Bit of the LMC in Narrow Band and HDR

[avandonk]

There was cloud about last night but it cleared later (2AM) and I managed to get some HA and O3 data of 30Dor and a bit of the LMC.
Details, Canon 5DH, 150mm f/4.5 achro, Astronomik HA and O3 13nm, fridge at -10.0C, 5x(4M, 8M, 16M) at 800 ISO for each filter. Darks and flats with ImagesPlus, stacked and sized with RegiStar. EasyHDR to produce LDR's from these sets of exposures.
Used IP to combine ie HA to RED, O3 blue to BLUE, O3 green to Green from the LDR's.

2.0MB
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~chee...lmc-nb_hdr.jpg

With far more exposures and some colour data this would look even better.

Bert

[Garyh]

That is looking very promising Bert! Loads of details , are you going to keep adding to this one with color data?

[Ric]

Very nice Bert, as Gary mentioned I hope this is a work in progress. It will look excellent with RGB added.

Cheers

[drmorbius (Randall)]

yep, that's gonna be a winner... good stuff!

[Matty P (Matt)]

Looks excellent Bert, please keep adding to it.

Very well done so far.

[theodog (Jeff)]

Looking good Bert.
On the right track, more data will always improve an image, keep at it.
Well done.

[avandonk]

Thanks all, I aim to collect more data and combine it.

I could not get any color data with the 100ED last night but I dug up an image with some overlap from here

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ad.php?t=27634


Excised the common regions with RegiStar from the colour and narrow band images and combined in ImagesPlus.

Result of NB+COL 1.5MB

http://members.optusnet.com.au/~chee...mcnb+col_L.jpg

This was the aim all along use the 150mm diameter FL 640mm F4.25 achro for collecting dim nebula data in narrow band and the 100mm diameter FL 675mm F6.75 100ED APO for colour. They both have FR/FF fitted so their fields are very flat. Both have 2.7 inch Astro Physics focusers to minimise vignetting on a full frame camera . These focusers also easily carry the now 2.2kg fridge!

This method allows me to get really deep images from a light polluted site.

Below are colour, narrow band and finally combined.

Bert

[multiweb (Marc)]

Very cool pic Bert. Love the colors.

[avandonk]

Here is a combined image showing the overlap.

Bert

[jase (Jason)]

Lovely Bert. The OIII data mapped to Green and Blue has really added an extra dimension not often seen throughout this region. The delicate tendrils and twists of nebulosity are great. Well done on your observatory too. Nothing like improving your data acquisition efficiencies to spend more time where it counts. Look forwarding seeing more from your fridge-cam set up especially as the summer approaches.

[avandonk]

Thanks Jase. I set the fridge temperature at -10.0 C so it was attainable even in summer. This way I only need one set of darks. The fridge keeps the camera at plus or minus 0.1 degrees with ease. There is a slight problem in that a camera at idle is about two degrees cooler than a camera hard at work ie exposing. This means the first exposure cannot be accurately corrected. As usual with heat sources there are temperature gradients.

It was never about absolute noise reduction but about noise control. If you start at the shorter exposures and then work your way up without any pause it is not a problem.

Those thin (from here) tendrils are quite something are they not!?

Bert

[avandonk]

I have put up a 'better' version by reprocessing the colour image.
1.7MB
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~chee...mcnb+col_L.jpg

Bert

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Nice to see you having fun with the data Bert, isn't it great playing around with what you have, putting it together in so many different ways?

Mike

[avandonk]

Yes you are correct Mike there is no absolutely correct way, just the best you can do for now. I am still learning about the whole process of astro imaging. To me it is about doing better than last time by improving my own limited abilities. Better data certainly helps but then you have the conundrum of having to become a better data processor!

I spent many years collecting and extracting the meaningful data from x-ray diffraction images to solve the structures of very large proteins at an atomic level. As all things are in science it is about signal to noise. The difficult part is to display the signals we collect as their dynamic range far exceeds any media we can present them in.

Bert

[winensky]

Love the mosaic. Though I am not up to it yet, are there any guides around for combining multiple narrow band and RGB?