M16 – a “freebie”!

[Dennis]

Hello,

On my way to setting up for an imaging run to capture Terzan 11, I chose M16 as a target to acquire some LRGB test data, to fix some auto guiding issues, establish the positions of the LRGB filters in my borrowed CFW10 filter wheel and to monitor the droop and slippage in the over loaded Crayford focuser.

Surprisingly, I ended up with some data that I thought I could work with, punched through CCDStack and finished in CS5. Although it’s probably a tad grainy and perhaps slightly overcooked, it is data that I didn’t expect to work on, so it’s a freebie!

Mewlon 180 F12 at F9.6 (1728mm efl).
SBIG ST2000 with CFW10
6x5mins L and 1x10min each RGB
Cropped and re-sampled to 1024x768 from original 1600x1200.

Thanks for looking!

Dennis

[RobF (Rob)]

Oh my goodness - wonderful colour and contrast in that image Dennis. Great to see this one from you - almost a bit "mainstream" compared to your usual adventures though!

(pardon my tongue in cheek - wonderful for a "freebie")

[JD2439975 (Justin)]

That's a wicked freebie Dennis, nice FL for the pillars & only an hours worth of data...bargain.
The pillars rotated on the image long axis & turned portrait style would frame them nicely.

Nothing wrong with a bit of mainstream every now & then...just don't get too cosy.

[Alchemy (Clive)]

Very nice for A quickie, love the star colors.

Clive

[gbeal]

Very nice for something that didn't figure high on the expectations Dennis.
You have me considering trying this myself, as a new Mewlon beckons.
The Mewlon reducer was used?
Regards
Gary

[DavidTrap (David)]

Cool diffraction spikes and great detail in the pillars.

DT

[multiweb (Marc)]

Looks great. Beautiful colours.

[Hagar (Doug)]

Very nice Dennis. For a quick test image this one has come up very well indeed.

[jase (Jason)]

Top work Dennis! You've produced a great image with a small quantity of data. I'm inspired that you're dabbling back into the deep sky imaging scene. Not that you probably called it quits, but haven't posted for a while (I should talk!). Well done!

[Dennis]

Thanks Rob – I appreciate your comments and love your work with the QHY9/8” Newt combo. Your M4 image is particularly stunning!

Originally Posted by RobF

Oh my goodness - wonderful colour and contrast in that image Dennis. Great to see this one from you - almost a bit "mainstream" compared to your usual adventures though!
(pardon my tongue in cheek - wonderful for a "freebie")

Thanks Justin – I’m pleased that this excursion hasn’t seen me banned from the “ridiculously difficult stuff” club!

Originally Posted by JD2439975

That's a wicked freebie Dennis, nice FL for the pillars & only an hours worth of data...bargain.
The pillars rotated on the image long axis & turned portrait style would frame them nicely.
Nothing wrong with a bit of mainstream every now & then...just don't get too cosy.

Thanks Clive – I appreciate your comments and enjoyed looking at your work with your FLT132 and QHY8.

Originally Posted by Alchemy

Very nice for A quickie, love the star colors.
Clive

Hi Gary – thanks! Yes, I have the Tak x0.8 Reducer/Flattener which makes the 180mm F12 into a super fast F9.6 system! LOL! If you decide to get a Tak 0.8 R/F, let me know what you think about the anti-reflection coatings (if any?). Compared to my Celestron x0.63 R/C, the Tak looks like bare, uncoated glass??

Originally Posted by gbeal

Very nice for something that didn't figure high on the expectations Dennis.
You have me considering trying this myself, as a new Mewlon beckons.
The Mewlon reducer was used?
Regards
Gary

Thanks David – I’m slowly learning the basics of LRGB and it’s not as painful as I first thought.

Originally Posted by DavidTrap

Cool diffraction spikes and great detail in the pillars.
DT

Thanks Marc! I appreciate your comments and would be ecstatic if I could get my LRGB processing up to the standard of your recent Rho Ophiuchus Complex image!

Originally Posted by multiweb

Looks great. Beautiful colours.

Thanks Doug! I’ve been enjoying your lovely LRGB and narrowband images with the QHY and 8” RC combo; you’ve produced some wonderful results.

Originally Posted by Hagar

Very nice Dennis. For a quick test image this one has come up very well indeed.

Thanks Jase! The image isn’t quite as good as your amazing reprocess of my ST7 M16 back in 2008, which incidentally had less data! Although I do sorely wish I had your image processing skills, realistically I know it has taken years of passion and practice to produce the stunning images that you post on IIS, so I’ll be content to just keep plugging away!

Originally Posted by jase

Top work Dennis! You've produced a great image with a small quantity of data. I'm inspired that you're dabbling back into the deep sky imaging scene. Not that you probably called it quits, but haven't posted for a while (I should talk!). Well done!

Cheers

Dennis

[Octane (Humayun)]

Love it, Dennis. Nice and up-close as it were.

One thing, though, what's causing the green ringing around the stars? It's not too much of a distraction, but, I think it'd look better if you could get rid of them.

H

[Dennis]

Thanks H! I’d like to think that the green haloes are from doubly ionized oxygen, but I think the reality is that they probably originate from the green channel where the focuser “slipped” over the imaging run, giving (larger) out of focus stars.

I’m using Gerald’s CFW10 which has the Astonomik RGB filters and I dialled in a 1:1:1 ratio in CCDStack for the colour combine, so I don’t think it’s a filter factor issue.

Cheers

Dennis

Originally Posted by Octane

Love it, Dennis. Nice and up-close as it were.
One thing, though, what's causing the green ringing around the stars? It's not too much of a distraction, but, I think it'd look better if you could get rid of them.
H

[Dennis]

Hello,

After the colour calibrated eye of H commented on the greenish cast , I thought that I would try to remedy this via a re-process and here is what I came up with. The whole scene has generally moved towards the blue/indigo end, but I think that it looks more pleasing.

No science involved here, just eyeballing on a non-calibrated monitor, so the tones are somewhat arbitrary. Van Cittert de-convolution in Images Plus seems to have sent some of the smaller stars towards the maroon end of the spectrum? But after all, what’s to be expected after a 3-0 whitewash!

Cheers

Dennis