Homunculus attempt

[DiscoDuck (Paul)]

An attempt at the Homunculus. A Hubble pic is next to it for reference. The Hubble shot is the one on the left (my diffraction spikes, of course, are the give away, right??).

Well, at least the major structures are visible, but it’s not gonna win any beauty contests 

This is a stack of about 1100 250ms exposures from a video from a QHY5L-IIM camera with a 3x Barlow on a 14” Dobsonian. Stacked in AutoStakkert, wavelets in Registax and minor tweaks in Photoshop and PixInsight.

Don’t know if anyone else has tried this object and has any tips on how to capture/process it. It’s too dim to benefit from the usual planetary imaging tricks (e.g. freezing the seeing with short exposures) it seems??

I had trouble with stacking. Processing as stills didn't work as PixInsight and DeepSkyStacker couldn't get enough well defined stars to align. AutoStackert could stack with the Homunculus itself as the target. But it seemed to give better results using just the two stars above it as reference points.

Those two stars came out roundish after stacking, but have been hammered by the subsequent processing - I don't think the tracking was quite as bad as they make it look. That said. the scope is only a dob so it is a bit chuggy in its movement

As I said, tips appreciated.

Paul

[janoskiss (Steve H)]

It's not an easy target being so small and seeing-sensitive. Still, you already have some good detail there. IMHO you need a more general purpose image alignment method than star-based ones. Try Registax perhaps..??

[Dennis]

Impressive results Paul – this is a difficult target in terms of size and technique.

Cheers

Dennis

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Stunning! Ace top notch job!

[rustigsmed (Russell)]

great work Paul! tough target!

[DiscoDuck (Paul)]

Originally Posted by rustigsmed

great work Paul! tough target!

Thanks Russell

Originally Posted by Placidus

Stunning! Ace top notch job!

Thanks Mike and Trish - it's the image on the right, you know!

Originally Posted by Dennis

Impressive results Paul – this is a difficult target in terms of size and technique.

Thanks Dennis

Originally Posted by janoskiss

It's not an easy target being so small and seeing-sensitive. Still, you already have some good detail there. IMHO you need a more general purpose image alignment method than star-based ones. Try Registax perhaps..??

Cheers Steve. I tried such stacking in AutoStakkert, but got better results from using the pair of stars. Didn't try Registax though yet. Thanks.

[janoskiss (Steve H)]

Just so you know, before spending much more time on it, I am speaking from zero experience - and totally guessing from the look of the image.

[Ross G]

Amazing capture Paul!

Ross.

[Ryderscope (Rodney)]

That's a good line up Paul.
Looks like it was a fun project.
R

[DiscoDuck (Paul)]

Originally Posted by janoskiss

Just so you know, before spending much more time on it, I am speaking from zero experience - and totally guessing from the look of the image.

No worries Steve. Thanks.

Originally Posted by Ross G

Amazing capture Paul!

Ross.

Thanks Ross.

Originally Posted by Ryderscope

That's a good line up Paul.
Looks like it was a fun project.
R

It was fun to see what could be done. Thanks Rodney.

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

This is pretty good Paul with excellent details identifiable when compared to the Hubble shot. It sounds to me like you have the basic technique down but by the look of those elongated stars you just perhaps need something that will align the frames slightly better..?

This was my effort a year ago using a normal CCD and stacking short single frame exposures (1s, 5s & 20s) with HaOIIISII filters at my native prime focus of 1120mm FL.

Mike

[DiscoDuck (Paul)]

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

This is pretty good Paul with excellent details identifiable when compared to the Hubble shot. It sounds to me like you have the basic technique down but by the look of those elongated stars you just perhaps need something that will align the frames slightly better..?

This was my effort a year ago using a normal CCD and stacking short single frame exposures (1s, 5s & 20s) with HaOIIISII filters at my native prime focus of 1120mm FL.

Mike

Thanks Mike. Those elongated stars didn't look as bad before processing - the wavelets have done them no favours. But I think the bias in that direction may be more movement during tracking than poor alignment. It is a big cheap dob, and so the tracking is a bit cheap and cheerful! I'll see if I can improve the stacking though.

I like your version. Nice to get that background nebulosity too. There's a faint hint of the red from the Hubble image in the tiff version of mine if you stretch it a bit and use some generous imagination

Paul

[RickS (Rick)]

Very neat, Paul! A tricky target.

[astronobob (Bob)]

This is awesome, Ive alway wanted to have a try at this sucker - just to see, didnt think of such short exposures tho, good to know if I ever get there
Great detail there Paul, very well done

[DiscoDuck (Paul)]

Originally Posted by RickS

Very neat, Paul! A tricky target.

Thanks Rick.

Originally Posted by astronobob

This is awesome, Ive alway wanted to have a try at this sucker - just to see, didnt think of such short exposures tho, good to know if I ever get there
Great detail there Paul, very well done

Thank you.