Omega Centauri Reworked.

batema (Mark) · #1 03-03-2011, 10:37 PM

Hi,

Thanks for all the comments re my first effort but I have had a go at CCDstack and failed dismally so will need to do some more research on that.
Instead I went to my image and made a few adjustment in trying to remove the green tinge and boost star colour. In doing so I think I have chopped into my data but it is all a learning curve.

Taken with a William Optics Flt 110 on EQ6 Pro with a Qhy-9 at minus 20c. Guided with PHD and stacked in DSS and processed in Photoshop CS4. I would love some suggestions for improved image processing if possible. It is 60x1 min lum at 1x1 binning and 30x1 min RGB at 1x1binning. I have not taken any flats as I am still to work that out. The first image is not cropped and the second is cropped.

Thanks.

Mark

OzRob (Rob) · #2 04-03-2011, 01:23 AM

It looks pretty good to me. The background looks a bit too dark and perhaps clipped. Other than that it's great.

You will definately need to get the flats worked out. I use the same imaging system and flats are definately needed. I use Al's virtual light box and collect flats by pointing the scope at my computer screen at the end of each night. I use the Sky Flats Assistant plugin for maxIm DL to automate the procedure. You will need to make sure that the exposures are longer than 2 seconds so that there is no shadow from the shutter. I aim for about 4 or 5 second exposures.

AG Hybrid (Adrian) · #3 04-03-2011, 10:44 AM

Very Good! You can see clearly the colour difference between the older red stars and the somewhat younger blue stars. I like it

batema (Mark) · #4 06-03-2011, 12:28 AM

I had one last go so in the 13.3Mb tiff a lot more blue comes out in the blue stars but they seem a bit toned down in this 200kbJpg. I'm happy.

Mark

strongmanmike (Michael) · #5 06-03-2011, 04:40 PM

Hi Mark

I think in this case, at least to me, you may have gone a little backward. The first version looks much better to me, the stars are crisper and the core is resolved, the colour is a little blue-green though...so I played around with both images in Astroart and PS and as usual a combination blend of the two looks best..try it

Mike

batema (Mark) · #6 06-03-2011, 09:05 PM

Thank you Mike, Rob and Adrian,
I will give it another go Mike but I will not post this anymore as I have got great feedback. I hope the AG12 goes well. I remember seeing these in a magazine ages ago and thought they looked absolutely fantastic. Good luck with it and I cant wait to see your images.

Mark