor.....lovely colours!
I love the image scale of your cam/ Tak combination too.
There's a great range of colours in that pic Chris, looks fantastic! May I ask what software you used for stacking/processing?
Troy
Thanks Troy
I only use Photoshop CS3.
I use the "Load Files into Stack" script to load all frames into a "Smart Object". I then edit the object which splits it up back into individual layers. I then place guides in the center of a prominent star at 200% and individually move each layer around such that the same star is intersected in that layer using the Move tool. I then recombine all selected layers back into a Smart Object. This has given me far better results than relying on the script trying to align frames by itself.
I then go to the Layers menu and select Smart Objects/Stck Mode and use "Mean". Voila - a stacked image is created. Flatten this image and then do normal level adjustments, etc.
That is a nice shot.
Your TAK can certainly produce some great images and it is nicely processed. I agree with you that it is a bit noisy - would more subs help to reduce this noise?
Thanks Ian. Yes, I think that the more subs you take the better. In the case of this image it's made up up of very few frames.
I also think that if I'd bothered to take a few darks and a flat or two it'd be better too - but i didn't. I just ran out of time and bed was looking awfully comfy.
Got to work out a way to increase blues with my QHY8. Maybe a blue filter and binning 2x2. I like blues. I want blues.
Chris, Very nice image. The DSLR really takes some beating. The Canon CMOS seems to be very well set up in their cameras.
Nice one Mate.
Marc, The blues equate to the sensitivity of the CMOS to OIII. The only way to capture the blue/green detail with the QHY8 is to use an OIII filter and to blend the resulting images with PS. The Ha band totally overpowers the OIII band when imaging with a one shot camera.
I think that this is one of the reasons I haven't had my camera modded for Ha yet. I personally think that they create images that are too red. I like to see colour variation, even it may be slightly false.
God bless you Chris - your wise words MAY just tame the evil voice in my head!
("come to the dark side Robert - MOD your new(ish) 450D......, come to the dark side.......")
Nice job Chris. Did you remove blue halos from around some of the stars perhaps? There seems to be silver halos around some of the brighter stars and star clusters..?
How do you guys get all these blue colors in it? All I get is tints of pink and reds? 
