M 16 early morning image

[bmitchell82 (Brendan)]

Well the skies cleared up while i was doing a bit of testing on the 10" and its collimation so why not do the ultimate test a image on the sky.

ambient temp 12 deg
4 x 10min @ iso 800
EQ6 + 10" + Canon 40d modded
Finderguider + DSI

there are still things in this image that i am not happy about but hey they are always something to work towards

Comments are always welcome!

http://s700.photobucket.com/albums/w...M-16-final.png

[Paul Haese]

First up, great scale. Shows the surrounding star field and you can see a lot of detail. Colours look really nice too.

There is a slight gradient that needs some attention though. Red on the left and blue on the right.

Is there an chance of doing longer subs? There is lots of dark dust lanes in there that you could bring out.

Looks good.

[bmitchell82 (Brendan)]

Well i can do longer subs, though the DSLR really needs colder conditions to do it well, I am imaging in my back yard too with a 1/2 moon only a few deg away so gradients are inevitable.!

Im really happy about the star colours and colour in general its been something for so long i have only captured white stars or if a yellow/red star was dim enough it would bring the colour out.

now i have to properly polar align as last night i slapped the mount down did a 1 star manual polar align then started shooting ... tonight ill drift align as i cant see the octans from here and get some good going. I found that the finder guider is sensitive to polar alignment if its not right your guiding goes a bit skewif!

Thankyou for the compliments, it means a fair bit coming from people that produce good images themself.!

[gregbradley]

Very nice image Brendan.

Greg.

[telecasterguru (Frank)]

Brendan,

I like the image. Well done.

Frank

[JD2439975 (Justin)]

I'm envious of your modded 40D Brendan, with pretty much the same equipment there's no way I could get that much nebulosity from 40 minutes of data.

Considering the Moon & quick alignment that's come up a treat, lovely colours.

Justin

[RobF (Rob)]

Wow. That's a fine image Brendan. Processed well to bring out the neb and star colours. Most impressive. I think this is the pick of your latest bunch for me

All the better for being a "quick test image"! Its all coming together very nicely for you it seems.

[bmitchell82 (Brendan)]

Thanks all,

Eagle has been my bain for a long time, every time i tried to take data of it, the astro gods pooed in my scope saying NO YOU SHALL NOT IMAGE THIS OBJECT. and i must of slipped a sneaky one past them because out of 18 shots i only got to keep the first 4...... then they went ... NOOOOOOO....

he he he, hopefully this Saturday keeps clear, then ill get as many hours as i possibly can on it!