IC2631 CDK17 10 hours crops added

[gregbradley]

After seeing the wonderful image of The Chameleon cloud recently I thought I'd have a go at it closer up.

This is but one part of it. There is at least another blue reflection nebula nearby.

This is really a target for my dark site due to the really low contrast but
my CDK17 isn't really portable.

This is 5 hours of luminance and 5 hours of colour using a Proline 16803 camera and PME mount.

Taken from my home observatory.

One night had exceptional seeing for a few hours. I saw 1.2 arc secs in a list of the images in a few of them.

http://upload.pbase.com/gregbradley/...35090287/large regular

http://upload.pbase.com/gregbradley/...90287/original large

http://upload.pbase.com/image/135094163 blue reflection nebula crop

http://upload.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/135094176 Bright star embedded in the dust


I'll probably do another version of this one from my dark site with one of my refractors and wider field.

Greg.

[Peter Ward]

How many hours??!! Wow that must be faint!

Nice job, but I suspect this one would be framed a little better with a shorter focal length.

[gregbradley]

Yes it is faint and I agree it could be framed to include more.

It was hard to process and not made any easier by the fact the CDK corrector tends to cause vignetting and a hot central area. It really needs careful flat fielding much more than my other scopes. But I'd love to drag it down to my dark site to see what it can do there.

Greg.

[Lester]

Top class image Greg, thanks for the view.

[Ross G]

Great photo Greg.

I love the liquid smooth tones and colours.

Ross.

[atalas]

Hi Greg

Well,I love the colors and I really don't want to state the obvious but what I will say is back off on the noise reduction....sometimes does more harm than good.

[Hagar (Doug)]

Very nice Greg. Smooth as silk everything just seems to blend in. It certainly fills the frame. I agree with Peter that it may look a bit better if it had a little sky around it will add to the appeal of a target like this.

[gregbradley]

Originally Posted by Lester

Top class image Greg, thanks for the view.

Thanks Lester. Its a challenging object and quite faint as most dust type objects are.

Originally Posted by Ross G

Great photo Greg.

I love the liquid smooth tones and colours.

Ross.

Cheers Ross.

Originally Posted by atalas

Hi Greg

Well,I love the colors and I really don't want to state the obvious but what I will say is back off on the noise reduction....sometimes does more harm than good.

I posted another version that has less noise reduction. Getting the amount of noise reduction is a matter of taste though but I get what you are saying. I did use an inverted mask to restrain it to the noisy areas only.

Originally Posted by Hagar

Very nice Greg. Smooth as silk everything just seems to blend in. It certainly fills the frame. I agree with Peter that it may look a bit better if it had a little sky around it will add to the appeal of a target like this.

Yeah I'll be doing another version later on with the refractors at my dark site. It might even make a good mosaic target.

Greg.

[Stevec35 (Steve)]

Nicely done for a backyard shot Greg. I think it would be an absolute winner shot from a dark sky site.

Cheers

Steve

[gregbradley]

Originally Posted by Stevec35

Nicely done for a backyard shot Greg. I think it would be an absolute winner shot from a dark sky site.

Cheers

Steve

Thanks Steve. Yes that is how I see it as well. I am pleased with the outcome and surprised at how faint it was and how difficult to process it was. It'd be nice to pack the CDK17 and PME and get myself a PME tripod and cart it down to my dark site for a 2 week imaging holiday when a stretch of good weather is predicted. Time of course is the problem.

Greg.

[Fabiomax (Fabiomassimo)]

I do not know the subject, but the nice thing about this forum is to be able to see beautiful pictures like this, objects that are below the horizon for me! bright colors, congratulations.
Cheers,
Fabiomax

[marc4darkskies (Marcus)]

Wow - interesting object! It must be very faint if you need 5 hrs with a 17"! It's definitely not an object you see very often and you've done a nice job! Well done - the colours are fascinating!

If you didn't bin your RGB have you thought of making some synthetic Lum from it? It'll work wonders with your S/N so you don't have to do so much noise reduction.

Cheers, Marcus

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Yeh, fascinating object up close Greg, nice job.

Deffinitely one for a dark sky with a bit more FOV

Mike

[TrevorW]

Like this not often seen

[gregbradley]

Originally Posted by Fabiomax

I do not know the subject, but the nice thing about this forum is to be able to see beautiful pictures like this, objects that are below the horizon for me! bright colors, congratulations.
Cheers,
Fabiomax

Thanks Fabio. Ciao.

Originally Posted by marc4darkskies

Wow - interesting object! It must be very faint if you need 5 hrs with a 17"! It's definitely not an object you see very often and you've done a nice job! Well done - the colours are fascinating!

If you didn't bin your RGB have you thought of making some synthetic Lum from it? It'll work wonders with your S/N so you don't have to do so much noise reduction.

Cheers, Marcus

I know you've had good results with that technique I haven't always. I suppose it depends on the object. You lose quite a bit of sensitivity going for 1x1 in the colour. So are you ahead when you add the synthetic luminance? I suppose the answer is it depends on the object.
Not sure how it would have worked here. Maybe. I guess the guiding principle would be if you were getting good detail with 1x1 RGB then it is worth it. If you weren't then probably not.

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Yeh, fascinating object up close Greg, nice job.

Deffinitely one for a dark sky with a bit more FOV

Mike

AP140 with reducer may be the ideal instrument for that.

Originally Posted by TrevorW

Like this not often seen

Thanks Trev. Yuri posted his fabulous widefield version a few weeks ago.
That gave me the inspiration.

Greg.

[Alchemy (Clive)]

Interesting section you have there, well done, doing the objects few have done before, you also get to put your touch to it without being compared to other images.

Always happy to see the new and interesting, particularly with the monster scope you have got

Cheers for now
Clive

[gregbradley]

Thanks Clive.

I see Martin Pugh has just received a Planewave CDK17 as well so I expect he will be posting something here in a month or two.

Greg.