This is my first hour of Ha NGC 3584, I had another couple of hours chugging away last night but it wasn't until morning that I realised that I hadn't rebalanced after the meridian flip. So, I got the first four subs and the rest were pretty much ruined! Think 70-135 aspect ratio in CCDInspector
Also the unofficial first light with my new QHY22 and Sky Rover 130mm Astrograph (Saturday night was the official but I'll make another thread for that nightmare).
My first attempt at processing, went less for aesthetics and more just trying to bring out all of the fainter details. I am mostly using this as a personal reference image for what is out there to capture in the area. The QHY22 is a really clean sensor and at F/5.14 it is humming along quite nicely. I may still need to tweak the spacing slightly to get a bit more out of it but that still requires more testing and playing around.
At any rate, this is a VERY overdone Liberty Bell in Ha although for only 4x900s I am really happy with the noise control in the background, even in the individual subs.
Be cruel, I probably still have a bit of tweaking to do in the imaging train so your opinion counts . I think I have a smiggen of tilt but I am not quite sure. One of the four subs I used wasn't of the best quality (~45 aspect) but it did seem to dampen a little more noise without effecting the stars.
Very good indeed, Colin. The faint dusty structures at the extreme left are not often shown at all, let alone so well. Tempting to think of a mosaic with the next panel half a frame to the left, as there's not much to see at the far right.
The ICX694 is a really clean chip that's for sure, virtually nothing happening at -20°C. I think I am getting about 4.8e- read noise but I'll have to do a bit more testing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RickS
Looks pretty good, Colin. Needs more data which will allow you to process more cleanly, of course
I have thrown away about three hours of data, forgot to rebalance after the meridian flip so every sub after that was SHOCKING :/ Could take a while to do anything more than just the Ha as I am leaving for South East Asia for a holiday in 6 days
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ross G
Looking good Colin.
Good luck with the new telescope and camera...exciting times ahead!
Ross.
I am really happy with the setup, a lot of fun ahead
Quote:
Originally Posted by Placidus
Very good indeed, Colin. The faint dusty structures at the extreme left are not often shown at all, let alone so well. Tempting to think of a mosaic with the next panel half a frame to the left, as there's not much to see at the far right.
I didn't even know that they were there until I started doing an extreme stretch when I was making a mask
I had the same idea, heading down further south to see what else shows up. Alternatively, get a bigger chip
Looks pretty good to me Colin, any residual tilt looks fairly minor. Your stretching and processing has flattened the image a bit but as you say you were trying to show eeeeeverything, so well done.....you have I recon?
Overstretched though. Better to stretch it so it looks natural. If you push it too hard it begins to look unnatural. You need longer hours to get there without overworking it.
You can always go 2x2 binning if you are short of time with that QHY22. You wouldn't be able to tell at that focal length with those small pixels.
looks really good Colin. a really promising start. Graz
Thanks Graham
Quote:
Originally Posted by Somnium
Really nice stuff there Colin, i have been waiting to see you post first light. looking forward to more to come.
Thanks Aidan, my true first light was pretty terrible, just wish I didn't have to chuck out so much data!
Quote:
Originally Posted by rustigsmed
congrats on your first light Colin, glad you are happy with the qhy22!
would be good to also see a tamer version! that is pushed to the extreme!
russ
It really is a nice camera and works really well with the new scope
Your wish my is command! (see bottom of post)
Quote:
Originally Posted by strongmanmike
Looks pretty good to me Colin, any residual tilt looks fairly minor. Your stretching and processing has flattened the image a bit but as you say you were trying to show eeeeeverything, so well done.....you have I recon?
Mike
Thanks Mike, I really over cooked it. I did try to use Pixel Math to brighten up the dim parts without effecting the brighter bits, didn't work as well as if hoped.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gregbradley
Very nice start Colin. Isn't that NGC3576?
Overstretched though. Better to stretch it so it looks natural. If you push it too hard it begins to look unnatural. You need longer hours to get there without overworking it.
You can always go 2x2 binning if you are short of time with that QHY22. You wouldn't be able to tell at that focal length with those small pixels.
Greg.
I didn't actually plan on imaging this object initially, I had just done a focus of Ha on Acrux and went surfing the local area for something to image and a couple of nebula near by looked nice. TheSky said I was pointed at NGC 3584 but looking at it on Google, they both appear to be within the same area. I think you are right in that the general area there is NGC 3576 however.
I did go a bit overboard at first, have done a much tamer version earlier this evening
On Sunday night I did take some images of M16 as the night progressed (and it rose above my house), most of the subs weren't good enough to use so I am just using some single narrowband images and living with it at the moment.
It is in SHO, single 900s subs. Tried my best to "respect the light", used the Ha as a luminance but didn't go overboard
Tried to remove the magenta stars but failed. Could make them a bit less magenta but not quite there, will have to have another go at it in the future.
Oh geez, you're getting some really high signal to noise ratio there! Some really nice details in M16 and the Statue (4 subs - wow!). With the M16 stuff, did you get a chance to capture and run some straight RGB data? That in combination with luminosity masks will pull those magenta star back in shape. Check out Jimmy McIntyres actions in photoshop: http://www.throughstrangelenses.com/...for-photoshop/
Some of the stuff there (not all) has some real value with astrophotography.
Imaging M16 was just an afterthought at 2am, my mother has been wanting me to do this one since I started doing this late last year. Sleep was a higher priority so I just set it and went to sleep, didn't bother focusing between filters.
Will aim to get a LOT more than single subs RGB is on the cards when I get back from Vietnam and Cambodia when the moon is not quite so prominent
As I am a couple of days from heading on a holiday to Vietnam and Cambodia I am going to be out of the imaging game for a bit so I figured I should try to get what I can out of this limited M16 dataset.
Decided to create a synthetic luminance by combining the three subs together and forgetting about rejection. It may remove the hot pixels BUT it also removes a lot of the faint stuff, creating a rejection from the not overly abundant SII data with the Ha rich areas doesn't go down too well
With a bit of playing around I managed to fix the hardness of a lot of the stars, in doing so reducing some of the magenta in the brighter stars. Much happier with this result over the original.
Tried dragging up the fainter incredibly noisy areas without flattening it too much, quite happy with the result. Very disrespectful of the light, so sue me That is what the original image is for.
The stars in the top left corner look worse than over the rest of the image, not sure what's going on up there in particular. None of the stars are great mind you.
Graz
