I've been plugging away at capturing this for over a week with the 4" tak @ F6. Getting any S2 data at all was a real challenge and I ended up shooting it all Binned X2 with the last 6 hours worth in 30minute subs. Even then the S2 was still quite weak. I ended up with about 16hours worth of usable data and stacked the lot.
I had forgotten how to put these together it's been raining for so long so I have about 5 versions of it here but this one looks the cleanest to me and there's a bigger version here.
[edit] Uploaded repo without the 30minute subs to reduce field rotation.
I'm only a newbie at NB so have to watch what I say Robin. I love the colours. Looks a little soft in place - perhaps some selective sharpening. I would expect getting the colour right is the hardest bit though with this much data?
Love the colours, and the effort that has gone into this. I too wonder about field rotation?
Like most though, it is easy to be critical, but not be able to produce what you have. I'd be happy with that.
Wonderful shot.
Gary
I'm never happy with any of them Troy, there's always something wrong. I just get fed up sitting in front of the pc trying to get it right
Hi Gary, I had to go through Ken Crawfords colour mapping tut again to remember how to combine them. I think you and peter are correct regards the rotation. I think it's coming from the 30minute subs, that's too long by the looks.
Here's a raw combined image without the 30minute subs. Is that better? I also just realised the flats I have are for X1 binning so maxim probably didn't use them. I really need a new monitor for this stuff, an old 17" samsung just isn't big enough
I thought the "rotation" was an illusion due to the curved darker dust in the top of the image. I don't see the same effect in the raw image however it is a wider field.
Not wider pete, the original is a crop to balance it up, both are from the same data more or less. If I can get the camera down to -35C during the day today, I'll run off some X2 flats and have another bash.
Nice shot Robin, but it looks like you may have some problems with field rotation or alignment of your imaging train there...especially in that crop of the original.
Cheers guys, but as usual with my images, there's always something that's not quite right
Couldn't get the camera down to -35C today, but it's there now, so I'll grab some X2 flats tonight and have another bash at it. Ron @ sirius optics should have my oag in hand this week, so the RC8 can go back on the mount
Had to kick out the 30minute subs H, my polar isn't good enough for that caper. I had a tribe of kids in the dome a couple of weeks back, maybe they twisted knobs? Most of it was shot with 20minutes subs so I don't really understand why it went down the toilet so severely with the extra 10minutes. It does make for really boring imaging though, waiting for those 30min subs to appear