How do you like the Atik 11k camera? How are you taking dark frames since it does not have a shutter? What image capture software do you use -- Maxim, CCDSoft, etc? How the cooling?
Beautiful shot Doug. Very nicely done. You got some serious details for such short integration time. Top work.
Thanks Marc. Hopefully I can add to it yet.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shiraz
Beauty Doug - that's a really fine image.
Thanks Shiraz
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Originally Posted by alexch
A very nice image indeed!
Thanks Alex
Quote:
Originally Posted by jjjnettie
Just beautiful!
Thanks Jeanette.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin Pugh
Looks like all of your equipment (despite the wooden wedges) is working just fine.
A very nice image Doug.
cheers
Martin
Thanks Martin. Wedges gone and a new Feathertouch in residence. Now all I need is the field flattener and a light box for some flats.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Davis
Nice image!
How do you like the Atik 11k camera? How are you taking dark frames since it does not have a shutter? What image capture software do you use -- Maxim, CCDSoft, etc? How the cooling?
-Tom
Thanks Tom, I am very happy with the camera overall. It's operation is straight forward and I didn't have any problem hooking it up with my other gear. I use Maxin as capture software and do the rest in CCDStack and Photoshop. As for darks I now have a library which were taken with the camera sitting on the kitchen table. It has a nice screw on aluminium cover for the CCD window which works just fine for darks.
The biggest letdown with the camera is the cooling wich only has a delta of 38 degrees C it works as it should but with hot weather it may struggle to maintain -20, but it also has provision for water cooling which I have yet to try.
With 3 nights of exposure and 100 minutes of each LRGB this is the final outcome.
Still waiting for a field flattener to assist with star shape and noticing that all the bright stars are saturated fully while using 10 minute exposures it looks like I still have quite a way to go with this scope/camera combination but I feel I am starting to get somewhere.
The extra exposure hasn't really made any huge increases to the image other than to smooth it out a bit.
Filling out, the loop is showing, I think tonight will be good.... It is here so far, but I'm exhausted from last nights effort.
As before.... Watching.
Filling out, the loop is showing, I think tonight will be good.... It is here so far, but I'm exhausted from last nights effort.
As before.... Watching.
Stop watching I give up at the moment. I have about 90min of each Ha and OIII which when processed up seems to be lacking something. Inclined to think the focus may have shifted with something I did but I cannot think what or when. Not good enough to blend with the RGB see below.
Very good shot Doug, plenty of potential there. Was this using a GSO RC? (edit I'm going blind, just saw that you mentioned GSO 10" RC in the first post in this thread, doh!).
Since O3 is a cyan colour it actually effects the green and blue channel of a OSC equally.
The detail in the nebula is very very good. This optic looks like a very good one. The problem with F10 is that the stars very quickly saturate even with a sixteen bit sensor way before you get a decent nebula signal.
If you look at the dimmer stars they have very good colour because they are not saturated. Your bright stars are also far bigger due to massive overexposure. There is nothing wrong with your sensor or optics it is just the laws of Physics.
If you have time and you feel so inclined can you collect RGB at a quarter of the exposure of the RGB image. Send me a tiff crop of each different exposure set of the same area and I will do a HDR for you.
See the picture below it is a line profile done with Images Plus. Even the blue star in the centre of the Helix is saturated. HDR would overcome this.
I am only trying to help. You are well on the way to producing stunning images. The Helix Nebula is very dim and you have got very good nebula signal and detail in your image.
Keep at it, I've got a pile of rubbish subs you can add to it.
This is just the shake down leading to Sv....... Is it November yet???
Darren
Nearly November, Just the wedding to go.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dpastern
Very good shot Doug, plenty of potential there. Was this using a GSO RC? (edit I'm going blind, just saw that you mentioned GSO 10" RC in the first post in this thread, doh!).
Dave
Thanks Dave and yes it was all shot with the 10" GSO RC.
Quote:
Originally Posted by avandonk
Doug try using the the HA and O3 this way
HA to red 1
O3 to green 0.5
O3 to blue 0.5
Since O3 is a cyan colour it actually effects the green and blue channel of a OSC equally.
The detail in the nebula is very very good. This optic looks like a very good one. The problem with F10 is that the stars very quickly saturate even with a sixteen bit sensor way before you get a decent nebula signal.
If you look at the dimmer stars they have very good colour because they are not saturated. Your bright stars are also far bigger due to massive overexposure. There is nothing wrong with your sensor or optics it is just the laws of Physics.
If you have time and you feel so inclined can you collect RGB at a quarter of the exposure of the RGB image. Send me a tiff crop of each different exposure set of the same area and I will do a HDR for you.
See the picture below it is a line profile done with Images Plus. Even the blue star in the centre of the Helix is saturated. HDR would overcome this.
I am only trying to help. You are well on the way to producing stunning images. The Helix Nebula is very dim and you have got very good nebula signal and detail in your image.
Bert
Thanks Bert it has been something of a learning exercise with a new scope and a near new camera. Hopefully I can capture some shorter data with some nice star colour that can be blended int this image. I will have to see what the weather does. We are again expecting very heavy rain over the next 3 days with a flood warning already posted.
I have included a blend of NB and RGB images comprising:
Lum Channel = Ha,OIII and standard lum
Ha,OIII,OIII blended with RGB data.
Doesn't look to bad.
Yeh this last version is really quite nice. The OIII radiating lines are even starting to show through a tad, nice
Mike
Thanks Mike, I feel I now know this target very intimately. I must have reprocessed this one a hundred times and am only just getting happy with the blended image.
If I keep imaging like this I think I better buy a couple of new hard drives for storage. This directory is now around the 6GB mark and growing daily and the calibration files are in a separate directory.
It's a great learning target with some very trying aspects.
I wish the FF would arrive so I can get some adapters made before the weather improves.
The last one is quite good, nice smooth transition across the image, plus some nice detail in the middle of the ha sections..... It's all coming together. I would like to go to the mono camera at some stage, looks like I have a lot to learn.
The last one is quite good, nice smooth transition across the image, plus some nice detail in the middle of the ha sections..... It's all coming together. I would like to go to the mono camera at some stage, looks like I have a lot to learn.
Thanks Clive, I am starting to come to terms with the mono camera but it does take quite a bit longer to get an image but then again you can do more with it. 6 of 1
