I thought I'd catch up on a couple of lost opportunities the other night. One was M46 and another ngc2438 from the MOC the other month (two birds with one stone). Plus I was impressed with Scott's shots, so I wanted to try it myself.
So with a brief parting of the clouds on the 7th of Feb I took camera, mount and scope in hand and gave it a go.
Canon 300D (unmodded) focused with DSLR Focus, Orion 80ED, Autoguided with K3ccdtools V2 and ToUcam on Carton 60mm f/7 refractor, autoguiding interface and automatic capture with Star-mate, on Losmandy G11,
ISO800, 8X2min, dark calibrated, aligned and combined in ImagesPlus.Cropped then levels and curves using adjustment layers in PS CS. I've probably taken the black point a bit to far, but I liked the colour of the PN.
Very nice Paul.
I really like your work flow, thanks for including the steps taken.
It's this sort of workflow that I'm trying to achieve too and would like to follow these steps.
I like the equipment that you used too.
is focus slightly off, or is there a slight bit of trailing?
Not sure wha's going on there. I re-upload the shot later. It looks terrible here. On the original on my screen the stars are nice and sharp and the contrast is much better
Very nice Paul... Do a photoshop trick & add diffraction spikes to the stars.. That should keep the critics at bay!!
I have noticed that the eye seems ignore bloaty stars if the shot has diffraction spikes. The spikes make the stars "seem" sharper....
It has been long time between drinks for you... Here's hoping for some better weather next new moon.
Cheers
I know Robby. I don't know where the boys from Bris Vegas are getting their clear skies from and gettting them to hang around long enough to get some imaging done, but I want some.
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