After opting out of a new years party due to very clear skies, I am happy to post up the first deep sky image for the forums during the International Year of Astronomy!
The Shot:
M42 and the Running Man.
8x600 seconds + 10x30sec in 13nm Ha.
Megrez 102 guided by ZS66
Processed in Photoshop CS4 and DeepSkyStacker.
Cheers for looking,
Happy New Year!
Alex.
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EDIT: Version 2 Added. Better and worse I guess...
Doug... I completely intended to... And then when I brought the scopes back inside, started packing them away, and right after I removed the camera, I said to myself "IDIOT!!! FLATS!!!" and so no...
It did have bias frames... which was the first time i've used calibration of any kind... but flats would have made it a lot nicer!
ok... after looking at it for a couple of hours wondering what could be done to better this image...
LR deconvolution, a bit of contrast and a very slight tweak to the curves produced this...
Still heavily flawed due to lack of flats....
I was wondering... Could I take a set of flats now (camera angle will have changed a few mm, but it was at 0 degree rotation from the rings, so im sure I can get it close.. take 10 flats, then apply them to the image (I also know the focus point of the scope So I can get that pretty spot on..)
I know that might not remove the couple of dust spots in there, but it should remove the vignetting... Worth the effort?
I dont mind at all doug.. Ps.. Why are you not in the chat room?? Hrmm???
Heres Round 3.. Dougie... Just for you.. I took some flats...
They are not perfect, as the rotation of the camera may have changed slightly (+/- <.5°), but focus distance was exact (digital readout on motorfocus)
I decided I'd just use my PC monitor, Put the refractor on a chair, with the dewshield just off the panel (Didnt want anything touching my 52" monitor....) took 10 flats with 25k ADU, 10 flats with 20k, 10 with 15K and 10 with 10k ADU. The 25K ADU flats worked best.. and heres the result.
Looks much better with some Flats. Funny you used flats with such a high ADU count as the full well on the QHY8 is only 27K. I use flats of 9K and always use bias frames as the flats don't do too good without Bias or darks.
Nice one Alex.
I too wished to not to go to a NYE party because it was such a nice night, but I went anyway.
Got home at 2am and set up just in time for the clouds to roll on in. Damnation.
