Imaged over several nights from November 25 - December 5, 2015
This is my first image using a "one shot" H694 Trius-c to capture RGB with my TEC140 which was then combined with luminance taken with a Moravian G2-8300 on my TEC180. Although I used a Hutech IDAS LP-2 with the Trius-c I still had pretty horrible gradients of which I've only been partially successful in removing.
I used Optec's Sharplock/ONAG-XT automatic focusing for all luminance.
Lum: 30 x 480 sec, 32 x 720 sec. / RGB 33 x 15 min
Mighty Grouse in my books Peter. Great how this Galaxy has the 'inner tidal updrafts' or what ever there called when imaged at the level, Great stuff ! ! !
Looks pretty Good Peter. I like the colour (it looks like mine, hence why I like it ). Scale is good too. The gradients have spoiled the back ground but the rest looks good.
Excellent detail and contrast in the bright bits. Those "galactic fountain" streamers have come out very nicely. Lots of little fellows in the background too. Well done.
That's very nice, Peter. Definitely has the trade mark KAF-8300 stars though.
Thanks Rick! Well those microlenses "flares" are my refractor's version of diffraction spikes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by astronobob
Mighty Grouse in my books Peter. Great how this Galaxy has the 'inner tidal updrafts' or what ever there called when imaged at the level, Great stuff ! ! !
I think those updrafts are very cool. I worked hard to bring them out. Thanks for commenting!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Haese
Looks pretty Good Peter. I like the colour (it looks like mine, hence why I like it ). Scale is good too. The gradients have spoiled the back ground but the rest looks good.
You know what, Paul, they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Re the bloody background I never should have moved on in processing until I solved the issue pre-stretch. Then I got so invested I couldn't bring myself to start over. So, here we are 10 days later. That's how long I spent. Maybe I'll revisit this data in another life. I do appreciate your comment! I often looked at your version for guidance!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Slawomir
Looks good to me Peter
Congratulations on sucesfully combining data from two different scopes and two different cameras!
I don't know about "successful" but your remarks are highly appreciated. The galaxy was "easy" but the stars gave me fits with alignment and size differences between the two cameras. I'm still not sure of the best way to deal with this.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Placidus
Excellent detail and contrast in the bright bits. Those "galactic fountain" streamers have come out very nicely. Lots of little fellows in the background too. Well done.
Thanks Mike and Trish. I'm always surprised that I can drag out the "little fellows" from my light polluted sight!
That's a beauty. Love the colour and sharpness. There is some light pollution gradients left. They would handle easily in PixInsight using the dynamic background extraction tool.
You have some wonderful resolution in there Peter, some nice fussies in the background too
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Originally Posted by marc4darkskies
Very nice job indeed Peter! Good detail & colour!
Quote:
Originally Posted by gregbradley
That's a beauty. Love the colour and sharpness. There is some light pollution gradients left. They would handle easily in PixInsight using the dynamic background extraction tool.
Greg.
Thanks all for your kind words!
Greg, my mistake was not invoking DBE correctly while the image was unstretched. I got a partial result on the background and then moved on. I think DBE is limited in it's ability to deal with a stretched image. Believe me I tried but results were disappointing. I'm not satisfied with the background so when I get a bit more motivation I will start over. I want the stars a lot better too.
Yeah that worked well. Its a great image. It does give the feeling of being very well focused as well so a testament to the autofocus system you are using.
Yes that does look better Peter, the rising smoke chimney's look particularly noticeable in your image too, nice work
Mike
Thanks very much Mike. I did pay particular attention to those so I'm glad you noticed. Every time I get a nice result from my two scopes I thank you for encouraging me. When they prove recalcitrant you probably should go into hiding. ha ha.
Quote:
Originally Posted by g__day
Simply amazing!
Many thanks, Matthew. A lot of help from the ONAGs and FocusLock software.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gregbradley
Yeah that worked well. Its a great image. It does give the feeling of being very well focused as well so a testament to the autofocus system you are using.
Greg.
Huge thanks to you Greg. It was a simple technique that I could not get to work properly and had given up. You pointed out exactly where I went wrong (offset control in Photoshop). It's made a huge difference. Yes, every night I use the FocusLock software I'm amazed at the easy and complete consistency of my subs. As long as the seeing holds, or I'm not tracking too low, the FWHM values just sit the same image after image with no lost time going off to focus. When/if it comes out for OAG it's going to revolutionize focusing.
Thanks very much Mike. I did pay particular attention to those so I'm glad you noticed. Every time I get a nice result from my two scopes I thank you for encouraging me. When they prove recalcitrant you probably should go into hiding. ha ha.
Once you have it all working well you will want to sleep with me... ok well maybe not but you will owe me a beer at least
). Scale is good too. The gradients have spoiled the back ground but the rest looks good.
Once you have it all working well you will want to sleep with me...
ok well maybe not but you will owe me a beer at least 
