My first go at the Pacman

[Gina]

Maybe surprisingly I haven't attempted to image the Pacman Nebula before.  With the first clear night (and my gear working) for ages I decided to try this DSO with my new dual imaging rig with an Esprit 80ED and the low cost ST80, capturing Ha and OIII respectively.  Astrodon 5nm Ha and Baader 6.5nm OIII filters were used.

This is 7x5m Ha and 4x10m OIII binned 2x2.  Captured with Artemis Capture, stacked with DSS and stretched in Photoshop, then aligned with RegiStar, combined as HOO in Photoshop with further processing and cropped to improve appearance.  No resizing so this is pixel for pixel -  saved in PNG format.

This was part of a test run to see if the ST80 was capable of real use in NB imaging of DSOs and it really needs much more data.  Next clear night I plan to devote the whole time to the Pacman.

[astro mick]

Hi Gina.

The rig seems to working fine,and the little Achromat has held its own here.

Interested in the Astrodon Filters.Do you think they make a big difference compared to the Badaar narrowband filters.

They have a narrower band width,but are hellish expensive.

Also as a multi rig trier myself,do you think its the right way to go,considering all the pitfalls?

Also my cameras are quite old now,all second-hand,but I wonder if they are not capable of doing what I,m asking.

Interesting.

Mick.

PS.Have you tried a synthetic Green at all?

[ollypenrice]

That's working well. I might be inclined to measure the background sky with the eyedropper (colour sampler) tool. I suspect the green channel is rather high.

Well done the ST80, I must say.

Olly

[iksose7]

Hi Gina, i echo what Olly has suggested about the green channel. And maybe a slight crop from the top to get rig of the data overlap. 

The two scopes you are using are from completely different ends of the market. It would be interesting to see the data they each produced side by side. Its my opinion that the ST80 may hinder the Espirits quality although i'm not sure how true this would be as you are using narrowband filters which i have literally no idea about 

Callum

[Gina]

In spite of a lot of mist bordering on fog, I managed to capture some more data on the Pacman tonight.  Here is the data from tonight only and just a couple of hours each of Ha and OIII dredged out of the mist.  Again binned 2x2 as the seeing and clarity was very poor.

[Gina]

Thanks all for your comments   I have adjusted the previous image as suggested.

[ollypenrice]

Thanks all for your comments   I have adjusted the previous image as suggested.

Pacman_2x2_HOO_3.png

Much better. I reckon it would take some local contrast enhancement used as a layer and selectively. If used globally it will black clip. (One way to avoid this is to run a couple of iterations of Local Contrast Enhancement as a layer on top the select blend mode lighten. This means only the lightening part of the action will be applied. The darkening part will be ignored.

Olly

[Gina]

Thanks Olly

[PatrickGilliland]

Good progress there Gina, Olly already on the case with useful advice and that seems to be paying off.

Paddy

[Gina]

Thanks Paddy

Here's a quick HOO version from earlier tonight, just 5x5m Ha and OIII binned 2x2.  The sky cleared again later and I'm currently capturing more data.  I'll process that tomorrow.

[Gina]

I've now processed the data from 2/12/14.  35 Ha subs of 5m binned 2x2 and 23 OIII subs also of 5m binned 2x2.  Stacked in DSS, stretched in PS, aligned with RegiStar then combined and processed in PS in HOO palette.

[Gina]

Well last night's data turned out better than I thought   Ha 10x10m, OIII 13x10m and SII 13x10m all unbinned.

Hardware - Ha ST80 & 460EX - OIII Esprit 80ED Pro & 460EX - SII ST80 & 314L+  Guiding with MN190, OAG and Lodestar X2 3s integration - PHD

Data captured with Atik Artemis Capture in three instances.  Stacked in DSS, stretched in PS and aligned with RegiStar then combined and further processed as SHO, Hubble palette in PS and using Noel's Actions etc. cropped and slightly resized for upload here.  Saved in PNG format.

The new ST80 still needs a going over for decent imaging - this image is using the scope just as it came - I haven't "seen to it" yet.  There's signs that the optics are pinched, with triangular stars (showing in this image as three little red points on the larger stars) - a known problem but easily solved.  I also want to blacken the edges of the lenses and any other shiny bits inside.  The focuser seems alright as it is but I'll check it.