Long weekend Collection

[midnight (Darrin)]

Well finally we've had a decent break in the weather which has lined up with a long weekend (thanks Chogm) and no moon.

In my rush to get out and take advantage b4 any clouds moved in, I pointed to the LMC and did some test shots with my new USB -> ethernet device. Raw was slow so I put my 40D into small jpeg to speed things up . Now off to LMC and traking was good etc etc, waited 1hr to move to Orion. Then I realised, I left the #%&! thing in small jpg. Grrrr. Learnt from that and then put the 40D into Raw.

Finally I solved 1 big headache which has continuously plagued me with trailing in my photos despite the autoguider staying spot on. It turned out it was the EOS T ring was ever slightly moving in the bayonet. 4 layers of teflon tape fixed that by last night.

Anyway, here is the line up

1. LMC. 15 x 4 minutes (small jpg). Modified 40D ISO 800. FLT110. No darks or flats (why bother after that circus)

2. Witches Head (IC2118). Unmodified 40D + 200mmF2.8L @ F4. ISO 800. 15 x 4 minutes. Darks and flats taken too. I really need to have this at a much longer exposure. Would this help as it is very dim and hard to extract? I'm really fascinated by this and want to revist a few times. Any help here would be marvellous!

3. M42. Modified 40D ISO 800. FLT110. 10 x 60 seconds + darks + flats. I also had my first go at trying to layer 10x15sec on top to avoid the over exposed centre. It's a bit dodgey but I'll keep plugging away.

4. M42. Modified 40D ISO800. FLT110. 14 x 5 minutes. No darks (I accidentally left the cap off the scope . And again I tried to incorporate the 15 sec shot. There's some horrible lines going left to right through this image.

I hope you enjoy but the results are still ordinary but I'm pretty happy as I haven't got this far yet. Please feel free to offer advice on what may be wrong, improvements etc.

Thanks,
Darrin...

[Osirisra (Ken)]

Nice Work Darrin! I like the last m42 even though it has the banding happening. Have you tried using the darks you took with the previous m42 run?

Glad some others had better luck than me.
Had nice clear skies all weekend but with 40km winds the whole time which are are still going I didn't have a chance in hell in imaging. I studied the weather maps and drove all over the place trying to find a spot that wasn't blowing but to no avail, so depressing :/

[peeb61 (Paul)]

Nice bag of images there Darrin,
The last M42 also gets me and also the witches head!

Nice one
Paul

[CapturingTheNight (Greg)]

Very nice images Darrin I might have to get the teflon tape out myself. I think I have the same problem with my Eos T-ring.

[irwjager (Ivo)]

Hi Darrin,

Thanks for posting those shots - very enjoyable. There's even a recognizable witches head - you gotta be chuffed with that!
Noel Carboni's actions for PS (or ST) have a banding reduction routines which may help with the lines. But of course if you can help it, it's beter to not have them in your data in the first place

Cheers,

[midnight (Darrin)]

Originally Posted by irwjager

Hi Darrin,

Thanks for posting those shots - very enjoyable. There's even a recognizable witches head - you gotta be chuffed with that!
Noel Carboni's actions for PS (or ST) have a banding reduction routines which may help with the lines. But of course if you can help it, it's beter to not have them in your data in the first place

Cheers,

Thanks Ivo. I must admit, seeing the witches head finally come through I was frankly quite excited. I'll look up on your suggestions so thanks again!

Originally Posted by obsidianphotos

Very nice images Darrin I might have to get the teflon tape out myself. I think I have the same problem with my Eos T-ring.

Thanks Greg. I had to keep layering the teflon on until the T ring was reasonably stiff to screw onto the camera otherwise it would still have a hint of movement. 4 layers it was tight but not damaging to the components. But it didn't move after that.

Originally Posted by peeb61

Nice bag of images there Darrin,
The last M42 also gets me and also the witches head!

Nice one
Paul

Thanks Paul. I need to stop rushing into a multiple targets in such a small time. I really want to try for the witches head again.

Originally Posted by Osirisra

Nice Work Darrin! I like the last m42 even though it has the banding happening. Have you tried using the darks you took with the previous m42 run?

Glad some others had better luck than me.
Had nice clear skies all weekend but with 40km winds the whole time which are are still going I didn't have a chance in hell in imaging. I studied the weather maps and drove all over the place trying to find a spot that wasn't blowing but to no avail, so depressing :/

I took only 60 sec darks and not the longer 300 second ones. I'm not sure how to extrapolate a dark (or even if it is advisable) so I didn't apply one. I need to learn from my mistakes which I have. It was quite blustery too down here and when I did Jupiter, it was a mess. I'm hoping tonight will be good. Thanks Ken & clear skies (and minimal wind)

Darrin...

[astronobob (Bob)]

Hey, Great collection from the weekend Darrin, Not sure of your processing tools/progams etc, but I used to (on occasion) get some of that banding and remnant noise left from DSS (Deep Sky Stacker ) on Longer exposures, tho not sure if this is the sole contributer ? however, now using Registax Free with much better results ?
I realy like your blending of the Dynamic Range in your Orion Nebs, and plenty of the fainter dust coming through too, I havent been able too reach that much detail yet, so congratts on that and nice Witches Head, Longer subs should lift the result more and darker clearer skys will help a lot too, but unfortunately we havent had much Luck, weather wise, eh . ! !

Thanks for sharing, enjoyed seeing your work !

Rgrds

[irwjager (Ivo)]

Originally Posted by midnight

Thanks Ivo. I must admit, seeing the witches head finally come through I was frankly quite excited.

I've been working on a new algorithm to bring out very faint nebulae embedded in noise. I just tried it on your image with some pretty decent results. Hope you don't mind!

Cheers,

[atalas]

Nice collection Darin,well done.

[midnight (Darrin)]

Originally Posted by astronobob

Hey, Great collection from the weekend Darrin, Not sure of your processing tools/progams etc, but I used to (on occasion) get some of that banding and remnant noise left from DSS (Deep Sky Stacker ) on Longer exposures, tho not sure if this is the sole contributer ? however, now using Registax Free with much better results ?
I realy like your blending of the Dynamic Range in your Orion Nebs, and plenty of the fainter dust coming through too, I havent been able too reach that much detail yet, so congratts on that and nice Witches Head, Longer subs should lift the result more and darker clearer skys will help a lot too, but unfortunately we havent had much Luck, weather wise, eh . ! !

Thanks for sharing, enjoyed seeing your work !

Rgrds

You're welcome Bob! I use Photoshop CS4 for processing. This weekend was my first serious attempt in many months due to work/weather etc.

Originally Posted by irwjager

I've been working on a new algorithm to bring out very faint nebulae embedded in noise. I just tried it on your image with some pretty decent results. Hope you don't mind!

Cheers,

Ivo, very happy for you guys to have a good as it's one way for many of us to see what others can extract out of sometimes feeble attempts. I'll certainly look up those suggestions and thanks for taking the time to look further into it for me

Originally Posted by atalas

Nice collection Darin,well done.

Thanks Louie. I've also learnt a fair bit from you but it's still a long road.

Darrin...

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Some good results there Darrin.

Great job with a DSLR, not sure which I like best..?..all of them

Forgetting to change a specific setting must be one of the most common stuffups in our game, very frustrating at times.

Mike

[midnight (Darrin)]

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Some good results there Darrin.

Great job with a DSLR, not sure which I like best..?..all of them

Forgetting to change a specific setting must be one of the most common stuffups in our game, very frustrating at times.

Mike

Thanks Mike for the kind words. And as for those blighten settings - grrrr. Raw only from now on.

Darrin...

[Ross G]

Great shots Darrin.

Ross.

[midnight (Darrin)]

Originally Posted by Ross G

Great shots Darrin.

Ross.

Thank you Ross. Much appreciated.

Darrin...