Well what else would one do after 4 days and three nights at a cracker of a star party (SPSP) then a 4hr drive home and exhausted from 3-4hrs sleep a day...and then bloody spraining an ankle unloading the car......well? IMAGE of course
After grabbing the last bit of data for my NGC 3521 galaxy image before it set (already posted) I had a sparkling Milky Way still overhead with no clouds and no wind ...what to do?..go home? You should Mike, you are exhausted Mike......BAH! Imaging is for real men so I used the power of a 12" at F3.8 with sensitive camera..and bagged a complete LRGB image before twilight
I tried to produce a naturally dusty softness but still detailed image of the region, that respects the light
nice one Mike, I hope to nab this one this season one of my favourite objects, still rising a bit late for me on work nights, but it was obviously worth pushing through the tiredness on this effort!
Nice image Mike with heaps of detail, and the colour is OOk (maybe a touch too magenta for my taste). Smooth background too which I really like. I think you should do a little selective sharpening around those streaky dust sections though to give it real pop.
I really like that little galaxy which I had not really noticed before in my wide field image but it clearly evident in your image.
Nice one Mike. Looks a lot like a Honders shot hehehehe. I did this one on Fri night only to find the autoguider cable was faulty and the guiding failed as soon I left my observatory!!
Getting ready for the Malins are we? I like the framing and the detail.
Thanks guys, glad it was enjoyable, t'is a pretty well imaged object so glad it wasn't too boring . Feels good to get a reasonable quality image in half a night, even when tired and putting up with the discomfort of a sprained ankle, I should'a really gone home and iced it but what can I say?..I am an imaging tragic
Thanks Mike BJ, glad you liked Yoda's walking stick
Honderesque hey Bradley?...well, I'll take that one Hmmm?..yes, DM has awarded quite a few Corona's over the years...
Looking good Mike. I think if you paid more attention to aligning the black point between the RGB channels, you would have a cracker image. Paul is right with the magenta cast. Are you still winging it with your monitoring calibration these days?
Awesome detail Mike! I hope to image this again one day when I get my 10 inch up and running (in a couple of thousand dollars time lol).
Astrophotography - the world's most demanding exercise since it's mostly done with lack of sleep.
Oh to have endless funds......
Funny, as you may know I used to train for and compete in one of the craziest, toughest and most physically demanding sports (Strongman) which it is not hard to imagine could have been less than kind to my body over the decade or more I practiced this art ...but since then I have learned to operate on next to no sleep, night after night and not just at the scope but also on the computer... and I wonder what this may be doing to my body in comparison to the rigors of carrying 400lbs in each hand 100m and bursting tiny blood vessels in my neck, shoulders and eyelids and tearing skin off my hands ...
Quote:
Originally Posted by h0ughy
its awesome!!!! and i agree with Paul can do with a little tweakypoos on thesharpness - mind you though its way out of my league
Cheers Houghy, I'm still deciding on the magenta cast, leave it with me... but I'm not going to sharpen it any more.
...well? IMAGE of course 
...BAH! Imaging is for real men 
so I used the power of a 12" at F3.8 with sensitive camera..and bagged a complete LRGB image before twilight 
. Feels good to get a reasonable quality image in half a night, even when tired and putting up with the discomfort of a sprained ankle, I should'a really gone home and iced it but what can I say?..I am an imaging tragic 
...and just a little crazy 
...but since then I have learned to operate on next to no sleep, night after night and not just at the scope but also on the computer... and I wonder what this may be doing to my body in comparison to the rigors of carrying 400lbs in each hand 100m and bursting tiny blood vessels in my neck, shoulders and eyelids and tearing skin off my hands 
