Kinch

The 2nd one is more over processed - the 1st is better.

I have not seen this one before......71.5 hours on a dual rig equates to over 140 hours work on a normal set-up. 🤔...way beyond where most of us want to go....therefore quite a unique result I would say. Well done 👍

Skipper Billy has of course the ideal solution - reduce the cables as much as possible - down to one if possible. Although I had wanted to do similar, I always ended up with a cable mess going to the OTA area.....found I wanted separate power & USB cables for the camera - separate cable for the guider  - then I still had power & usb going to the hub up on the OTA. Anyway - still ended with a bunch of cables coming down, BUT - where I differ from you - I wanted them attached near to the rotation point of the EM400 RA axis.

So......well the picture shows how I got around the lower end cable management.......which works OK for me.

Across the Mar Menor from him in Los Alcazares - people have been flooded out of their homes (2nd time this year) because of recent heavy rains....whatever the cause (not getting into that).... the climate here is definitely changing.  I struggle with high relative humidity living by the coast but I will still try astrophotography.......whenever the clouds clear....which is not so frequent as it said in the brochure.    😞  

Having been away from my setup in Spain for several months I was looking forward to getting going again.......BUT....don't believe what they say in the brochures.....it rains here too.

Today is the 3rd day of near non stop rain here in SE Spain......but I passed the time yesterday, then again today playing with old data from 2016. I am glad that 3 years down the road, I find it easier to process the data and  - I think - improve the end result.

IC 1795 - The Fishhead Nebula - Crop

Imaging telescopes or lenses: Takahashi FSQ106ED
Imaging cameras: QSI 6120i
Mounts: Takahashi EM 400 Temma 2 
Guiding telescopes or lenses: Takahashi FS 60 CB
Guiding cameras: QHY CCD QHY 5 II
Focal extender: Takahashi QE 1.6x
Software: PHD 2,  Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight ,  Sequence Generator Pro SGP
Filters: Astrodon Ha 3nm,  Astrodon OIII 3nm,  Astrodon SII 3nm,
Accessories: Robofocus Focuser,  ATIK EFW2

Original Resolution: 1968 x 1320
Dates: 4th Oct - 11th Oct '16                              Original Capture Dates

Frames:
Astrodon Ha 3nm:   22x1200" bin 2x2
Astrodon OIII 3nm:  10x1200" bin 2x2
Astrodon SII 3nm:   10x1200" bin 2x2
Integration: 14 Hours 

Please forgive me again - pulling out an older image but I just was not posting here back in the beginning of the year so again, I am sure many would not have seen this. In fact this is only a crop of the full image but since I am away from my scope & camera (until November) and still enjoy playing with old data, I did this tonight. This time I have done little else other to make a crop to an interesting scene very close to the Jellyfish Nebula. The header is just for grabbing attention (oops!) but in fact one can see such a shape in the dust/gas clouds. There is also another interesting blob of OIII in the top left  first noted by Howell & Crisp in 2006.

I hope you find the image interesting. When I did this I was experimenting with leaving much more green in my images than I had prior to that. I think it goes OK here - personal opinion of course :-).

Original image details:

Imaging telescopes or lenses: Takahashi FSQ130ED
Imaging cameras: FLI ML16200

Astrodon Ha       45 x 20'
Astrodon OIII      33 x 20'
Astrodon SII       33 x 20'
RGB                     20 x 3' Each

Total integration  = 40 Hours.

Great finish and a colouring I really like. It is 4 years since I did the 'trunk'.....must try it again soon.

Great job....I found the area quite hard to process. For me - the top image does not have too much green....I left more in mine 😄.

I am not at home Rodd - so only looking in on a laptop.....but I also see those tiny white dots in the full size image. They have been there since the first rendition you put up. Now, the last effort (taking blue out of the background) has made the background worse. 

I hate making comments when I am looking in using a laptop (not a good monitor)…...but I suspect quite a few use laptops day to day.

3 minutes ago, Rodd said:

Likes verify that an image is thought decent by those who have more experience and skill than I

Disagree...……for me, when someone is motivated to hit the like button, it just means that on first sighting the image....it pleases them. It says nothing about whether or not they have more experience or (processing) skill than you.

9 minutes ago, Rodd said:

For me, looking at full resolution is prerequisite for calling an image "good"  

Indeed - I agree 100%. But if it is 'Likes' that you are after - it does not have to be THAT good.

11 minutes ago, Rodd said:

yes the second sits better with me...but I am definitely not satisfied with it

You are not satisfied with it because at Hi Res you see the problems. So do that group that you mention below....

15 minutes ago, Rodd said:

a group of very experienced processors on this forum whose comments always include going beyond the screen image

Never mind the 'Likes' - aim to get comments from those experienced processors. If they comment...it means they are interested and having a closer look. 🙂 

Having seen a recent APOD I remembered that I had similar image (though not as good 🙂 ) that I did not put out other than on my own website. Many people are more fond of RGB - personally I prefer the detail that NB images can bring to the screen. Either way, no matter what your preference....here is my HaRGB effort...

Hi Rodd.....I think you will take one thing from this thread.....most people do not "Pixel Peep" and it is just first impression that gets the likes....as someone said, it is just a simple 'push of a button'. Like you, I can spend hours on an image because one thing or another just annoys me about it, but the end result generally wont make it any more of a winner for those that just flick through the images. I have seen it time & time again, to get 'likes' you need colourful, attention grabbing images - not presented in highest resolution. To get satisfaction though, you correct the 'nasties' that you see on your high resolution monitor....so that you feel satisfied with the processing. The important bottom line is...don't substitute 'Likes' for satisfaction.....or perhaps putting it another way.....don't seek to get satisfaction from getting 'likes'.....get it from your creation.

It seems that the top image here is more appealing to most but when you open the door to the higher resolution its bad points become very apparent. The 2nd image is an improvement but someone also pointed out where that can been improved. So neither are perfect (and in truth a lot of APODs are not either) but I can tell that the second sits better with you. So you have improved on a previous effort.....take satisfaction out of that. 🙂 

"I understand about three percent of your post"

Don't worry about that Marv, I only understand about 5% of it......it comes from Wikipedia  🤣

No seriously - the top text is not mine but it does give good background info to the region within the image.  I have no doubt that you will get used to the various terms used by REAL astronomers and it will all make sense in next to no time.  I also have no doubt you will indeed be reading more if the interest is there.

NGC 7822 is a young star forming complex in the constellation of Cepheus. The complex encompasses the emission region designated Sharpless 171, and the young cluster of stars named Berkeley 59. The complex is believed to be some 800–1000 pc distant with the younger components aged no more than a few million years. The complex also includes one of the hottest stars discovered within 1 kpc of the Sun, namely BD+66 1673, which is an eclipsing binary system consisting of an O5V that exhibits a surface temperature of nearly 45,000 K and a luminosity about 100,000 times that of the Sun. The star is one of the primary sources illuminating the nebula and shaping the complex's famed pillars of creation-type formations, 

Imaging telescopes or lenses: Takahashi FSQ130ED
Imaging cameras: FLI ML16200 ADT
Mounts: Takahashi EM 400 Temma 2M
Guiding telescopes or lenses: Takahashi FS60CB
Guiding cameras: QHY CCD QHY 5 II
Focal Extender / Reducer:  None
Software: Sequence Generator Pro SGP (for capture) PHD 2 (guiding), Astro Pixel Processor & PixInsight, 
Filters: Astrodon Ha, SII, OIII,

Accessories: Robofocus Focuser,  ATIK EFW3

Dates:  18th Aug to 22nd August 2019 

Frames: 
Astrodon Ha         26 x 20' 
Astrodon SII          23 x 20' 
Astrodon OIII        23 x 20'

Total integration  = 24 hours.

This is a crop from a larger image. 

Thanks Tom.....I have to admit, I am a "Pixel Peeper" myself, but only on images I like. That is why I was happy to know that some at least are having a closer look  🤣

45 minutes ago, Tom OD said:

Excellent detail Brendan. The stars look a bit soft but the nebula is fantastic. Super work. 

Tom. 

They don't "look soft" they ARE soft. I think I have at least 50 "final" images for this one. Some things are good in these but bad in those....if you can follow that. If I wanted to win a prize with this....I definitely would have to sit down and combine it all again from scratch, but with a bit more experience in processing. But since it is from very early 2018 it is hard to contemplate that sort of work now.

I will stick with the one on my website as being the final one for ME ... whatever faults are in it 🤔. (http://www.kinchastro.com/ngc-2359-thors-helmet.html) The thing that makes me happy is that some people are looking close in at the detail and that in itself says something. 😄

just did a quick one Rodd.....I think I know what happened the first one I posted (something I did immediately before posting).....this is more like the one on my website:

1 hour ago, Rodd said:

If I have a CC, it would be the stars within the helmet (and right wing) look a tad over sharpened

Agree Rodd - next time I will have to watch that (and try your suggestion) - I think it is the very bright stars that were not 'tamed' enough. It being an old shot, I will just leave it for now. I head off in a few days....and for sure, could not work on this on my laptop. 

No more photography until November  - so there will no improvement on what has already been done I am afraid.

I posted an image in this Imaging Challenge (#29) - then later realised that data capture commenced outside the allowed dates. I do not see a means of deleting the entry. Mods. please go ahead & delete it - no further comment required.

I mentioned in a previous post that my 2nd favorite target was Thor's Helmet. I have done it with FSQ106 but the FSQ130 allowed me to improve (in my opinion) on the detail I could pull out. I have seen some fantastic & detailed images of Thor's Helmet with quite large scopes - but I am extremely happy with what I managed with a 5" refractor. Again - not my most recent image - but 1st time showing it here on SGL.

This with FSQ130 & FLI 6120 camera: Total 15 Hours: Ha, OIII, R, G, B.

I was SO sorry you asked ....  🙄

But NOW....I am glad....because I have learned something new tonight  👍   😃

There is a very subtle difference here - just a first run using the Paste then Eraser tools (but I did go back to PixInsight to tweak things....could not help it  🤣).

At least, now I have a method and my thanks to Dave and Richard for responding.

Thanks Richard. Later tonight (no chance of doing any imaging ☹️) I will have a closer look at what both Dave & you have sent. Looking forward to trying to improve this image because M32 really bugs me every time I look at it!