Anyway my first try at NB imaging. I know the core is totally fried but this was only an experiment to see if it would all come together as a jolly green giant.
Pretty happy with the result considering it has all been shot with QHY8Pro OSC camera. 80Minutes of each Ha, OIII and SII.
Proved to be something quite diferent to put together using IP3, registar and CS3.
the biggest problem I've had with NB imaging of M42 was taming the core... you can take a bunch of short subs as per normal, however I've had the odd spot of trouble getting enough stars for programs to actually register and stack the shorter subs together.. Had to rely on manual stacking.. Even then, it got a little messy with 10s subs as even manually I couldnt see stars...
Good start to your narrowband imaging! You will find that there are limitless possibilities waiting for you... And 99.5% of all other emission nebulae look better in NB than M42... I suppose that last bit is a personal thing though...
Thanks Guys. The narrow band exercise was something diferent. It is quite a bit of work to finally get the registration right but thankfully Registar being one step ahead of most other registration programs managed it quite well. My initial attempt in IP3 was a real failure with the program having all sorts of problems and still didn't get it right.
Yes Daniel the colour is something diferent but it is growing on me. Just like green slime. I must try some other colour combinations and see if they are a little more paletable.
It is quite a drawn out process with the OSC ( Not a lot diferent from the RGB with a mono camera.), here is a bit of a simplified version.
1. Image Capture Ha, OIII, SII over several nights.
2. small DDP stretch on all raw images.
3. Register and align each group of images.
4. Combine each separate group of images.
5. Change combined images mode to Grey scale. (Very little colour from other colours was present so not worth worrying about separating into RGB first.
6. Re stretch these final grey images to a near final level.
7. Register and align the final greyscale images.
8. Combine and colour the 3 images.(I used IP for this while mapping SII=Red, Ha= Green, OIII= blue)
9. Take combined image into photoshop for a play.
10. Hopefully a half decent image to show for it.
An interesting test but next time I might use the bigger scope if I ever get the flattener for it.
It certainly looks different and psychedelic but i like the Hubble palette the best.
Also i think that a OSC camera isn't sensitive enough for nb imaging.
But the first pic i like best
CFHT pallet looks really nice to me, The original SHO is good too, but I think the CFHT pallet works best...
Martin - I would beg to differ, the QHY8/QHY8 Pro can be used very very well for narrowband imaging... There have been APOD images taken in narrowband with QHY8's.. It all comes down to dedication and adequate data.. Even with a Mono camera you need a hell of a lot of exposure to get a really smooth looking NB image.. 30min subs, at least 12 of them, preferably 20~30 subs...
Martin, As you will find out soon enough there isn't a lot of diference between the two cameras in their ability to collect photons but the work load diference is quite dramatic. For colour the OSC may miss a little in overall sensitivity but the work load for the mono is huge.
For NB the opposite is the case from a workload point of view. The overall sensitivity of the mono is better but as you will find it is not a big diference and when talking these two cameras the QHY8 and pro with bigger pixels makes up for this diference quite well.
All fantastic images Doug, shows what can be done if you know what your doing!
Thanks Duncan, but I think it is more just trial and error and try again. You wouldn't believe some of the total stuff ups I have had and gone back to the start again with.
)
