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bdlbug

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Everything posted by bdlbug

  1. @Magnum I don't have any other narrowband images using this setup AT106 +ASI1600 and my other filter set - 6.5nm/7nm Optilong narrowband - I do have a number of image taken with the Optilong filters but with widefield rig using Samyang 135mm lens. But that's probably not a useful comparison.
  2. Thanks for feedback - I also agree that the second colour scheme works better than the SHO version. But I thought I would post them both up just to get some other opinions Bryan
  3. Bought a set of 3nm narrowband filters - Antlia - a Chinese company - very kean pricing v's the incumbant premium brands, based on just this one image I am impressed with the result s as the subs for this image were all taken over three sessions of the weekend 26-28th February so full moon conditions. Camera ASI1600MM - gain200 / -20degC 36 X 300s for each filter, Ha / Oiii / Sii - 9hrs total subs Stacked in APP, processed Pixinsight and PS CC Two colour pallettes , first is a straight forward Hubble SHO and the second a blend of various pixel math ratios and equations.
  4. Thank you everyone for the positive feedback - and reading through the comments I must namecheck @Adreneline as it was October last year when I had just 'discovered' the Auriga region for myself that Adrian posted a widefield of Spaghetti nebula and IC405/410 showing how close they were in widefield angular terms - and thats when I got the inspiration to embark on this project, that has been an obsession at times both on the imaging side and possibly more so on the processing.... but thats why we do this right ?
  5. All, my first colour mosaic, a lot of challenges and issues with capture, clouds, orientation of panels etc.. Processing - laptop crashes and trashed SSD so lost all separate channel integrations for one panel. Used APP mosiac mode to integrate Ha panels in non-linear state.... and a whole lot more..... Anyway huge field of view Pixel scale: 6.018 arcsec/pixel Orientation: 249.222 degrees Field radius: 7.558 degrees Samyang 135mm / ASI1600MM Over 30hrs+ in 240s subs Optilong Ha / Sii / Oiii Began the capture of the Flame nebula panel in October 2020 - completed(but not finished) January 2021 Bryan
  6. I am just south of Northampton, so can image East-South-East across countryside, but its being rapidly built on. Clear Outside has me under Class 5 Bortle
  7. I've been following the progress of @tooth_dr on his multi panel mosaic project of the Spaghetti Nebula as we have been running in parallel with imaging this elusive object. For my project I have taken a wide- field approach using my Samyang135mm lens with ASI1600MM and Optilong narrow band filters. I posted my initial image of Ha last month. This has been a very challenging object, the hours required, the number of subs (CMOS camera), processing and UK weather/skies. I should try and get more Sii definitely and better Oiii, but I want to move on and put my APO back on the mount to capture some other winter objects in narrowband. For now its just under 16hrs total integration with about half that time again in discarded subs due to low quality skies/ cloud, high cloud etc.... I have reduced the stars significantly by using Starnet and then processing stars separately, still issues to resolve in that process, but here is my 'final' 🤨 image - at least for now.. Bryan Samyang 135mm , F2 ASI1600MM cooled -20degC Optilong Ha, Oii, Sii 1.25" filters 240s subs using gain 200, offset 50 All captured and controlled using raspberry Pi4 running astroberry KSTARS/EKOS Ha - 8.5hrs Oiii - 5.4hrs Sii - 2hrs Integrated using APP, processed with Pixinsight/Photoshop Bryan
  8. @carastroI am under Bortle 5 skies, at least I when imaging NNE to SSW , the remainder of the sky around me is quite light polluted to my North is Northampton and the big warehouse park and to my West is more warehouses. I am using a 7nm Ha filter,
  9. Thanks Mick and Lee, appreciate the feedback and encouragement - Actually got clear skies tonight - so hopefully as long as it stays that way , I can bring down a few hours of Oiii. I did overlay the mosaic on Kstars with a moon image - I assume Kstars moon icon is scaled, this is a fair chunk of MW
  10. No idea how I managed to get 5.5hrs of subs on this extremely faint nebula this week. I rejected about 45mins due to clouds - no surprise. so this is 4.75hrs made up of 240s subs taken with Samyang 135mm at F2 with ASI1600MM and 7nm Optilong filters I used Pi4 running Astroberry with KSTARS/EKOS/INDI controlling everything Integrated with APP Processed with Pi and PS I have also included a quick screenshot form the ICEtool used to stitch two images that shows what I am trying to achieve , a rather large swath of Auriga as a 4, possibly 6 pane mosaic. I am however thinking is could take decades to acquire the Oiii for this endeavour if the weather doesn't improve I captured the first pane that include IC405 and IC410 back in October, below is only the Ha - I did get Oiii and Sii to create a colour image that is on astrobin What is really amazing about this structure is its size - It is HUGE, I did an overlay with same FOV I used to capture Orion constellation and this beast covers the area between the Horsehead and orion Nebul with ease. Hopefully more to report over the winter months Bryan
  11. Another amazing set of data - kept my evenings interesting over the past week. Its an extraordinarily difficult image to balance, huge dynamic range. I found it extremely challenging to get the balance right and also put colour across the image that highlighted the different gaseous regions of M17 and where the Ha, Oii and Sii contributes to the overall false colour image. I used pretty much every tool in the box, Pi - initial stretch with histogram and creation of starless versions with Starnet++ PS - massive stretching of each of the starless images to get a colour into the mix, I found getting any Oiii blue into the central region 'difficult' Pi - used PixelMath to create a large number of different colour mixes - went around this and above steps many times to get a mix I liked Pi - deconvolved the Ha frame and used enhance dark structures PS - Annies Actions to create SHO for stars only PS to mix Ha as luminance into the Starless colour image ... note I now had white stars as I had used Ha with stars through the de-convolution process, so now had to make the colour image starless again in Pi Starnet++ PS - added in 'colour' stars PS - reduced stars PS- selective sharpening and noise reduction using layer masking PS - very slight crop as merging all the starless images for colour, even wih quite a bit of effort to make background same levels I ended up with a blue edge, so its been cropped So after all that here is my contribution to this growing thread of fantastically different interpretations of M17 from the same data set. Bryan
  12. I recently 'discovered' this fascinating Auriga region in the night sky and am absolutely amazed at the huge Ha regions that look like footballs in space. I've seen high resolution images of the Flaming Star Nebula and also the 'Tadpoles region in IC410 framed individually, but when you see everything together in this wide field context and including the two Messier open star clusters, for me makes this hobby so worth all the effort. Having done more research and now realise that the huge 'Simeis 147; "Spaghetti Nebula"' is just next door, this could turn into a mosaic project as the FOV using the Samyang is a very good fit for this target. As per the images of this same area posted earlier this week from @Adreneline I started this image last Friday and apart from Saturday, I have been out until 4am, 2am,3am and a complete marathon session Sunday-Monday until 5:30am, so tonight, thanks to the huge moon, I'm had time to work on the processing and will have an early night. I captured about 16hours of subs, but today I culled nearly 7 hrs worth as high cloud and cloud of the more persistent opaque kind have been a constant issue getting data for this image - the regular chime of PHD2 informing me it lost its guide star constantly interrupted the imaging sessions. It was also frustrating that just as the moon began to set and I was ready to start an Oiii session, clouds rolled in........... Details Samyang 135mm @F2 ASI1600MM Optilong Ha, Sii, Oiii 7nm filters Guided using a ZWO miniguide scope and ASI120MM Mini resolution 6.02acrsec/pixel AZ-EQ6GT Mount In my Ha image there is a huge amount of Ha region linking IC405 and IC410 that I have not seen in many images, I did not push the Ha that much although it was my best data set with 4.6hrs of data. Ha - 4.6hrs, 70 240s subs Oiii - 2.8hrs, 42 240s subs Sii - 2.5hrs, 37 240s subs A 10hr image All taken at Gain 200 Offset 50 I have posted the Ha image below as well to indicate the amount of Ha in this region Its been quite difficult to process and I split the processing between PI and Photoshop, I used a starless combination method using StarNet+, a process called tone mapping - it resulted in a very garish colour palette , so I also used the PS plugin Annies Actions and then did a bit of layer masking and blending and used a deconvolved 'superLum' as L layer to put in the detail - so not a science project but this is the resultant image. Thanks for having a look, Bryan The Ha
  13. Very interesting time processing this great set of data - thank you SGL and the Ikarus Observatory project. This dateset gave me a good reason to get on and research alternative combinations of the narrowband channels. I used PI for the initial stretch and then used PixelMath to combine and created two options using what is referred to as Dynamic Combinations that I found on thecoldestnights website, https://thecoldestnights.com/2020/06/pixinsight-dynamic-narrowband-combinations-with-pixelmath/ I used these equations Sii/Ha/Oiii : R = (Oiii^~Oiii)*Sii + ~(Oiii^~Oiii)*Ha G = ((Oiii*Ha)^~(Oiii*Ha))*Ha + ~((Oiii*Ha)^~(Oiii*Ha))*Oiii B = Oiii Ha/Oiii : R = Ha G = ((Oiii*Ha)^~(Oiii*Ha))*Ha + ~((Oiii*Ha)^~(Oiii*Ha))*Oiii B = Oiii Neither option gave a very pleasing output, but for some reason I decided to move into PS, that I am more familiar with, and layered the SHO version over the HOO using 'Saturation' That gave me a better colour mix to work with in Photoshop, I then went on to use curves/levels/selective Colour/ topaz denoise/Sharpening (not much) and reduce stars. - result below I will say I am not very familiar with PI and I think somewhere I managed to reduce to bits/pixel to 8 - so I have probably lost some information in the processes explained above, anyway my submission.....
  14. Sorry forgot to put that in OP - Camera used is ASI1600MM Pro with yes a samyang135mm at f2 mounted on alt-az EQ6
  15. Thanks @DougM43 appreciate time taken to comment. thanks for posting the equation Adrian - I will have a play later in the week with PI on my data. I got to this depth effect purely by accident truth be told by using tools and actions in PS plus the enhance dark nebula script in PI and then combining that output in layers with PS and selective sharpening and whole bunch more including using Starnet to remove the pink stars and then in PS bring in a noise reduced and sharpened Ha star field Bryan
  16. Been great to have a few nights of clear sky - I captured this last Wednesday/Thursday last week. I have only Just getting to grips with narrow band imaging/processing and I am sticking with tried and tested SHO Hubble palette for now, but very interested in the percentage combinations like the wide field recently posted by @Adreneline - Cave, Bubble and M52 - to name but a few. I'm assuming the colour palette combinations are implemented using PixelMath functions in PI - I will do some reading and jump into the processing threads to find out more I think. But for now here's my latest SHO narrowband - I left in a hint of green on the inner lighter Ha nebulosity as I like the transition into the Blue of OIII signal Capture Details 90mins each for Ha, OIII, SII , Optilong filters in 120s subs - 4.5hrs total Captured using RPi4 /INDI/EKOS Processed, APP,PI,PS CC Pixel scale: 6.067 arcsec/pixel
  17. I agree - the blue and golds seem normal given the long legacy of Hubble images but there are such a lot of twists and turns in the way narrowband channels can be mixed into a visual palette. I have just been reading quite a bit this evening and downloaded Annie’s Actions and applied that to my data - it’s different again but the stars are really pink - which is SHO interpretation. anyway looking forward to imaging more narrowband through winter months Bryan
  18. @MarkAR ; @don4l - appreciate the feedback, I've been digging into the data for 'true' hubble SHO - pushing it all to the max....I think I will stop now as limited data set and this is as close as I think I can go to what is seen as traditional SHO Hubble: Any preference between first version and below ? Bryan
  19. This is my second image using my new Optilong narrowband filters and everything running on a Rpi4 running Astroberry and using INDI and EKOS to control everything Not a deep image 3.5hrs total - mostly from last night which was clear here in S.Northants until about 2am -which was unexpected given the atrocious weather and cloud cover recently. Ha - 31 x 120s OIII - 44 x 120s SII - 30 x 120s ASI1600MM-PRO, unity Gain Image scale is around 6arcsec/Pixel I basically had to dismantle my skyshedPOD dome to get access to the zenith - I don't have any room for zenith tables or such so just pushed it off its runners and balanced against my shed !! This is a Photoshop based mix approximating to SHO, I tried not to over saturate and be too outlandish with colour palette This is the full uncropped frame - I also took out the flats !! They were over compensating and creating a crazy gradient - I'm capturing a new set and may reprocess depending on how things go. Deneb showing the classic panasonic micro-lens artifact, could have worked harder and done a circular blur, but its not that distracting on this widefield image. I left the framing slightly offcenter as in the Ha the gas clouds tail away towards upper right, have not got them as prominent in this process - but they are there thanks for looking and appreciate any comments regards my colour mix, Bryan
  20. I have gone back to my wide field setup with Samyang 135mm and ASI1600, but now taken the plunge to try out narrowband. I got the rig all setup last weekend and had some time yesterday to get it out and mounted on AZ-EQ6GT. I spent a while last night getting everything polar aligned - its been a few months..... and connected and talking with the laptop using APT. Got camera cooled down and then took ages to get a reasonable focus as I have now set up a motorfocus and belt on the Samyang lens, by the time this process had finished time had disappeared and I had an early start in morning, so I kicked off a very quick 1 hour capture using 10 x 120s subs for each of the new SHO filters - I didn't think anything useful would come of this quick experiment, but after some relatively light processing after using APP to stack the 10 subs per channel, I had enough data to create a bi-colour (HOO) and Hubble (SHO) versions below. Oh and I had no guiding set up either so I just let the mount trundle on sidereal.. Clearly its not a deep image and the resolution is around 6arcsec/pixel, so not high resolution - but in terms of what I want to do in imaging these large areas of nebulousness in narrowband and at this scale the image gives these objects a sense of place and scale in the universe. So I present my first narrowband images of the Cygnus Loop incorporating, NGC 6960, the Western Veil; NGC 6992, NGC 6995, and IC 1340, the Eastern Veil; NGC 6974 and NGC 6979 ;incorporating Pickering's Triangle Thanks for looking and any feedback you may have - but yes this image is only 1 HOUR of subs using asi1600 on unity gain setting cooled to -20degC Samyang lens set at f2 Bryan
  21. The last couple of weeks has been a new experience in imaging. I have on this forum and in general viewed an amazing number of exceptional images and fantastic locations, do you get comet envy?, but like many on the forum I have by necessity had to remain local. With exception of a quick trip to South Downs to visit elderly parent-in-laws. So below is my simple story in images from an exciting early Saturday morning to a light polluted experiment near a car park of dubious repute....... I used Samyang 14mm for the first wide field I used Samyang135mm at f2 for all the othe rimages except for a quick experiment with my AT72Ed telescope, that didn't really work that well so reverted back to 135mm All used my old but very serviceable and unmodified Cannon 600D mounted on a reasonably polar aligned a Skywatcher Star Adventurer. The longest exposure I could take without completely losing everything in light pollution was 20seconds, most of the images are about 6-12minutes made up of 20s and 10s subs. I use APP to stack and calibrate with Darks,Flats and Bias, then processed to extreme within PS, using AstroFlat_Pro and Topaz denoise. thanks for looking , Bryan C/2020 Neowise F3 Comet c/2020 Neowise F3 and noctilucent clouds (2am Saturday 11th july gt. houghton) Gt. Houghton, Northants, 11th July, Samyang 135mm Gt. Houghton, Northants, 12th July : AT72ED Malling Nature Reserve, Sussex. 17th July Samyang 135mm Gayton Marina,Northants, 20th July Samyang 135mm Reprocessed - Malling Nature Reserve, Sussex. 17th July Cannon 600D, Samyang 135mm F2, Skywatcher Star Adventurer, Berlebach tripod
  22. This is my last galaxy image for this season So, this has been a much harder to image process than anticipated, despite having IDAS D2 filter in front of everything the gradients I had were ridiculous - so the LED lighting put on path behind my house may have resulted in a darker garden, but the broadband sky glow really made a mess of the RGB integrations and merge. Software to the rescue; a combination of Pi with Deconv, DBE and photometric colour calibration saved the day along with a lot of fun with Photoshop, AstroFlat and Topaz Denoise Image details : 8hrs and 40mins total exposure in this image, 2hrs each channel with 40min extra in Lum... Taken between 15th-25th April in 6 sessions. Equipment: ASI1600 MM-pro with Baader filters through AT106EDT refractor on AZ-EQ6GT, Resolution: 1.13"x1.13" per pixel Field of View: 1.47° x 1.11° Wiki description for M100 (also known as NGC 4321) M100 is a grand design intermediate spiral galaxy located within the southern part of constellation Coma Berenices. It is one of the brightest and largest galaxies in the Virgo Cluster, located approximately 55 million light-years distant from Earth and has a diameter of 107,000 light years, roughly 60% the size of the Milky Way. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain on March 15, 1781 and was subsequently entered in Messier's catalogue of nebulae and star clusters after Charles Messier made observations of his own on April 13, 1781. The galaxy was one of the first spiral galaxies to be discovered, and was listed as one of fourteen spiral nebulae by Lord William Parsons of Rosse in 1850. NGC 4323 and NGC 4328 are satellite galaxies of M100; the former is connected with it by a bridge of luminous matter. This image has minimal cropping applied so, like the M51 I posted it shows the central galaxy in the background (and foreground) context of deep space. This image is also on Astrobin where it has been plate solved and mouse-over identifies the other objects and galaxies in the image, thumbnail link below: thanks for looking Bryan
  23. Wow - love the image and seriously impressive that you have captured this with round stars across the FOV. Guiding with 4m focal length telescope and imaging at <0.3" per pixel, Hats off to you and your setup (I sold my C11 as I never thought I could ever use it effectively for DSO imaging) Bryan
  24. @CCD Imager - I uploaded the PNG version to SGL , if you click the image the forum will download you that full res image in a new tab, the image inline on the post has been auto-magically re-sized for inline viewing. if that doesn't work for you I've posted it on AstroBin now as well, so that has full details and ability to download full resolution - Thumbnail below links to AstroBin version
  25. ...M51 is such a beautiful galaxy and everyone has a different approach and processing - this galaxy season members of this forum have given us some stunners. This image has 8hrs total exposure. I captured 1hr Lum around 10th April in 2019 and exactly a year later another hour on 10th April 2020. The 2hrs each channel of RGB been a matter of capturing 10,20 or 30 subs round 9:30pm -11pm from 10th -22nd April depending on darkness of sky and before M51 disappears near the zenith as I cant see that from in my POD - its only time I have really been limited in imaging time due to my choice of obsy. All subs 120s with ASI1600MM-Cool, unity gain using Baader filters with an IDAS D2 in front of everything, Integrated in APP, processed PI and PS - Its been cropped to remove registration overlaps but nothing too severe - I think image could be cropped further but I prefer the wider view that presents the context of the galaxy against deep space, and there's 30 million light years of space between us and M51 - incomprehensible Bryan
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