Flaming Star, one-nighter.

[ollypenrice]

One of our guests nominated this last night. Good choice. We had to wait till around midnight to get started on it but we still pulled in just over 8 hours, half in RGB, half in Ha. (The joys of the dual rig!!) To be honest, had I been doing this just for myself, Tom and Yves I'd have run another night on it before processing but in fact it's held up pretty well.

It is a devil to process. (I've imaged it before.) So many stars! I tried a star mask but it always gave aretefacts so in the end I just used careful curves to keep them down and then a dose of Noel's Actions. This would be much easier in narrowband but we mustn't back away from challenges in broadband...    I avoid luminance on these strong Ha emitters when there are also swathes of stars to control. Ha went almost entirely into red. There's a whiff as luminance.

Olly

Bigger http://ollypenrice.smugmug.com/Other/Best-of-Les-Granges/i-Wq8fsSd/0/X3/Flaming%20Star%208%20Hrs%20HaRGB%20WEB-X3.jpg

Biggest http://ollypenrice.smugmug.com/Other/Best-of-Les-Granges/i-Wq8fsSd/0/O/Flaming%20Star%208%20Hrs%20HaRGB%20WEB.jpg

[Interested]

Olly, as usual, a lovely image.

If you are having a problem with too many stars, you can always try imaging from my place, I have problems finding enough of them!

[swag72]

That's looking good and I like the framing as well, having caught IC417. 

[Fay]

Really great, as always, Olly!!!!

Fay

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Very nice indeed. An image like this almost makes you forget how faint it actually is. One of the trickier DSOs visually.

[Mr Bergman]

Agree with others! The thing I like with your widefield images Olly are the details;  My favourite area in your image is actually IC410 with the tadpoles with their tails blowing away from the glowing stars in cluster ngc1893. I have never seen the tadpoles in a widefield like this before. 

[ollypenrice]

Agree with others! The thing I like with your widefield images Olly are the details;  My favourite area in your image is actually IC410 with the tadpoles with their tails blowing away from the glowing stars in cluster ngc1893. I have never seen the tadpoles in a widefield like this before. 

...and they're 11 lightyears long. Blimey.

Our widefields are wide, here, because we use very large chips rather than very short focal lengths, so we can catch more detail. It would be great, though, to have smaller pixels because the Taks can resolve far below our 3.5 arcsecs per pixel. There was hope of a 29 meg full frame camera but it seems to be running out of steam with only one or two very expensive makers still persevering. Wallet heaves sigh of relief...

Olly

[Mr Bergman]

...and they're 11 lightyears long. Blimey.

Our widefields are wide, here, because we use very large chips rather than very short focal lengths, so we can catch more detail. It would be great, though, to have smaller pixels because the Taks can resolve far below our 3.5 arcsecs per pixel. There was hope of a 29 meg full frame camera but it seems to be running out of steam with only one or two very expensive makers still persevering. Wallet heaves sigh of relief...

Olly

Aha, that explains it. The relationship between pixelsize and resolving power is something I definitively should learn more about if I in the future decide to change my gear. /Erik

[sharkmelley]

Excellent image as usual and a very interesting portion of sky.

What is the cause of the slight top to bottom vertical artifact 1/5 in from the right hand side? (Visible in the larger versions)

Mark

[ollypenrice]

Excellent image as usual and a very interesting portion of sky.

What is the cause of the slight top to bottom vertical artifact 1/5 in from the right hand side? (Visible in the larger versions)

Mark

It's a dead column on one of the cameras. I thought I'd fixed it! I missed that bit at the top. Doh.   

Olly

[StuartJPP]

Nice work there Olly...I'd love to holiday at your place...maybe one day, though I will be bringing my own kit...not using any of your fancy pants stuff Do you have some nice birds there...of the ornithological type...then I can kill two birds have a dual birding and astro break...(if you would have me there that is).

In my recent M31 image someone commented on the " inverse 'lighthouse beams' " (your terminology) and you said that you also get them with the TAK. Looking at your large image I can see them in the orange/yellow stars on the left hand side...up until now I had never noticed them on other people's images but I did on mine...they don't bother me I was just curious that you said you also get them but I had never seen them before.

The almost central yellow star also has a halo/reflection around it, is that caused by the filters or the camera (or the scope)?

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/223711-my-best-m31-attempt-so-far/?p=2408161

[peter shah]

that's loads of data for one night Olly, the joys of a dual set up....beautifully processed

[ollypenrice]

Nice work there Olly...I'd love to holiday at your place...maybe one day, though I will be bringing my own kit...not using any of your fancy pants stuff Do you have some nice birds there...of the ornithological type...then I can kill two birds have a dual birding and astro break...(if you would have me there that is).

In my recent M31 image someone commented on the " inverse 'lighthouse beams' " (your terminology) and you said that you also get them with the TAK. Looking at your large image I can see them in the orange/yellow stars on the left hand side...up until now I had never noticed them on other people's images but I did on mine...they don't bother me I was just curious that you said you also get them but I had never seen them before.

The almost central yellow star also has a halo/reflection around it, is that caused by the filters or the camera (or the scope)?

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/223711-my-best-m31-attempt-so-far/?p=2408161

We have a few birds here, Stuart. Griffons at Rémuzat. Also a visiting Egyptian vulture at one time.  Buzzards, Bonelli's eagle, the occasional golden eagle, bee eaters in season. I'm not an expert! The European green lizards are fun and an almighty colour.

The halo came from the Baader Ha filter. Had I thought what I was doing I could have instantly wiped it out and used the original RGB star in its place. To be honest, when we get a run of working nights I'm processing by day as well and get a bit groggy and careless. I tend to have a clean up of images when the moon is back and I'm more alert.

Olly

[perfrej]

Very nice image!

On for tonight? Looks clear

/per