My First DSOs I'm Happy With!!!

[sheeny (Al)]

Woohoo!!! Just had a great session of deep sky imaging. I've only dabbled in it a little bit before really... just enough to frustrate myself and the retreat to some planetary imaging for a while...

The following images were all captured on my TouCam with my C8 and f6.3 reducer. Brightness about 80%, Gamma 50%, saturation 50%, gain about 70%.

47 Tucanae is a stack of 104 frames, 2 second exposure, darkframe subtracted and stacked, and wavelets in Registax, Shadows and Highlights adjustment and saved for the web in PS CS2.

NGC362 is a stack of 99 frames, 2 second exposure, darkframe subtracted, stacked and wavelets in Registax, shadows and highlights adjustment and saved for the web in PS CS2.

The Tarantula Nebula is a stack of 48 frames, 10 second exposure, darkframe subtracted, stacked and wavelets applied in Registax, shadows and highlights adjustment and saved for the web in PS CS2.

All captures unguided.

Al.

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

WOO-HOOO!!!!!

Go Modded Toucam!!!!

Well done Al

[iceman (Mike)]

Great work Al! You and Asi are pulling out all stops with the modded ToUcam's! Great to see!

[asimov (John)]

Good on ya Al.

Hows your polar alignment? Can you go longer exposures, say 30 seconds? Although globs & starfields don't need much over 10 - 15 secs.

I've just finished getting the 900nc LE modded & I'll post a few piccies later.

[Ric]

Top stuff Al, some great images there and lots of details, well done.

Cheers

[sheeny (Al)]

G'Day Asi,

I'm getting better at polar aligning! I drift aligned last night but didn't use K3 to really do the fine tuning. I did notice some drift while I was imaging, so while I could've gone longer I think, I'm not sure by how much.

I reckon drift aligning with K3 is just the bees knees, but I find that by myself it can get a bit busy when trying to measure the angle of the camera... it helps to have someone else there to start / stop the camera angle measurement routine in K3 - or one of those little remote controls like 1ponders has (I think Robby makes them?? ). Not sure if they'll work on a CG5.

Al.

[RB (Andrew)]

Excellent work Al.

Gotta love that mighty Toucam.

[asimov (John)]

So, You use K3CCD tools as your capture program Al?

[sheeny (Al)]

Originally Posted by asimov

So, You use K3CCD tools as your capture program Al?

Yeah mate... sorry forgot to mention that!

Al.

[sheeny (Al)]

Here's a reprocessed version of the tarantula.

Stacked in K3ccdtools into LRGB images at 2x enlargment with dark frames subtracted.

Aligned and recombined in Registar. Curves, levels and saved for the web in PS CS2.

Just experimenting! ...and learning...

Al.

[sheeny (Al)]

Hmmm... I think something happened to the 2x enlargement somewhere between K3ccdtools and PS. I guess the final image in Registar was only displayed at 50% when I've copied it (I'm playing with the trial version with no save function!). Oh well, you get that!

Al.

[Lee]

Nice images Al -

[atalas]

Nice shots Al.