MartinB

Beautiful image and you've and I like your treatment of the stars

Sorry Nick, I am going to take you to task. You apologised for blowing out the core, you have absolutely nothing to apologise for. M42 is an object with a very large dynamic range, through a scope you can see vibrant glow from those hot fiery central stars. It is the glow which is the key feature of M42 and, in my view, you have rendered this beautifully. Many images I see of M42 reveal the trapezium stars and most of them look like M42 has had a cold flannel wiped over it. Astroimaging isn't just a technical challenge, it is also about aesthetics and processing targets sympathetically. I can see from this image that you definitely have what it takes, a fabulous first image, hats off to you!

Beautiful, I love to see it sitting there in outer space.

Clever data collection. Reveals one of the blessings of a CMOS chip. Even that bright star looks happy, it usually looks pretty horrible in most Jellyfish images. Fabulously delicate with perfect contrast. I think the medal should be the size of a dustbin lid!

This is one I've never tried before. Well worth the effort, I particularly likethe colour. It does betray signs of noise reduction. No tool is going to fix significant noise but NoiseXterminator is the best I've come across and can sometimes deliver the seemingly impossible

I love this strange mix of a seemingly mainly mono image with the dramatic blue reflection and the small coloured stars. Fabulous!

The key to processing "data light" images is repecting the limitations of what you have. You have done this beautifully and produced a very natural looking image.

That is a nicely dramatic Elephant Gerr, looks like the L-enhance was a good choice

There is so much going on in this image with a great variety of features. The challenge is knowing when to stop processing! I think you have everything spot on. Walk away from it now!

Wowsers, that is a superb image. These samll distant galaxies are very difficult to capture and process effectively. This is stunning!

Exccellent, terrific resolution and a striking presentation.

That's well off the beaten track Steve. That fainter nebulosity on the right has quite a sinister look to it!

The first image is just fine! Actually it is peachy perfect.

The M82 close up completely steels the show for me. The faint delicate Ha is beautifully rendered

Very interesting Ram. Massive total exposure times and you have shown the wide dynamic range of the nebula but the fainter elements are looking noisier than I would expect from the amount of data you had. Have you tried Rus Croman't NoiseXterminator at all?

Excellent, a perfect field of view for this busy area of sky

This is a very interesting image Dave. It is quite striking and different to the standard HaRGB presentation. The flame looks very impressive. The reflection nebulosity is very nicely shown. Obviously, you are a bit light on data so there is a fair amount of noise esp in the Ha areas but I can live with that. Did you use any filtration? How was the camera mounted?

This is spectacular! To my eye it doesn't have the "smeariness" I associate with excessive noise reduction. I have a bit of an aversion to starless images but not this one. In fact I don't think the re-adding of the stars has worked all that well here. Wonderful image.

Yes, that is some enhancement!

Modern astro cameras with set point cooling are superb instruments for night time imaging. However, modern DSLRs and mirrorless cameras aren't too shabby either. So here is a chance to see how well these general purpose cameras can perform when faced with the challenge of capturing deep sky astronomical targets. For the purposes of this challenge deep sky means any object beyond our solar system. Cameras modified by removing the IR filter are eligable but not any with fitted electronic cooling. Although labelled DSLR and Mirrorless all cameras are permitted other than those specifically designed for astroimaging. You can use a Box Brownie if you like (now that would be a challenge!) Please include details of equipment used and other capture information. Start date 1st March 2023 End date 31st May 2023 No entries will be accepted after this date. As previously the winner and runners up will receive an SGL challenge mug showing their image along with a virtual medal-of-honour for their SGL signature. Please post entries directly into this thread To keep the thread manageable for the judges please do not post comments about entries, emoji reactions 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 but please make a fresh post within the thread. Multiple submissions of the same image, processed differently, will not be accepted.

The challenge is now closed. The results will be announced within the next 2 weeks.

@Bargy @franklin I live in Chestefield as well! I'm a member of the Chesterfield Astronomical Society. We are trying to arrange group evenings every now and then at darker sites in the Peak District.

Never had a bad encounter and lots of great ones. My favourite was whilst imaging the MW over beach huts at Wells. A group of local youths came wandering over wanting to know what I was doing. I showed them what I had on the camera screen and they were very excited. I got them to stand on the steps of one of the huts and took a 30 sec snap which I sent to them a few days later. The response I got back was one of the nicest emails I have ever received.

Thank you Fegato. As awways, I'm never quite happy. I haven't made any adjustments to saturation but the colour does look a bit heavy so I've done a little desat and prefer the appearance, for now anyway!

Is it tracking in alt-az or equatorial? If alt az you should be ok at 20 seconds. Field rotation starts to show itself after 20 to 30 seconds. If equatorial a rough polar alignment should be good for 30 secs