Running Man I couldn't catch

[TrevorW]

Very humid night in Perth and seeing was average while I took this betwenn 8:00 and 12:00 last night

I captured this with both the Astronomik LP clip filter and Astronomik IR cut filter attached too the camera.

In conjunction these filters caused a significant reduction in the strength of the red channel usually with only my LP filter attached the red always is too the right of the histogram surpassing blue/green but in this instance was to the left of blue/green and significantly reduced.

I would say one or the other filter should be used depending on seeing conditions and target but not both togethor.

I found with the IR filter there appears to be less bloating of the stars.

Processed in CS3 only. Total 1 hr 10 frames 6 minutes per frame (darks unfortuantely where not captured same night although flats and bais were applied, which were)

[leinad (Dan)]

Ahh one of my favourites.
The Running man is a tough one to get lots of good detailed data in light polluted Perth 'burbs.

I've got about 2hrs worth of 5min shots, but need another 2hrs more I think.

Your right about the red and blue channels. Do you use CWB? or AWB?
The CLS can drown the blue channel but this can be adjusted with the channels in PS levels and color balance adjustments.
At least it helps get rid of that nasty light pollution to a degree.

Good data there for an hours worth. Keep going with more data. There's some beautiful thick neb' cloud around the 'man.

I also noticed you got the stars elongated from corner to corner. I get this often when the polar alignment isn't good enough. I always ensure now to drift align for a good 45mins, so that drift is minimal for at least 3-5mins.

Keep at it.

[leinad (Dan)]

Good data in there Trev.
Keep workn at the processing.

I hope you don't mind but I did a quick 'rough' process on your image as I love this Neb

Great tools I found in CS3/CS4 is Noise/Reduce Noise. Have a ply around with it to remove noise.
Shadows/Highlights great one too. Ken Crawford tutorials are excellent also.

[Lester]

Stopped the Running Man in his tracks Trevor, with nice colour too.

[TrevorW]

Thanks Dan and Lester

Dan I've wactedh some of Len's tutorials and tried some high pass filter layering I think the other problem with this image was getting the darks udner the same conditions to remove noise and also the temp, as you can see some amp glow in the botton right

Alignment is always an issue with me as I can't see the Octans SCP etc from where my scope isnor have I yet got my head around drift alignment

[tlgerdes (Trevor)]

Why called the Running Man? He looks more like the Gingerbread Man.

Nice pic though.

[Prickly]

Great shot Trevor,

Its not easy getting the detail in the running man but there is plenty in your image.

Well done
David

[TrevorW]

Thanks Dave and Trevor

Trev I think its called the Running Man because it's always running second behind Orion

I was never any good picking shapes in clouds either

[Tom Davis (Tom)]

You caught him! Nice shot!

Tom

[Hagar (Doug)]

Nice one Trevor, but you need those darks.

[TrevorW]

Thanks Tom and Doug

yeah I know I'm always in a rush on a time limit oh for that permanent setup (maybe one day)

It's like last night 2hrs data could be wasted because I thought the guider was guiding but due to my poor eyesight and limited view on camera etc it seemed to be but on checking all the frames this morning there is minor tracking elogation across the image, don't know what the guider thought it was guiding on probably the guide star was too dim

I might start downloading the images to the laptop instead of the camera

[rogerg (Roger)]

nice colour and smooth texture

[multiweb (Marc)]

Spot on Trev. Focus and guiding look really good.

[TrevorW]

Thanks Rog and Marc

Marc thank goodness for auto guiding

[Astrobserver99 (Rob)]

Nice close up of the running man. Another good noise reduction technique is to use neat image... costs money though

[RobF (Rob)]

Originally Posted by TrevorW

I might start downloading the images to the laptop instead of the camera

Highly recommended to get this sorted Trevor. I learned the hard way to zoom right in on images on the laptop during the session to check tracking and focus, especially once your investing more than 30mins on an object. A quick check in Liveview if available can help with a Sync on a bright star from time to time to finetune pointing too. I feel naked now if I can't see the exposure time counting away in big letters in the corner of the screen too.

Really nice Running M anyway I reckon!