Telescope RCX400 14" at F5
Camera: QHY8
Guiding: Lumicom GOAG, QHY5 with Guidemaster
51x6 min and 10x10 min. Both sets processed with DSS and then with Photoshop HDR
That is a very good image. Lots of detail in the central section and nice colours on the arms. Could use a little resizing though. Did you use any flats and darks or bias frames?
I like the colouring you have in the galaxy. The detail in the galaxy is quite nice too.
It looks like you've struggled with sharpness and so have over-sharpened the image which is reflected in the stars. If you have the capability I would suggest applying the sharpening you've done to only the galaxy by using layer masks and then applying less or different sharpening to the stars in the rest of the image. Looks like a flat field would help too.
Very good detail in the core and the arms, stars look a little over processed with the dark halos. Overall well done on this little Galaxy.
Clear skies Ken
nice work Enrique, there is a little bit of work to do but essentially you have a great capture. It all come back to your darks and flats and how far you push the processing. A few tweaks and you have a winner. Try to reprocess the image and reduce the dark halos if possible. how on earth did you get this with the weather we have had in the hunter?
Thanks for your comments. Having an observatory really helps to squeeze some imaging by “shooting between the clouds”.
About the image:
I took 6 min and 10 min light frames. Some of the 6 min frames were taken with a light pollution filter just for testing it. The filter reduces somewhat the intensity of the light. I stacked all the 6 min frames together.
Flats: I took flats for the 6 min frames. The 10 min frames have not flats but I am going to take them (I have not moved the camera).
Darks: I am one of the happy owners of a camera that does not need darks. I did not use any bias frames.
The Lumicon Giant OAG has some chromatic aberration. I tried to enhance the colours of the stars while removing some of the aberration. I had some problems with it. I quit after a while and left the image with the processing issues as you all noticed.
The sharpening was part of handling the starts (simple Unsharp mask to all the image). In fact, I had to “blur” it a little after I applied too much of it. I would like to have the big yellow star at the top left fully included in the image.
In summary: the data has a lot more to offer.
The plan:
Get the flats for the 10 min frames.
Get more 10 min frames shooting between the clouds.
Make two stacks for the 6 min frames, one with the pollution filter and one without it.
Make one stack with all 10 min frames.
Use Photoshop HDR to “join” the 3 stacks. Some experimenting has to be done here with the EV values and the framing. I use automatic stacking for HDR.
Remove the chromatic aberration in the stars as much as possible.
Enhance the stars colours.
Apply a sharpening technique that does not create problems with the stars.
Send it to Iceinspace.
It would be interesting to compare the 6 min stacks with the 10 min ones. I would have to process them separately applying the same techniques.
Lester: I have a Lumicon Giant Off Axis Guider (GOAG). I have not problems finding stars now that I learned some tricks. I am also using Cartes du Ceil version 3 to help with the framing and facilitate finding the best stars. Let me know if you want more details.
