Long time lurker, first time poster! Thought I'd share with you my first real monochrome processed image!
I thought revisiting my favourite target, the Carina Nebula, would be a great place to start with the new mono processing. This image is presented in the Hubble SHO pallet and is the combination of around 5 nights worth of shooting over the course of December and January from my backyard in the inner north of Melbourne.
Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro
Telescope: Sky-Watcher Esprit 120ED Super APO
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MM Pro
Filters: Antlia 3nm Pro Ultra Narrowband
Hydrogen Alpha: 69 x 180s
Oxygen III: 46 x 180s
Sulphur II: 70 x 180s
9.25 hours integration
That's lovely! Just had a look at the full res image on Astrobin, and boy there is a LOT of detail there. Incredible work!
Almost identical setup to mine as well, so good to know what this camera/scope combo is capable of (I haven't used mine yet).
Hi Joel,
that's one of the sharpest pictures I've seen of Eta.
I can see the finger of God clearly -
and I can just make out the Mystic Mountain Herbig-Haro jets. https://www.hansonastronomy.com/keyhole-nebula
You must have had very good seeing and guiding accuracy.
That's lovely! Just had a look at the full res image on Astrobin, and boy there is a LOT of detail there. Incredible work!
Almost identical setup to mine as well, so good to know what this camera/scope combo is capable of (I haven't used mine yet).
Nice work, and hope to see more from you.
Thank you! It certainly is a formidable combo, definitely my best image to date.
Quote:
Originally Posted by alpal
Hi Joel,
that's one of the sharpest pictures I've seen of Eta.
I can see the finger of God clearly -
and I can just make out the Mystic Mountain Herbig-Haro jets. https://www.hansonastronomy.com/keyhole-nebula
You must have had very good seeing and guiding accuracy.
cheers
Allan
You are too kind! I was pretty brutal with culling images that weren't pinpoint sharp. Sorting them in APP really helped me weed out the imperfect subs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gregbradley
A super image. The sharpness is outstanding.
Greg.
Thank you!
Quote:
Originally Posted by JA
That's SUPERB Joel. The detail, contrast and colour are excellent
Best
JA
Cheers! I'll try the keep up the same level of quality!
You are too kind! I was pretty brutal with culling images that weren't pinpoint sharp. Sorting them in APP really helped me weed out the imperfect subs.
That's a good question, I had a look back and calculated how many frames I rejected from the total number.
I really wanted the Ha in particular to be as crisp as I could get it, so that I could use it as a luminance layer.
There wasn't much variation in my Sii frames, hence the relatively low reject rate.
It's not to say that a significant amount of frames were unacceptable, I just really wanted the best frames only.
Reject rate
Ha: 52%
Oiii: 66%
Sii: 13%
Thanks for the info! So the 9.25 was total including rejections? Or was that after rejections (which means just under 18 hours of total data).
Amazing work
Thanks for the info! So the 9.25 was total including rejections? Or was that after rejections (which means just under 18 hours of total data).
Amazing work
9.25hrs was after rejections. So yeah, 18hrs total time seems about right.
I've been looking at this image again. Really remarkable. Noticed you mentioned Lefty's Astrophotography on your Astrobin link... that's what I'm using as the tutorial as well It's really helpful!
Any reason you kept the magenta stars in, btw? Would've been a quick thing to change with an inversion + SCNR.
Any reason you kept the magenta stars in, btw? Would've been a quick thing to change with an inversion + SCNR.
It's obviously a personal choice but I think leaving a little magenta/red in the stars of a narrowband image looks really good, I just like the look ...and probably because of the earlier HST images, when we first saw such a palette
I've been looking at this image again. Really remarkable. Noticed you mentioned Lefty's Astrophotography on your Astrobin link... that's what I'm using as the tutorial as well It's really helpful!
Any reason you kept the magenta stars in, btw? Would've been a quick thing to change with an inversion + SCNR.
I appreciate the revisit of the image!
Lefty’s is great place to start, covers a lot of ground and easy to understand. I also quite like Visible Dark’s and Galactic Hunter’s. I like to see different ways of doing things and adapt them to my own technique.
I did do the invert image and SCNR method to remove the magenta cast, however I wanted to keep a little bit of colour in them, so I only did SCNR with a strength of 0.5. Was just personal preference really.
Quote:
Originally Posted by strongmanmike
It's obviously a personal choice but I think leaving a little magenta/red in the stars of a narrowband image looks really good, I just like the look ...and probably because of the earlier HST images, when we first saw such a palette
...and probably because of the earlier HST images, when we first saw such a palette 
