Tonights lucky capture was M16. 8 X 10 minute exposures using the GSO 10" RC, Atik 11002M camera and Baader 7nm Ha filter.
I was lucky to get this many exposures which were usable . Firstly it rained quite a bit at about 6 o'clock then cleared so I set up and got going but forgot to turn on the dew heater for the guide scope. You can guess the rest.
The next obstacle was the airplane trails through a few of the 8 frames I had. Thankfully CCDStack removed them with ease.
I have tried to follow Richards kind instruction from my last Ha attempt so feel free to tell me what I need to do next.
I included a crop of the core (Pillars)
Hi Doug - I love the non-cropped image (widefield if you will!!)
I'm sure you're going to get some serious stuff out of your new setup - I've been very impressed with the few images you've posted so far.
Look forward to more.
Doug
The wide field is a much more aesthetically pleasing image, but I imagine the crop is to show the level of detail.... And I'm glad you posted that cos I would have asked to see one anyway.
Critique ...... Well if you want to be picky...... Firstly let me say the subtle detail in the fainter areas is excellent, something perhaps you don't see so well when you color it up, perhaps due to the eyes sensitivity at the red end.
I haven't put it into Photoshop and given it the pixelerometer treatment, but on the iPad ( which has a fairly contrasty screen) the top of the tower apears to be burnt out, a slightly lower value than 255 would be nice, note as I said I haven't checked it but that's how it looks. In the wider field image it's not so noticeable perhaps as it's smaller and there's plenty of other things to distract you. All in all it's pretty good, once the weather gets better I want to you chase some fainter stuff with this scope. If it was my scope this summer I'd be chasing thors helmet, one object id really like to do well and the longer fl would do a much better match than what I'm using
Doug - great result. The sheer dynamic range you're getting in the original image is fantastic. Given the focal length, your guiding is obviously very good and the scope looks to be delivering reasonably round stars apart from some in the lower left quadrant maybe. Not sure...
How are you finding the general handling of the Atik in comparison to the QHY?
Second crop is nice Doug. The wide field is good but the field curvature is a killer there.
On the crop I can see some dark halos around the stars. Both the first version and the second both seem to have this. Potential for this scope is very good. I like the small stars in the wide field. Looking forward to seeing the colour version.
Thanks Trevor. They are there just the stars are quite small and being Ha the spikes tend not to stand out quite so much.
Quote:
Originally Posted by leinad
A very nice result; tracking and focus looks excellent on that one.
Be nice to see it again when you get some color into that
Thanks, Hopefully I will be able to gather some RGB data on this one in the near future.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Haese
Second crop is nice Doug. The wide field is good but the field curvature is a killer there.
On the crop I can see some dark halos around the stars. Both the first version and the second both seem to have this. Potential for this scope is very good. I like the small stars in the wide field. Looking forward to seeing the colour version.
Thanks Paul, Halos are sharpening artifacts and shouldn't be there. Star size was easy to control due to the fact it was Ha.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alchemy
The second image is much better, the tower now reveals much more detail, well worth the repro
Thanks Clive, still a couple of problems to look at but getting there I think.
Nice work Doug. I think these mono images are growing on me.
Thanks Barry, I am appreciating the NB and mono images quite a bit more also. It has been the only images I can get with this weather we have been gettingwhich only seems to allow me to image during a big moon. Looking forward to getting some RGB on some of these objects.
