My first DSO - M13 last night

[OzDave]

So finally, after nearly a year of messing around, learning my kit, getting new kit, ironing out problems, and finding a semi-dark site, I've managed to produce something somewhat respectable as an image.

Its taken using the kit in my Sig + guided with PHD using the DMK on a 6x30 finderscope and a USB-ST4 guide controller. Filters used were Baader Neodymium + IR/UV Cut. There are 13x120sec subs and 9x120sec darks. No flats. The image has been processed in Nebulosity and stretched, binned, cropped, etc.

Apart from getting better kit, any suggestions to what I can improve here?

[OzDave]

Actually, looking at this more, I think I might have overstretched it a bit. I might have another go...not really sure how bright the core should be.

[johnh]

A really good 1st try and great guiding achieved, with processing try to get a lighter sky to show the fainter stars using curves.

John.

[OzDave]

Had another go at post processing and found I'd also captured NGC6207 over to the left edge. There should also be IC4617 within FOV, to the left of M13 sort of central. There was a kind of faint hazy streak around one of the stars there, but that seems to have been lost in the 2 lots of x2 binning I did to get the image size down for upload.

Should the stars be bluish in M13? Is this a result of my unmodded EOS 450D + the IR Cut filter + Neodymium? I've also noticed that a previous (failed) attempt at M57 produced bluish green colours, but absolutely no red. But that was with no filters (except the one built into the camera). What do I need to get reds? Does the colour of M13 look ok here?

Thanks for any comments.

David

[zhgutas]

Nice job! There's a lot of detail in there. Hope you don't mind, had a quick play in CS2 just to try and show how much detail there is in that snowball didn't worry too much about the noise, but that can certainly be improved further

Marius

[OzDave]

Nope, I don't mind at all. The problem is for me to learn to do better on my own. I have CS3, but for this image I just used Nebulosity Curves and Levels tools. I just applied several of the predefined stretch curves, starting with Quick Mega and then a couple of Keller Ha/Stretch. When the background got too bright, I applied a tweaked contrast curve.

I want to build a lightbox next so I can start getting some flats to improve future attempts. And of course, trying to do this on an EQ3 mount (not the most stable thing ever built) with a long focal length scope just makes it a bit more challenging, but I plan to correct that soonish with a HEQ5 and Equinox 80ED. To be honest, I thought imaging on my current setup just wouldn't be possible, so I'm quite pleased with this result so far.