Horsehead from Astrofest.

[batema (Mark)]

I was fortunate to get 1 night (Last night) at the Astrofest in Queensland this year and am posting this image to seek advice on how to deal with blowing out the big star and if possible a step by step instruction as I don't know how to blend and all that stuff. I've attached the original with the star and my only solution "the crop".

Taken through W/O Flt 110 with Phd guiding and Qhy-9 at - 20c even though the evening got to -5c. You know your in trouble when the Dew Straps on full bore completely ice up.

Processed in Photoshop using 7 x 5 Min Lum 1x1, and 3 x 3 Min RG 2x2 and 2 x 3 Min Blue at 2x2. I must learn how to take darks. I tried the T Shirt method but at -5c we gave up .

Any advice welcome.

Mark

[Benny L (Ben)]

Hi Mark,

It looks like your optics fogged over or something :S that's the only time i've seen that star look that big with my gear.

Ben

[batema (Mark)]

Possibly true Ben as at 4am in the morning we had a certain amount of fog roll through. I still have the wonder of how to reduce these stars by masking or layers. I have learnt to use layers with the qhy-9 when doing my images but am unsure how to blend.

Mark

[Paul Haese]

Yep that is fog. Can you show us a sub without any work done to it? I suspect there is not much you can do now. Just start again another time.

[batema (Mark)]

I think Fog might be the issue. This is just a single converted to Jpg but with no work done on it.

[Tandum (Robin)]

Mark, I did the horse for a 1st light on my QHY9 here. No massive halos in that one.

[Alchemy (Clive)]

Oh well it does happen that sort of thing occasionally, bit of fog, thin high level cloud etc, ......don't think of it aa a fault, it's done to accentuate the power of the nearby star, it's going to be difficult to process it out. The detail is there throughout the rest of the image,

If you got fog at astrofest, so will everyone else, just consider yourself a leader in style.

Cheers