Yet aaaannnother repro... Yawn... I wish the skies were clear..

[AlexN]

Well... What else can we do but reprocess data when the clouds wont allow us to capture new data...

I gotta say, Again, I am impressed what a few more months of processing practise can do for old data... upon first process of this data, I was not able to get the colours to a point that I was happy with, I couldnt get any depth in the image... I just couldnt get it right.. Now I think I've done all I can with this shot given the limited data...

The Details..
M42.
C11 @ F/6.3.
QHY8 (Gain 1, Offset 64)
EQ6 Pro - Unguided.
40x60sec + 40x10sec

I Like it... although it might not please others as the stars are not round etc... but considering 1764mm unguided on an EQ6, Im pretty happy with it all the same..
(Data from early september last year.)

Cheers for looking.
Alex.

[gregbradley]

A very striking image.

If you want to help correct elongated stars here are 2 techniques in photoshop:

1. Use the smudge tool and set it to a circle large enough and then nudge the edges of the elongated stars and push them into a round state. It helps if you zoom in and make the stars large. You can also make the circle of the tool smaller and push out from inside the star to round it out and that can look more natural as it doesn't affect the secondary halo of the star.

2. Another technique is to make a duplicate image. Set it to darken blending mode. Now select filter/other/offset. Experiment with different horizontal and vertical offsets to help correct the elongation. In your image the elongations are mainly horizontal.

You can also lasso areas you don't want affected by the offset as it will tend to smear detail slightly.

You can also fine tune it by selecting edit/fade offset after you have offset it to and you cna use the slider to reduce the effect even more rather than the increments of 1 pixel allowed in the offset filter.

Also using the minimum filter will reduce stars in general and will minimise the elongations but you can overdo that filter as you can overdo the above.

Greg.

[RobF (Rob)]

Nice work Alex, and have to agree about these damned clouds.......
I'm going to get square eyes if I spend another night prying out more processing mysteries. Trouble is its fun and addictive (as Chris has mentioned in another post) revisting old friends to lift the standard!

[Matty P (Matt)]

I agree. I love the colours Alex. Lots of detail as well.

Doesn't sound like you guys have been getting many clear nights recently.

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by AlexN

Well... What else can we do but reprocess data...

Alex.

I don't have the foggiest what you are talking about Alex...?




A very colourful shot that

Mike

[AlexN]

Thanks guys...

Greg, I'll have a stab at both those techniques you mentioned and post the results if I can fix it up

Alex

[AlexN]

Had to post this up..

Gregbradley was nice enough to have a quick go at the stars with his smudging technique as described above, and heres the result..

I'll be attacking the high res version of this image later tonight in the same way, and hopefully I can get similar results...

Greg - Cheers again for your time mate.. The result sure has put a smile on my face...

Despite this perhaps not being my "best" deep sky image, its my favourite one of my own simply because its narrowfield!

I'd love to see the same field of view captured with your BRC-250! would be stunning I think..

[renormalised (Carl)]

Really nice piccie, Alex

Great colour!!

One thing though, there's two brownish patches of noisy data at the bottom of the piccie. Have you tried to clear them up??

Clear skies.....what's that??!!!. The moment I get a decent night of really good conditions, a damn asteroid will probably land somewhere near me!!!!

[AlexN]

i could clear the noise out of them, however its not just noisy background, it is actual data.. Its thin whisps of dust... I dont want to do anything to damage the "data" in removing the noise.. I might have a go at clearing the noise using the spot healing brush.. but I cant guarantee good results Cant hurt to try in this digital age we live in

[gregbradley]

I'd love to see the same field of view captured with your BRC-250! would be stunning I think..[/quote]

Yes the BRC would be good especially at F5 and the TEC180 probably quite a bit better though longer exposure time.

Greg.

[AlexN]

Greg.. I was meaning to ask you.. Does the TEC180 out-do the BRC? Judging by that reply I dare say it does..

I suppose, 180mm of clear aperture with a damn near perfect lens design + obviously superb tube baffling, you would expect it to crap brilliance (as it did in your horse head.)

I'll be having another go at this shortly, with guiding this time and longer subs to kill that noise issue...

Im hoping to be able to get 10x300sec + 10x60sec + 10x30sec and 10x10sec for a full range shot, composed a little differently than this shot..

Just need a clear night when I dont have to work at 5am the following morning..