Adamar98

I finally got the Oii and Sii. I'm happy with this. Its not perfect and my stars are still letting me down. I'm sure in the right hands more could be made of this. I seem to get halos around the blue stars. I also noticed them in my last image.  Is this a common occurrence with narrowband? Anyhow, here are my efforts. Constructive criticism always welcome. Thanks for looking.

Askar FRA400 @ f3.9, Atik460, Heq5pro

66 x 600 Ha

51 x 600 Sii

51 x 600 Oii

A couple of the guys down at my local astronomical society have recently posted pictures of this. It's a target I've never really paid a lot of attention to. So I thought I'd have a try at it myself. I'm glad I did. Its full of interesting little areas. From the dark swirly areas in the dark dust to the fine structure in the lighter areas. This is 11 hour in 10 minute subs. I'm currently chasing the Oiii and Sii. I'm hoping to get over 30 hours in all on this one. It'll be the longest I've spent on one target. I'm a tad excited to finish this.

Askar FRA400 @ f3.9, Atik 460, Heq5pro

66 x 10 mins Ha

10 hours ago, Laurin Dave said:

Thank you Carole, clearly I agree with leaving a touch of green in as I do think it adds to the image and after all it is between blue and yellow.  When I first started doing SHO I blasted them with scnr or HLVG to get rid of the green and the result was as you say rather flat.

Dave

I totally agree. Start taking the greens away and you end up with what looks more like a bicolour image. 

11 hours ago, souls33k3r said:

Excellent mate. Would be interested in knowing what you've been reading

I’ve been reading up on masks. How to make them, how to use them and where to use them. And I’ve also been learning about pixelmath. It’s a minefield but it can do things I didn’t think possible. Both areas have definitely improved my images. Well worth learning about.

4 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

Your stars dilemma, either too bright and sharp or too dull and lifeless, is dead easy to resolve in any layers-based program. You simply paste one onto the other as a different layer and adjust the opacity of the top layer till you get what you want. This is the mainstay of my Photoshop processing but can be done in the free GIMP as well, I expect. If it's only the stars you want to blend, there's a MartinB tutorial on the Imaging Tricks and Techniques part of this forum which tells you how to isolate stars. (Alternatively you can use Noel's Actions in Ps to select brighter stars. It's now sold as Pro Digital Astronomy Tools.

Nice image. No question.

Olly

Thanks Olly. That makes a lot of sense. I’ll definitely have a look at your suggestions. I’m sure they’ll be a way to do the same thing with pixelmath. More investigating and reading to do. 

Wow. That looks great. The colours are strong but subtle. Love it.

I've wanted to take my astrophotography up another level for a while. So, I bought a new scope. I've done a lot of reading up on processing (I've a lot more to read) and I'm trying to put into practice what I've learned. I'm still struggling with my stars. They're either bright and sharp or dull and lifeless. I need to find the middle ground. Any constructive criticism or a point in the direction of a good tutorial is very welcome. Here are my efforts. I hope you like.

Askar FRA400 @ f3.9, Atik 460, Heq5

36 x 600 ha

30 x 600 Oiii

30 x 600 sii

16 hours 

Thanks for looking.

Yeah, weather forecasters are like politicians. For me it’s juggling work, family and a night time hobby. It’s having the energy to do it. 

Great image. I also have just purchased the Fra400. You’re images are very encouraging. 

Its been a long time since I last posted on here. I keep losing my astro mojo. So to try and overcome that, I bought myself a new scope to see if it would encourage me to get out a bit more. And it seems to be working. I'm enthusiastic but the weather doesn't seem to want to help me out. This is my first attempt at an image with the new scope. I'm fairly happy with the out come. I don't know if I've pushed it a bit much with the processing (another area I'm a bit rusty in). I've added a starless version to show the dusty stuff a little more. Here are the fruits of my labour. Constructive criticism always welcome. Thanks for looking. Adam.

Askar Fra400 with reducer @ f/3.9, Atik 460 with Astrodon 3nm Ha filter. plonked on a Heq5pro

38 x 600 guided subs.

On 03/04/2019 at 22:23, Andywilliams said:

Hi Rob,

Is this imaged through a Samyang f2??

Is so, its fantastic.

Just one question. The stars are showing quite pronounced diffraction spikes (I personally really like them). Is this a quality of the sheer length of the integration time here? or is it a quality of this lens?. I wouldn't have  expected to see spikes like this off of a camera lens ?

Many thanks,

Andy

The diffraction spikes are caused by the blades in the lens.

On 26/03/2019 at 16:05, kirkster501 said:

I recently bought Geordie's 135 to add to my 14mm and it is sublime lens.  I am getting started with wide-field.  It is on my 1100D at the moment but I am looking at fittign my Atik 460 to it.

Adamar98, how did you connect your Atik 460 (with filter wheel?) to the lens?  Is it canon fit?  Mono?

I use the geoptik canon fit adapter. 

Most of the images have had very little cropping (stacking artefacts). I cropped the shark a fair bit due to an awful gradient I struggled to remove.

I've owned my Samyang 135mm lens for about 2 years. It's given me some good results. I use it on both the ccd and dslr and it never disappoints. It's had more use than my scope because it's so much fun and the FOV it gives. It's a solid little lens and rather heavy for its size. The focus is lovely and smooth and seems to hold even when pointing straight up. These images have been taken using either my  Canon 60da or my Atik 460.

who needs Hubble when we have you guys producing images like this! I am in awe. We're not worthy. Truly stunning work.