M39 open cluster

[tingting44]

M39 is at a distance of about 800 light-years away from Earth. Its age is estimated to be from 200 to 300 million years.

this was taken from my garden with my SW130-PDS, HEQ5, Canon 7D

its about 2.2 hours worth of 4 min subs, with darks/flats/bias calibration frames

I just cant seem to be happy on this image, just something i cant nail, been playing about with the data for days now, this is probably the best i can do with the ammount of data i have and my processing skills...

M39 (open cluster) by tingting44, on Flickr

[lensman57]

Great image, very well done. The 130 seems to be performing well, a lot better than my Quattro 8s to be honest. Try and emphasize the cluster's main body by reducing the back ground stars and saturating the colour just a tad, it will help the cluster stand out a bit more. Great image none  the less.

A.G

[tingting44]

Great image, very well done. The 130 seems to be performing well, a lot better than my Quattro 8s to be honest. Try and emphasize the cluster's main body by reducing the back ground stars and saturating the colour just a tad, it will help the cluster stand out a bit more. Great image none  the less.

A.G

Thanks for your comments AG and your tips on processing, this is the hardest image i have come across processing wise..... finding it really tricky i think where there are so many stars in the frame, ill have a re play tomorrow i think and try what you suggested thanks mate

[glowingturnip]

technically looks great, pinpoint stars and loads of them !

I see what you mean though, I've never really thought that open clusters make particularly good photos (honourable exception for the Plaeides) so I've never been tempted to try for myself - I reckon they're something seen better through a pair of bins on a hot summer evening with a beer in hand, than through a scope or camera.

As A.G, says, I think a bit of saturation in colour will help separate those hot blue young stars from the background stars.  If you don't mind, I'll have a quick play with the colour in Pixinsight when I get home, I have a few tricks up my sleeve...

Also I think the main stars could do with being a bit brighter ?

Excellent pic though

S

[tingting44]

technically looks great, pinpoint stars and loads of them !

I see what you mean though, I've never really thought that open clusters make particularly good photos (honourable exception for the Plaeides) so I've never been tempted to try for myself - I reckon they're something seen better through a pair of bins on a hot summer evening with a beer in hand, than through a scope or camera.

As A.G, says, I think a bit of saturation in colour will help separate those hot blue young stars from the background stars.  If you don't mind, I'll have a quick play with the colour in Pixinsight when I get home, I have a few tricks up my sleeve...

Also I think the main stars could do with being a bit brighter ?

Excellent pic though

S

Thanks mate

yes i can not wait for M45 to come round, never attempted to image Plaeides before so excited about that target

thanks also for your tips, all taken on board and will have another go tomorrow

by all means have a play about, ill stick the drop boxed stack on here in a mo so you can have a play with the raw stack

edit, here is the drop box stack file

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zliwvkdshfjdym1/M39%20stack.TIF

[wxsatuser]

I like it but as above a tad more colour.

[robbie c]

Great image Martin well done 

[glowingturnip]

maybe a little something like this ?  Possibly a little much, but personally I like a colourful star field !

Steps I took:

- separated into synthetic Lum and RGB, softlight blended the RGB with itself and reduced the opacity a tad, then recombined with the Lum (separates the colours a bit)

- using curves tool in Pixinsight targetting the saturation curve, boosted the high and medium saturated parts

- also using curves, targetting the b channel of Lab colourspace, increased the contrast between blue and yellow (its complement)

- nudged the saturation of the bright blues a tad more with the specific colour saturation tool

- small bit of green removal with SNCR

- used specific curve tweaks on the luminance to increase the brightest stars and drop the lowest background a bit (no clipping, I promise)

It could probably take a crop too, to make the cluster more dominant.

I just used your flickr png, not the raw tiff.  Pixinsight is great, but takes a long time, my usual workflow takes over a week in my spare time nowadays.

Let me know if you want the tiff or fit file, but I'm sure you can do better !  Thanks for letting me have a play..

Cracking data btw

[glowingturnip]

hmm, not looking good as a jpeg there is it, let me see if I can make it into a png small enough...

[glowingturnip]

that's a png, but how do you make it large, like in your original post ?

[tingting44]

thanks for your detailed work flow there Stuart! i think thats a great job you have done! i really have to get PI soon, i did have a trial with it but it overwhelmed me with how complex it is, im only getting use to PS after a few years lol

ill be having another good crack at it now, i want to have a play about now lol but got work at 3am and need to get to bed

oh by the way i get a big image like in my 1st post by uploading to flickr 1st then adding the link here, that way you can choose how big you can have the image

again, i really, really like your last version

[dtokez]

love it mate

[Pete Presland]

looking excellent against the back drop of all those stars! nice sharp stars, means good data so you can tinker as much as you want to achieve the perfect balance.

[MattJenko]

While open clusters don't have the image appeal of the other types of DSOs, they are still great objects and also are a real hard test of a lot of the aspects of imaging. I did this exact Messier as my first ever DSO image attempt last week as well and while it won't win awards and is not as good as this one (nice one Martin!) it has taught me a lot.

[tingting44]

love it mate

looking excellent against the back drop of all those stars! nice sharp stars, means good data so you can tinker as much as you want to achieve the perfect balance.

While open clusters don't have the image appeal of the other types of DSOs, they are still great objects and also are a real hard test of a lot of the aspects of imaging. I did this exact Messier as my first ever DSO image attempt last week as well and while it won't win awards and is not as good as this one (nice one Martin!) it has taught me a lot.

Thank you everyone

your right Matt every image is all practice under the belt, im far too tired today to have another go tho lol, hopefully tomorrow

[wavydavy]

Well I think its a great image..........M39 is quiet "loose" and can appear lost in the outer starfield I find..........

[toxic]

very nice image tingting i like it the way it is it looks real

[tingting44]

Well I think its a great image..........M39 is quiet "loose" and can appear lost in the outer starfield I find..........

very nice image tingting i like it the way it is it looks real

Thank you very much for your kind comments

[Christopher Davenport]

That is very nice and clean. I like where you have landed.

Open clusters are not easy to get right as it is all about the stars.

Your 130 is looking good.

[tingting44]

That is very nice and clean. I like where you have landed.

Open clusters are not easy to get right as it is all about the stars.

Your 130 is looking good.

Thank you Christopher!

Had another go, this time stacked in PixInsight instead of DSS and the difference in noise and sharpness alone is unreal, just from stacking, i can not believe it really, could not be happier with how PI does its thing!

M39 by tingting44, on Flickr

[Christopher Davenport]

Hmmm, very nice indeed, looks much cleaner. Have you forked out for a license?

I want to move over to PI, but it is a bit pricey.

[tingting44]

Hmmm, very nice indeed, looks much cleaner. Have you forked out for a license?

I want to move over to PI, but it is a bit pricey.

Thank you, not forked out for a license yet, my friend who has PI stacked my data for me and sent me the RAW stack, then i worked on the stack in PS, i will be buying it next week tho thats for sure!

[toxic]

very nice didnt think it could be better but you did it 

[tingting44]

very nice didnt think it could be better but you did it 

Thanks buddy

i cant wait to go over all my previous data with PI, its very complicated (TO ME lol), especially after getting use to PS for a few years and actually feel like im progressing in PS but the obvious advantages to PI outweigh the complexity

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Nice image. Interesting that the star count actually appears to be lower inside the cluster than in the surrounding Milky Way. I guess this means it sits in front of a dark nebula?