M7, ngc6453, sacb287 & b283

[Paul Haese]

The image has a bit of a story to it.

About a month ago I started doing this image to test some automation issues and to chase the dark nebula in the region. Where things got interesting was having failures of the camera disconnecting. Not thinking I took the scope off the mount to install a USB cable through the mount to test if the it was a USB drop out caused by the roll off roof drive system. Not thinking I did not put registration marks to get the scope back in the same orientation again. Nor did I know at the time or even consider putting more cables through at the same time. Big mistake. The USB drop out was most likely caused by an ASCOM incompatibility in the system (I think (my new word for it could be anything) it is the Mount Hub Pro and its ascom driver or API). Subsequently I took more data only to have more drops out and hangs from other pieces of equipment. That meant taking the scope off the mount again and running all the cables through and once again having a slightly different rotation again. Sort of compensated by the rotator and pinpoint but not exact.

So the bottom line the last few days I collected more data and just put it altogether which went from what I thought was a train wreck to something half reasonable. 10 hours of data and ok looking.

Click here for the larger image.

[IanP]

Hi Paul,
You’ve captured such "lovely little details" showing millions, upon millions of stars.
Beautiful!
Thanks for sharing.
Cheers.

[naskies (Dave)]

Nice capture, Paul. A beautiful golden star field.

I'm curious why you were having problems re-establishing your camera angle? With your mount, I would have imagined that it would just take a few iterations of rotate / plate solve / re-slew / repeat?

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

It's such a rich field! Great star colours.

The dusty bits are a little hard, suggesting clipping.

[RickS (Rick)]

Not bad at all, Paul. Good that you were able to salvage a nice image. That's an incredible star field.

[SkyViking (Rolf)]

The area around M7 is one of the most gorgeous fields of the Milky Way, so packed with stars. Nice image you got of it Paul, and just from testing your equipment
I agree with Jeanette though that the black looks a little clipped.

[Paul Haese]

I am more than happy how to deal with that black point clipping on the lower right. It has been a recurrent problem of late and I am yet to sort this issue with a few images.

Thanks everyone for the comments.

Dave, yes rotating can get most of it out but there are odd decimals of degrees to the rotation that just will not register properly for some reason. Martin at the AAIC suggested that Pixinsight will handle registration better than CCDstack with hi precision can.

[David Fitz-Henr]

Nice save Paul, especially from some test runs, countless stars .... well done!

[naskies (Dave)]

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

Dave, yes rotating can get most of it out but there are odd decimals of degrees to the rotation that just will not register properly for some reason. Martin at the AAIC suggested that Pixinsight will handle registration better than CCDstack with hi precision can.

Fair enough; sounds like it might be slight field curvature / distortion / etc in the corners that's throwing off the registration. I've only just started using PI but it seems to handle the little bit of curvature/distortion in my RC8 quite well.

[Ross G]

Great photo Paul.

I love the colours.


Ross.