2 Images some new gear and some tweaking

[Peter.M]

Hi guys

First of all I hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable Christmas and new year. I was lucky enough to grab the lodestar from the classifieds yesterday and my adapter to my OAG came in the mail at the same time. The last image I posted was of the dark clouds in a sea of hydrogen emission in Orion. Over Christmas I attempted to capture some colour for it from Pauls dark site. I got 6 hours of colour but high clouds caused gradients that were impossible to deal with, I only knew they were there when I watched Pauls time lapse. I decided that with 28.5 hours of Hydrogen alpha data I would move on to another target from home.

A few things had been bugging me about my images, bright stars were flaring at 45 degrees to the diffraction spikes which is evident in the ldn1622 image. I eventually worked out that the bolts holding the focuser on were protruding into the light path ever so slightly. I took the whole thing off while waiting for my Lodestar to arrive and replaced them with shorter bolts.

My next image is a little more run of the mill than my last one. I will be doing a narrow band rosette image. So far I have 7.5 hours of hydrogen alpha. I am contemplating binning the O3 and S2 data and just using the HA as luminance but I will cross that bridge when I get to it. This is a quick and dirty processing effort, stars are over sharpened but I will fix that when I complete the data set.

I hope you all enjoy them

Ldn1622 Big
http://www.astrobin.com/72067/

Rosette Big
http://www.astrobin.com/72070/

[clive milne]

They are both very good images Peter but I especially like the image of Ldn1622. I suppose it says something about how high the bar is set now that it could be said that the image would benefit from longer exposure.

[Peter.M]

Originally Posted by clive milne

They are both very good images Peter but I especially like the image of Ldn1622. I suppose it says something about how high the bar is set now that it could be said that the image would benefit from longer exposure.

Thanks Clive, I agree if I had a permanent setup I would probably spend more time on each image. But after losing 6 hours the motivation to setup for more HA diminished. Coupled by the fact that after taking the scope apart I was going to have to spend a night just re framing the image because my rotation markers had been moved.

[alpal]

Hi Peter,
They are both sharp detailed images & you've put a lot of time into them.
I await the final results.

cheers
Allan

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Really like the LDN 1622 image Peter even just in B&W it looks very mysterious and teh star flaring is not noticable r an issue to my eyes really The Rosette is coming along although I might have expected a little more after 7.5hrs and apart from the stars being over sharpened, to me it looks over smoothed I think the quick and dirty style of processing you mentioned may be the culprit here though? You've been on a discovery journey with your equipment for as long as I can remember and the stars and field quality looks good in both these shots so you must be happy about that

How often do you get to Pauls place? Must be nice having access to a good dark sky

Mike

[gregbradley]

The LDN shot is fantastic. That's really high quality.

Gre.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Two really neat shots. Well done.

[RickS (Rick)]

Peter,

I like the LDN1622 image a lot too! Will be interesting to see what you can do with the Rosette with better processing.

I wouldn't give up on the colour data too quickly. If you have PixInsight (or can get an eval copy) try DBE. It can work miracles on gradients. Alternatively, I'd be happy to try it for you if you supply the data.

Cheers,
Rick.

[Peter.M]

Originally Posted by alpal

Hi Peter,
They are both sharp detailed images & you've put a lot of time into them.
I await the final results.

cheers
Allan

Thanks Allan, while taking these images I am wrestling with sequence generator pro so that on work nights I can just set up after dark and pack it in in the morning. It makes taking longer images pretty easy, for instance 5 hours of the rosette image was captured in one night.

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Really like the LDN 1622 image Peter even just in B&W it looks very mysterious and teh star flaring is not noticable r an issue to my eyes really The Rosette is coming along although I might have expected a little more after 7.5hrs and apart from the stars being over sharpened, to me it looks over smoothed I think the quick and dirty style of processing you mentioned may be the culprit here though? You've been on a discovery journey with your equipment for as long as I can remember and the stars and field quality looks good in both these shots so you must be happy about that

How often do you get to Pauls place? Must be nice having access to a good dark sky

Mike

Yes the rosette has a tad too much smoothing for my liking too, that will be less of an issue when I have more data and other filters so I can compile an entire image.

The star flaring was not a huge issue for me either, but when it dosn't get dark till 10pm I start getting the astroshakes and have to do something with myself .

I am more than happy with the star field, I largely put that down to choosing an f5 system rather than faster with the cheaper mpcc and the quality of orion optics mirrors.

Paul has been great to me, soon he will not have to go to his site at all to image which might have meant I was **** out of luck. But instead he told me that If I want to go down to let him know and most nights he would be able to make it happen. I cant thank him enough for that.

Originally Posted by gregbradley

The LDN shot is fantastic. That's really high quality.

Gre.

Thanks Greg, I only wish I could have made a colour image. I may still be able to next new moon, or next year failing that.

Originally Posted by multiweb

Two really neat shots. Well done.

Thanks Marc, I appreciate all the praise!

[Peter.M]

Originally Posted by RickS

Peter,

I like the LDN1622 image a lot too! Will be interesting to see what you can do with the Rosette with better processing.

I wouldn't give up on the colour data too quickly. If you have PixInsight (or can get an eval copy) try DBE. It can work miracles on gradients. Alternatively, I'd be happy to try it for you if you supply the data.

Cheers,
Rick.

Hmm I dont have pixinsight but hearing that I might grab an evaluation copy and see what it can do. If it could recover something from that data I would probably purchase it.

[Paul Haese]

Ldn1622 is a great image. I am so looking forward to seeing this image with colour now.

The Rosette is smooth but as pointed out some issues. Overall though still a good image.

Mike, Pete comes down as often as he can. I am always up for some astronomy so for me it does not matter if I am totally remote there or not. I just love getting together with anyone who likes astronomy and wants to use the place for its dark skies.

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

Mike, Pete comes down as often as he can. I am always up for some astronomy so for me it does not matter if I am totally remote there or not. I just love getting together with anyone who likes astronomy and wants to use the place for its dark skies.

Must be nice to share the dark skies with someone too, I know I like it when my mate Attila comes over for a night, he is not an imager (any more) but brings a 6" Celestron GOTO and we have some fun checking out a few objects while my rig chugs away. Actually, it was after doing a goto to M46 a couple of months ago that sparked my interest in shooting that recently

Any way back on topic

MIke