when the clouds parted and the seeing was ... okay ... i managed to get this image. Image was taken in Ha and Oiii, i did take some Sii but decided not to use it. i included in this thread the last time i took this target, which would have been about 8 months ago. The equipment upgrades have definitely helped, but i think the biggest difference between the two is the processing. thanks in no small part to those on this forum who have put up with my constant questions but it looks like i am starting to see some results.
The main objective of this was to get a glimpse at the cometary knots of hydrogen gas at the boundary between the Ha and Oiii region. These are about the size of the solar system with the mass of earth. I simply don't understand why everyone doesn't find this absolutely fascinating!
Image details
Scope: AGO iDK 14.5
Mount: Paramount MX+
Camera: FLI ML 8300
Filters: Baader 50mm NB
Subs 20 mins bin 2x2
Ha 10 hours
Oiii 8 hours
total integration time 18 hours
Green was made up of 90% ha and 10% Oiii with Ha used as Lum
It looks really nice Aidan! Is that your whole FOV? When both Paul (FSQ106) and Bert (RH200) did their Ha versions there was some fainter detail that spread out a little further than what yours shows, FOV wise.
Your new and improved version is certainly a big improvement!
yeah i dont get much in terms of FOV, i am imaging at 2.5m with an 8300 chip so around 30' FOV. i can see detail extending on both sides of the PN but i wasn't really focusing on it, i don't have the FOV to do it justice
The 16200 could be a nice upgrade up from the 8300. Slightly larger pixels, more real estate and lower read noise.
Although the 11002 has a lot of read noise compared to most of the newer chips on the market, it has pixels that match better with your FL and its only an issue with narrowband. LRGB imaging isn't very read noise sensitive.
Very sharp and well processed. A great shot. The cometary knots that were your target came out very well. The orange-and-blue colour scheme works. Trouble with the Helix is that there's no limit to the maximum useful exposure time - there are always more faint features to be brought out.
Very nice, Aidan. Interesting colour and good detail. You can spend a lot of time tweaking this object... perhaps try adding some Oiii to the Lum and see if you can bring out the "spokes" more?
Very nice, Aidan. Interesting colour and good detail. You can spend a lot of time tweaking this object... perhaps try adding some Oiii to the Lum and see if you can bring out the "spokes" more?
Cheers,
Rick.
Thanks Rick, i have been playing around with different options a bit, when i add more of the Oiii to the Lum, it softens the detail in the Ha, i am finding it difficult to bring out both and decided that teh Ha was a little more interesting. is there a technique to avoid watering down the Ha detail? i was just applying the Oiii at 40% opacity and masking away the areas i didnt want to focus on.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rex
Awesome shot Aidan! You've managed to show quite a bit of detail in the fine finger like structures reaching out to the centre star. Nicely done.
Thanks Rex, appreciate it
Quote:
Originally Posted by Placidus
Very sharp and well processed. A great shot. The cometary knots that were your target came out very well. The orange-and-blue colour scheme works. Trouble with the Helix is that there's no limit to the maximum useful exposure time - there are always more faint features to be brought out.
Thanks M&T. i did have a go at bringing out the faint detail but it just got too noisy and detracted from the overall pic, perhaps i could do a Paul Hease mammoth 111 hours but even his image was getting noisy in the faint stuff.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Atmos
The 16200 could be a nice upgrade up from the 8300. Slightly larger pixels, more real estate and lower read noise.
Although the 11002 has a lot of read noise compared to most of the newer chips on the market, it has pixels that match better with your FL and its only an issue with narrowband. LRGB imaging isn't very read noise sensitive.
yeah i could do that but i don't have a limitless wallet, i have definitely eyed off the 16200 but the 8300 is almost perfect when you Bin 2x2, i only started doing that for this image and i think i will keep it up, really happy with the results. i think i will leave a camera upgrade until the next step forwards, e.i. when better AO comes to the market. i am not too concerned about the small FOV, most of what i am interested in imaging is relatively small.
Thanks Rick, i have been playing around with different options a bit, when i add more of the Oiii to the Lum, it softens the detail in the Ha, i am finding it difficult to bring out both and decided that teh Ha was a little more interesting. is there a technique to avoid watering down the Ha detail? i was just applying the Oiii at 40% opacity and masking away the areas i didnt want to focus on.
I don't have a magic bullet solution for that, unfortunately Aidan. It might be possible to do something clever with wavelets in PI.
I'm sure I would if I used it more than very occasionally. Any powerful image processing package will be inherently complex. Whatever gets the job done for you is the right solution
That's a very nice Helix Aidan, colours look nice and your goal of revealing the globules was certainly well met. Minor suggestion, perhaps you might consider adding some separate star data just to clean up a few of the wonky ones there a tad? But yep, always good to reminisce, just to see how far you have come, so well done there
