June Deep Sky Imaging Challenge - Images

[seeker372011 (Narayan)]

here's my result from yesterday. I was trying to solve an issue with my mount-failed-and so didn't bother taking flats and darks and didn't get the exposure that I was looking for

but at least I tried....

* Scope: ED80
* Mount: CG5
* Guiding: PHD
* Exposure details: QHY8, 6 x 10 minute subs (had massive problems with the mount)
* Stacking method: no flats and darks-stacked in Nebulosity
* Summary of post processing: discarded green and blue channel, and used only red channel-this is a H alpha image;curves and levels in Photoshop CS2, some selective noise reduction and very slight selective sharpening
* Darkness of imaging site: First quarter moon; suburban Sydney location, light polluted-but then a H alpha filter was used
* Date(s) image taken: 19/06

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9178472...53140/sizes/l/

[Astrobserver99 (Rob)]

Target: M17 Swan Nebula
Camera: Canon 40d before I had it modified, IDAS LPS Filter
Exposure Capture: Canon EOS Utilities
Scope: SWED80 Pro f/7.5
Mount: HEQ5 Pro
Exposure Setting: Prime focus, ISO800 Daylight WB
Exposures: 1x300s, taken 23/07/2009
Seeing: Ugly, in Suburban Melbourne
Guiding: Orion Starshoot Autoguider using PHD with 9x50 guidescope
Focus: Live View
Stacking: None
Processing: Digital Photo Professional with noise reduction

[Shiraz (Ray)]

* Scope: GSO 8in f4 and moonlite focuser
* Imaging device: QHY8 through MPCC
* Mount: HEQ5pro on concreted-in jarrah post
* Guiding: 50mm modified finderscope with QHY5(colour) - PhD software.
* Exposure details: 90 min total, 5 min subs at whatever temp the QHY8 got to
* Stacking method: stacked in Nebulosity with translation and rotation compensation. single flat only (it began to rain just as I finished set up for flats), darks.
* Summary of post processing: Nebulosity “curves” and “color scaling” used to stretch image plus slight morphological star tightening. GIMP2 to tidy up any residual imperfections and prepare for posting as a JPEG. Heavily cropped and re-sampled by 0.5 to fit posting requirements.
* Imaging site: dark and clear (country town), seeing about average and no wind.
* Date(s) image taken: 14-15/6/2010
* Philosophy: tried to use minimum processing and to frame so that the sea creature shape was obvious. There is some residual star shape distortion from fairly ordinary tracking, but chose not to use deconvolution to tidy this up in order to keep nebula as smooth as possible and retain the misty appearance of the scattering, particularly the golden tinge around the yellow stars. Background is probably set a bit too dark for a purist, but I prefer a bit of contrast.

thanks for looking

[Shiraz (Ray)]

* Scope: GSO 8in f4 with MPCC and moonlite focuser
* Imaging device: QHY8
* Mount: HEQ5 pro on cemented-in jarrah post
* Guiding: 50mm modified finderscope with QHY5(colour) - PhD through camera AT4.
* Exposure details: 39 min total, mix of 5 and 2min subs at whatever temp the QHY8 got to
* Stacking method: stacked in Nebulosity with translation and rotation compensation. No flats, no darks. Discarded subs with really bad tracking.
* Summary of post processing: Nebulosity “curves” used to stretch image. IRIS to flatten residual background and tidy up distorted star shapes a little with RL deconvolution. GIMP2 to tidy up and prepare for posting as a JPEG. Heavily cropped and resampled to fit post requirements.
* Imaging site: dark and clear, seeing about average. Wind was a problem with occasional sharp gusts - not ideal conditions, but usable between gusts. Took 2 minute subs in the worst wind conditions, going to 5 minutes when the wind died down a bit.
* Date(s) image taken: 13/6/2010
* Philosophy: Processing and presentation aimed at showing the swan shape with slight reflection component. Took a lot of work to tidy the odd star shapes into something reasonable. Really need a more stable mount with this scope under gusty wind conditions. f4 scope helped a lot by allowing effective short subs between gusts.