MartinB

Superb M45 despite the star issues.

Great image! I much prefer the second which has a softer feel to it. Nicely squeezed into the frame. I think old CCD cameras make for a great purchase. That Atik is a great camera and this chip has produced some jaw dropping images over the years. Provided you use long enough subs to get over the read noise images should be no more noisy than CMOS.

Nice work! The Ha nebulosity looks terrific. The OIII is being swamped a little and I wonder if this could be corrected by slightly heavier stretching of G and B channels during the inital process.

That's a beauty! Well done Rodd

I do like it Bryan, it's a lLovely wispy image. The only problem is that by adding the luminence to the RGB you have ended up with the "salmon" colouration. This is the classic HaRGB conundrum. The ha has all that lovely data and it gets swallowed up somewhat when you combine it as RGB. The purist way to get around this is to create an RGB and then add the Ha to the red channel. You can try using Ha as a luminence and play around with reducing opacity. You will also need to tweak the colour balance. Ha really shouldn't be applied to an RGB image as a luminence since it gets applied to B and G as well as R and this is, in theory but not always in practice, inappropriate.

The galaxy looks terrific! On my calibrated monitor the background is a little bright. I think that just adjusting the black point a little will help the galaxy to stand out a little more and enhance contrast.

I bet there is more nebulosity within that image. Have you used any flats.?

Nicely framed and stitched together Steve. I love those faint outer wisps.

I think you can be happy with your new filter!

Well done, that's quite a challenge with a big old moon around. The filter has done a good job. Did you have a stonking gradient to deal with?

There is some great fine detail in there Paul and perfectly framed. On my monitor the background has a rather bright cyan appearance which is detracting a little from the overall image.

I think our galaxy needs a good going over with a mop and bucket, I never realised it was so mucky. Fabulous image @Goran

What really impresses me with this image is that you have managed to display so much dust despite your light pollution. Your skies are probably similar to mine and I never even bother trying to image targets like this. Perhaps I need a rethink. Well done indeed!

The challenge is now closed. Once again SGL imagers haven't disappointed! The results will be announced within the next 2 weeks. Thank you to everyone for your wonderful entries

The theme for challenge 9 is Comets. Start Date: 1st December 2021 End Date: 28th February 2022 There is plenty going on for cometary imagers and sketchers in December and who knows what January and February will bring. So let's see your best efforts and don't forget, sketches are very welcome Prize: A personalised mug for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places featuring your image kindly provided by our sponsors FLO and a virtual trophy for your signature. Please post your entries in this thread. Please include details of your capture since this can be helpful to other members. Emojies are welcome but please don't comment on posted images. Please do not post responses to individual entries since this clutters the thread, emojies are welcome of course. -- RULES All data must be captured and processed by you (no collaborative entries). Data must be captured during the challenge start & end dates. Multiple entries are allowed. Multiple submissions of the same image, processed differently, will not be accepted.

Thanks Vlaiv, I haven't tried this and it makes perfect sense.

One small benefit of zero amp glow is that you can optimise darks. This means you don't need your dark exposures to match your lights. This can be convenient sometimes. I have found that bias frames with my 2600 are stable but I definitely have to use flat darks with my 294. I don't know whether or not this is true of all zero amp glow cmos chips. I don't think zero amp glow is a game changer but it is agood thing!

There are some wonderful images appearing using RASA scopes. In this situation an OSC camera is definitely preferable since a mono camera with filter wheel would create a larger and an irregular obstruction to the light path. Even my chroma filters aren't parfocal across the board. This is OK if you can automate focusing but otherwise adds an additional layer of complexity. With older ccds there was a hit to resolution using OSC. With the smaller pixels of modern chips this is not the issue that it was even for serious pixel peepers. However, when it comes to time to achieve a given snr mono still has the edge in most circumstances.

Indeed. It's interesting to have a look at the SGL deep sky imaging showcase 2009 https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/56843-2009-dso-imaging-showcase/

I'm itching for a clear night to see if it works.

That is a very natural looking, atmospheric image. Lovely.

Oh yes! Thank-you for that, I had no idea.

I have to confess my QSI is now in it's case and may never see starlight again. This was taken with an ASI 1600 pro mono CMOS. The QSI remains a superb scientific camera because of it's linear response. CCDs do remain very capable cameras of course!

Thank you Scoot. Having used a QSI 532 camera for over 10 years it is quite liberating to now have use of cameras with larger chips.

It works ok on my one and only 2600mc image using my 4 year old Dell XPS laptop. Takes about 5 mins. StarXterminator works fine as well and takes a similar amount of time. The StarXterminator results look much better to me, smoother and better elimination of larger stars. More funds may be on their way to Russ Croman!