Well I finally got a clear night, even if the moon was near enough to full.
With all this I decided to try something in Ha and gave Eta Carina a go.
9 X 20 minute subs (Dark subtracted) Just a quick process for tonight.
Camera: QHY8 Cooled CCD 1 X 1
Telescope: Takahashi FSQ106ED at F5 (530mm)
Filter: Baader 7nm Ha
Processing: Stacking Images Plus, General Photoshop CS3.
RGB removed in Nebulosity2 Lum only kept.
The second image has had some previous RGB data added. Please disregard the rotation of the RGB as it was taken about a week ago and is only 8 min of RGB exposure.
That's a beautiful shot Doug - and a very , very nice setup too.
Sure you'll be producing some jase-like stuff real soon!
Love that FSQ106!!!! Extremely promising start.
Doug
Lovely work Doug. Plenty of detail in the folds of nebulosity on display. Would be good to see some RGB added to the mix if you're game enough to try match it to the contrasty Ha data. You may need to repro the Ha so its not so contrasty to get a good fit. Thanks for sharing. Well done.
thats an image worth adding to doug,
i have put up a very small image of one i found somewhere (sadly i dont know who did it) that gives an overview of the area, its time to do a multipanel one mate, youve got the first one done.
Very nice image Doug. The FSQ is just so ideal for targets like this, and I'm envious indeed. As Theo said, an interesting result form an OSC camera. Got to get me one of those tight Ha filters soon....
Thanks everyone, I will try and capture some RGB detail when the moon drops down. It is starting to get a little low in the sky for me to image above my Obs walls. I might have to do it over a few nights to get enough data. I do love the new scope. I think it will be something when I fit the reducer but am still waiting for a few parts like the CAA.
I have added the RGB image that this was taken from but in the change to JPG it has lost some of the vibrant red colour. I think I like the conversion colour better.
The second image is a Ha lum Blend with 8 minutes of RGB captured on the first night I had the scope. The 8 minutes was taken in between clouds and the seeing was very bad. Interestingly the final result wasn't to bad. The images were taken at diferent camera angles so some of the grey is visible due to image rotation.
The third image is processed with a bit more saturation and contrast before adding the greyscale Ha Lum.
Hi Doug, looking good. Like the colours of the blended shots - not the normal reds and purples. Are you using Nebulousity for combining the Ha? Craig
Thanks Craig, The colours tend to wash out a bit when adding the Ha as a lum channel.
I actually use Images Plus to align the Ha and the RGB masters. I then use Photoshop and load both aligned images into PS. I select the Ha and copy it to the copy buffer and then select the RGB image and paste the Ha on top of the RGB. This gives me two layers to work with, a background layer which is the RGB and the Ha. I select the Ha and change the blend mode to Luminance and move the opacity slider until I am happy with the detail, colour etc. I then flatten the image and make any small adjustments required.
The one thing I do find is I have to increase the saturation of the RGB image as the blend seems to wash out the colour quite a bit.
I use Nebulosity for capture and when using Ha I use it to discard the colour and keep only Luminance.
Don't know if this is the correct method or not but it is the way I do it at the moment. It seems to work OK.
Eta Carina Ha with FSQ106ED Some RGB added.
