Paul Holdsworth

Hi all, here's my effort on NGC 891 ( Silver Galaxy). I've set myself a target this year of imaging a lot more galaxies if possible largely because I've only got three  ! The usual suspects of Andromeda, Whirlpool & Bodes ; so identified another seven with the silver galaxy being one of them. I used my Skywatcher 150p for this one which has a FL of 750mm but even that is probably a bit short for galaxies. 

So this is just three hours on the galaxy itself but for a change I took another hour for the stars and kept the exposures down to 30 seconds to try and preserve some star colour. I live in a Bortle 6 area so that's the only way of retaining star colour. 

My goodness it was cold last night but after 7 weeks of persistent clouds/wind I wasn't passing that up ! 

Cheers Paul

Hi all, I know I'm late to the party but finally installed the new graxpert ai many have mentioned in their posts. I've had a 4 hour two panel mosaic sat on the pc since the beginning of this year but never posted because it had some horrendous gradients that DBE or ABE couldn't get rid of. So impressed with this software because one click and they were gone.....or at least nowhere near as bad. I think the reason I was hesitant about it was because it wasn't integrated into pixinsight or not until very recently . Will definitely be using this software instead of DBE in future. 

The image just needs more integration now ! 

Cheers Paul

Hi all, I've been looking for some new targets recently and decided on  NGC 6823 ; I'm not even sure if it's got a nickname or not ?  Anyway this is 7 hours of 5 min subs taken over the last couple of weeks using my Skywatcher 750mm reflector, 294mc pro and an l extreme filter. The image has been processed in pixinsight and photoshop with much more of a vibrant look than I normally go for so may have over done it on reflection ! It doesn't seem a hugely popular target but it's a new one to add to my little lightroom collection 😃

Cheers Paul

1 hour ago, Ouroboros said:

Nice one, @Paul Holdsworth.  Is that with your 150P?  You’re right, I think the centre is a tad blown out.  Colour’s good though. Any mileage in revisiting the stretching of the image do you think? 

1 minute ago, peter shah said:

That outer shell is showing really nicely...great shot

Thanks Peter, yes the shell seems to be appearing but I'm going to have another look & see if by using GHS I can tame the core a bit .

Cheers Paul

1 hour ago, Ouroboros said:

Nice one, @Paul Holdsworth.  Is that with your 150P?  You’re right, I think the centre is a tad blown out.  Colour’s good though. Any mileage in revisiting the stretching of the image do you think? 

Thank you. Yes I did this one with the 150P which for the money I think is a decent telescope. On the stretching you're right I'm going to have another look at it probably using GHS. I suspect I'll be able to tame the core but probably at the expense of the shell. 

Cheers Paul

Hi all, it's been a while since I posted an image ! I lost the first 6 weeks of summer due to having the scopes all wrapped up for some building work and then it's been just night after night of cloud ......it was only the ashes series that kept me going  😅 Anyhow I finally got a clear night on Tuesday so this is just 3 hours on M27 so a bit smash and grab but hey just nice to be out imaging again. The core was way brighter than I was expecting but at least the outer shell is starting to show ! The image has been processed in pixinsight with a bit of colour work in photoshop.  

Cheers Paul

Hi all, this is definitely work in progress as it's just 2 hours of L pro data for RGB and 2 hours of Ha extracted from a L extreme. I've found adding the Ha data to the RGB a bit of a challenge to get the right amount going into the galaxy & in the right places. There seems to be a number of methods out there on you tube most involving a number of pixel math expressions etc but I found a recent video (6 mins long) from pixinsight themselves showing how to do it using their new SPCC process . My first thought given it's from pixinsight themselves was it would be full of pixel math expressions but actually it's just one expression and one click with SPCC and it takes the right amount of Ha to add to the RGB. Purpose of the post isn't the quality of the image yet but more about a really simple method of specifically adding Ha to a galaxy. I've attached a link to the 6 min video for anyone like me searching for a simple method for galaxies using HARGB. 

Link :- https://youtu.be/jJFUZY5p6yQ

Cheers Paul

Hi all, finally two consecutive clear nights! 

When I started the hobby 3 years ago I bought a bundle package of reflector telescope and mount then quickly added a 500mm refractor which seemed easier as a beginner not to have to deal with collimation etc . The newtonian has sat at the side of the computer gathering dust.....until now! I Bought a laser collimator a few weeks ago and thought I'd give it a go again especially with galaxy season starting. So here's my effort on the whirlpool galaxy (M51) which is 5 hours of 3 min subs over the last two nights using the optolong lpro filter and zwo 294 mc pro. It's only the second galaxy image i've done so lots to learn galaxy processing. I fully intend to add some Ha data to this by extracting some Ha from a L extreme narrowband to see if that adds anything but for now this is just plain old RGB data. 

Cheers Paul

6 hours ago, Elbasso said:

That's a very nice image Paul.

Could you share a few details around the gear and settings used?

Cheers!

Bastiaan

Thanks Bastiaan.

The gear I used was :- 

Scope - Star travel  500 mm refractor

Camera - Zwo 294 mc pro with a gain of 120

Filter - Optolong L extreme filter

Mount - Skywatcher eq 3pro 

Cheers Paul

6 hours ago, CCD Imager said:

Nice image Paul, great vibrant colours. Couldnt help but notice the brighter corners as if flat frames havent quite worked. Pleased to hear someone else still likes Photoshop  You cant beat its finesse and real time viewing when processing.

Adrian

Thanks Adrian, yes I agree on the corners and I'm sure you're right about the flats. In fact I remember on the last session the flats were way brighter than normal. 👍

Cheers Paul 

Thank you Martin . Sorry  I've only just seen your comment you left a while ago. Yes I did use Russ Croman's Blur Ext which I agree is superb and also advanced sharpening too just before bringing the stars back. For me at the moment one at the start of the processing and one at the end is the sharpening processes I've settled on for now. I'll certainly take a look at your suggestion though and thanks again for leaving a comment.

Cheers Paul 

Hi all, one of my favourite nebulas and still relatively high this is 6.5 hrs of 5 min subs on the rosette nebula. Imaging time was pretty poor throughout February so I'm quite pleased I got this one finished last night. Image was stacked in APP, processed in pixinsight with all the latest stuff and finished off in photoshop ( still love photoshop for selective colour ). 

Cheers Paul

Hi all, here's my effort on the monkey head nebula NGC2174. This is just over six hours of five min subs stacked in APP , processed in pixinsight and finished off in photoshop. I used the advanced sharpening script in pixinsight for the first time which I think does make a slight difference especially in the core. It's probably a bit less aggressive than the unsharp mask tool I'd previously used in my opinion. 

Cheers Paul

Hi all, finally a couple of clear nights last week. I managed to get six hours of usable data on the Cone nebula/ Christmas tree cluster though I had to throw away an equivalent amount due to really poor guiding. Every time I did the calibration for guiding PHD2 kept asking for the max Dec and Ra duration steps to be increased.......absolutely no idea why but guiding that's normally between 0.6 to 1.0 turned into 1.0 to 1.5 on both nights. I think Blur exterminator in pixinsight probably helped in tightening up most of the dodgy looking stars so thought it was still an image worth posting. 

Cheers Paul

Very nice indeed ! Love the  colour palette with the OIII 👍

19 hours ago, MartinB said:

Terrific and nice to see the faint background details.  I know stars are becoming "so last year" but I think they have the power to enhance as well as detract from an image.  The stars here do have a slightly artificial attenuated look.

Thank you Martin. I agree with your comment about stars and will look again at my star reduction processes. It's probably the one part of processing that i spend the least time on so worth taking another look at how I can improve that 👍

Cheers Paul

Hi all & happy new year. This was 5 hours of  5 min subs from Monday on the Tadpoles nebula . I was going to leave it widefield but actually prefer this cropped version. I used APP for stacking and pixinsight for processing. Loving the new SPCC and BXT tools......12 days left on the free BXT trial so looks like they've got me again ! 

Cheers Paul

Superb rendition of the Soul nebula Alex . Very nice detail and particularly like the colour palette on the OIII. Can I ask what filter you used with your 294 mc pro ? 

Cheers Paul

Thanks Martin for your comments and for taking the time to run it through HLVG. You're right when I look at it again I should have used a reduced level of scnr as one of the final steps. 

Cheers

Paul 

Hi all, I've only just got round to processing just over 2 hours I got on the Orion nebula last week. This is a blend of 10 second, 1 minute and 3 minute subs stacked in APP and processed in pixinsight. Even though I've being doing astro photography for 3 years it's actually only the second time I've imaged it. I think even though this one isn't exactly how I would like it it's a huge improvement on my original 3 years ago and for me that's half the fun of the hobby. Looks like I need to do another darks library ( one year old) as there's some amp glow top right that wasn't completely removed. 

Wishing everyone a really good Christmas 🌲 

Cheers Paul 

Hi all, I started this one a while ago ( more of a summer target) then got distracted with other targets but went back to it a couple of nights ago. So this is just over 6 hours of 5 min subs processed in pixinsight using the new blur x terminator tool which I think is some kind of deconvolution script ? I had a few problems with guiding if I'm honest which I'm hoping was because the target was so close to polaris and not the mount 🤞but anyway pleased to get some data finally. 

My goodness it was a cold night though at -5 c so I'm calling it a day until it warms up a bit ! 

Cheers Paul

Probably not the smartest of image planning but decided to go for the iris nebula with a broadband filter (Lpro) under a full moon. I was expecting to get a full night of clear skies but  turned out to be just a couple of hours of 5 min subs before the clouds rolled in yet again. I bought the Lpro back in October and so far have had just a couple of nights with it but enjoying the change in targets. Hopefully will add more data to get more of the dust but here's just a couple of hours so far.

Cheers Paul 

Hi all, here's my entry into the M31 line up.  When I started astro photography I went straight into narrowband & never actually did any broadband so a lot to learn ! I bought a optolong Lpro filter back in October but only got a chance to use it the other night. What was forecasted to be five hours of clear skies turned out to be just two so this is two hours of 2 min subs on Andromeda. This was my first session in over a month so it was nice to be out under the stars and get my first broadband image but definitely a bit to learn on processing these. 

Cheers Paul 

Hi all, this is my effort on NGC7822 over a couple of nights ( 13th & 17Th Oct). I've not seen any other name for this nebula other than it's NGC catalogue number unless I've missed something ? . I was surprised just how much dust there was surrounding the nebula so I've left as much in as possible but the background maybe slightly on the bright side . 

Integration was 7 hours of 5 min subs 

Cheers Paul 

Both are stunning images but for me I prefer the second one. On my monitor the second looks that bit sharper. Fabulous images 👍

Cheers Paul