Helix

[Paul Haese]

It has been a busy couple of weeks and with last night presenting some more clear skies I could not resist imaging a few more targets. This image really needs a heap more data but it will have to wait until next month now with the moon waxing. Still for the little amount of data I am quite happy with how this image worked out. There is some background noise, but the detail is there. I would like any suggestions on how to capture the outer halo to the top of the image. It is very faint and I am already doing Ha subs of 20 minutes. Is this a narrow band thing? Does it need SII or OIII?

Click here for image.

Comments welcome.

BTW I know the background is a little blue. It is hiding the green noise and not very well at that.

[gregbradley]

Very nice Paul. Great colours in the Helix itself.

Try binning your Ha 2x2. The O111 is just the spoke type centre and a bit out from there. S11 is very little at all, more just a fainter version of the Ha.

You did great getting that much from that amount of exposure. It is very faint. More a target for your 12 inch RC with a reducer and bin Ha 2x2.

Greg.

[Paul Haese]

Ah, ok binning on the Ha. I used the Ha data with the luminence and then used this as a luminosity layer after combining it all in CCDstack. the luminosity layer was done in PS and this really gave the whole image a boost.

Good suggestion about the 12" RC. I had previously done this with the 8"Rc and it looked promising but I did not get it finished at the time. It is still on my list of narrow field work though.

[gregbradley]

You don't need to bin with your TSA as it is a good pixel/focal length setup. You could to pick up some sensitivity and you wouldn't lose much in resolution. Your TSA is fairly immune to the seeing same as an FSQ.

With your RC though you will find your 8300 chip quite undersampled and it will lose some sensitivity as well as show up the seeing more.
But 2x2 binning helps without losing anything. I am routinely binning Ha 2x2 on the 8300 at F4.45 on the CDK17 and it gives sensational images.
It suddenly is a good match. Especially when the seeing is good.

If I read your post right recently and you got an STL11 you will find that a much better match for your RC with its 9 micron pixels. 9 microns seems to be pretty much a good match for any scope. A bit like 6 inches is the sweet spot for refractors and F5 is the sweet spot for imaging.

What you may end up finding is an AO device may suddenly seem a good accessory for the RC. It depends on how much backfocus you have. If you do have an STL11 then the SBIG AO setup with the remote guide head would be a very nice setup.

Greg.

[Paul Haese]

Greg, I had planned on using the STL on the RC. It was the main reason I bought it. I just thought that the sampling with the 8300 would be too high and not practical. Maybe next month I will set up the 12RC and get some work done on that. I am sure a few here want me to get the review sorted now too.

[gregbradley]

Good choice Paul. Now you can chose between the 8300 for a nice galaxy closeup if the seeing is good or stick with the STL.

It adds another element of choice much like having 2 scopes.

Looking forward to your results. They should be awesome.

Greg.

[Cosmic (Daniel)]

Wow, I consider that really the eye of god. I remembered taking a 2 min exposure with almost nothing to show, with dark skys as well. You have managed to catch some great detail and colour there. Beautiful, well done indeed. This kind of work is a true inspiration of the level I want to get to.

Dan

[desler]

A bit more data Paul and that is going to be a ripper mate! I love it!

Darren

[jase (Jason)]

A great start Paul. Will be a spectacular image once you've got more data. Greg is on the money by binning the data, but wouldn't be doing it on the TSA based on sampling. 20min subs you're taking now, but you only took two of them given the information page on your site indicates 40min of Ha data. More data would appear to be the answer. Looking forward to seeing how this image turns out.

[Paul Haese]

Thanks guys appreciated.

Jase, yes only 2 subs. So I really need a lot more. Mind you the signal is quite good at this scale, so maybe I only need say 7 subs in Ha and 7 in Luminence? Bottom line is I go until the noise disappears.

[Ross G]

I really like the colours Paul.

Great shot.


Ross.

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Looking good so far Paul

Mike

[Paul Haese]

Just reworked the data a little bit. I added some Ha to the red channel and then blended this with the previous image. Some more selective sharpening to the cometary globules and I think this looks a bit better. More in keeping with images I see around.

[atalas]

Great detail Paul!