I was having such a good night last night and the conditions were improving as time went on with the wind dropping so I decided to have a try at the horse head. Unfortunately lack of sleep kicked in before I got enough time on this to do it justice however it's the first time I've got an image of this with the QHY8 so I tought I'd post in any case.
This image is 18x5mins (1 1/2 hrs) with the QHY8 and Newt.
Having said that, it looks a bit odd due to it being so dark and lacking in contrast. As I mentioned to someone else before, a few iterations of curves and levels will fix that. That, or you add more data to it.
Thanks for the comments. I wasn't sure what to expect from 1.5 hrs but though a lot more time would be required. In terms of the framing, it was pretty late (early?) and I couldn't even see the horse in the live view when I was setting up the shot so to be honest I'm happy I wasn't pointing the telescope at a random star field for 1.5 hrs. I've got a baseline to build on and definately intend to give this area another try.
What should I be doing about the contrast? I gave it another iteration of curves and levels and the graininess set in - I guess more data is the answer?
Great start. Understand now why the 2 min subs on 253 too - must have been the last of the wind dying down you were avoiding Peter?
I couldn't get out myself, but congrats on breaking the imaging drought.
Hmmm you've brightened the neb, but at the expense of big stars, the color is good, perhaps return to the dimmer version but incrementally shrink the stars as you brighten it.... Or alternatively just use a program that will raise the luminance of the reds alone...... Lightroom comes to mind.
No need for L*ghtr**m. You can just use a saturation adjustment layer in Photoshop, select red from the drop-down list and play to your heart's content!
Pete, ultimately, I think you're right -- needs more data, perhaps.
Nonetheless impressive. There's no way anyone could ever have imagined amateurs taking images like this 30 years ago. I'm sure the first horse pic I saw in a text was a fuzzy black and white affair from some massive observatory.
What a fantastic time to be an amateur astronomer........
Nice images Peter, Great detail in the horse. More data would just smooth it out a bit more.. I think somewhere between the 2nd and 3rd image would be nice colourwise.
Well done.
but then i have forgotten what skies look like its been so long
