mightymonoped

Approx 1.5 hours in 60s and 120s subs Plus calibration WO Redcat 51 with Optolong L-pro filter and ASI294mc pro camera on Star Adventurer Processed in Astro Pixel Processor and Photoshop CC

Thanks Peter!

Thanks all! 😊

Thanks Carole, I was surprised how well it turned out for an opportunistic grab.

Managed to grab just short of a two-hour window to try out the L-eNhance filter with the Redcat. The Veil complex seemed like the best bet given the window of time before the balcony roof would intrude. 36 x 180 secs with Darks and Bad Pixel Map (no flats or dark flats yet for this combo) WO Redcat 51 with Optolong L-eNhance filter using ASI294mc pro on a StarAdventurer tracker Processed in Astro Pixel Processor, starnet++ and Photoshop (plus AstroFlat Pro add-on)

Finding this one seems a bit dark so trying another.

Thought it might be worth having a go at combining the Samyang 135mm and the Redcat captures together to see if anything usable would come out of it. Still haven't mastered Astro Pixel Processor for this kind of thing yet, but I ended up with something I could work with (once croppped). This is a fairly drastic crop of (100 x 60s) + (86 x 120s) subs combined. Stripped out the stars, fixed the halo on Garnet Star before recombining. Basic stretches, Camera Raw Filter processing, a bit of Astro Flat Pro to sort out the mosaic artefacts and a small bit of star reduction. APP, starnet++ & Photoshop

Thought it would be interesting to try out a little experiment to see what could be captured under typical Full Moon conditions in my current environment. Having only approximately 100 minutes to capture this particular target before it effectively disappeared under my balcony roof, and having recently watched a lecture on key factors in capturing effectively with CMOS cameras, I decided to try as many short subs as possible in the given 'window'. In this case, I managed to get 100 x 60s subs (96 of which were good enough to use). The Moon was visible, albeit in the opposite sky and the capture was done using an Optolong L-pro filter overlooking my flat's already light-polluted car-park. I tried processing the data a number of ways (including stripping the stars and arcsineH stretching) but decided to go with plain and simple stretch, gradientXterminator and a bit of star reduction and cleanup. Have to say, I was quite impressed with the results given the horrendous conditions. Looking forward to doing this on a clear night with a full view of the skyline. Elephant's Trunk Nebula (cropped to exclude the Garnet Star which had a problematic halo). WO Redcat 51 using an ASI294mc pro with Optolong L-pro filter on a StarAdventurer tracker 96 x 60s subs & calibration Astro Pixel Processor and Photoshop CC

Well, if you can't fix a problem, make a feature of it! 😂 Had a little play with contrast and colour (and a few other little tweaks. Also had a play with a starless version, which in this case, I actually quite like.

High cloud resulted in a bloated and haloed Sadr unfortunately. Only 48 x 120s were useable out of 60. WO Redcat 51, ASI294mc pro and Optolong L-Pro filter on a Staradventurer tracker. 48 x 120s at unity gain, -10C Processed in Astro Pixel Processor and Photoshop CC.

Had another go at processing, this time without taking the stars out and hopefully retaining better star colour and more detail in the Veil? I think less is more for the whispy Veil nebulosity?

Captured this from my balcony over three hours last night. Did a quick process this evening but need to spend more time and care tbh. 87 x 120s subs plus darks, flats and dark flats WO Redcat 51 with Optolong L-Pro filter ASI924mc pro Skywatcher Staradventurer tracker Processed in Astro Pixel Processor, Starnet++ and Photoshop CC Tony

Reworked as I wasn't happy. Hopefully this is less forced and better colour. 3 hours using ASI294mc pro with Optolong filter and Samyang 135mm at f2.8 on StarAdventurer tracker. No messing around with Starnet++ and ArcsinH stretching this time, just good old-fashioned Photoshop CC. Initial stretch with APP and a going over with GradientXterminator. Tony

This is a first pass at processing and I know there are some dirty subs in there that need taking out but I'll do that properly this weekend. 3 hours of 60s and 120s subs in OSC using Optolong L-Pro filter Samyang 135mm @ f2.8, ASI294mc pro, unity gain, -10C Skywatcher StarAdventurer from my 3rd floor balcony. Processed in Astro Pixel Processor, Starnet++ and Photoshop CC Tony

I thought this might be worth trying instead of creating a luminance layer from the red channel, I registered the first nights image against this one and merged it at about 40% opacity to bring out some of the highlights, sort of like luminance.

Managed to grab more data last night to try to bring out the colour. Tracking and guiding were much better after adjusting a few hardware and software issues. 81 x 120s lights + calibration Samyang 135 @ f2.8 Optolong L-pro filter ASI 294mc pro @ unity gain -10C Skywatcher StarAdventurer tracker Stacked and processed in Astro Pixel Processor, Starnet ++ and Photoshop CC Tony

Elephant’s Trunk Nebula in Widefield. This is a work in progress as it’s a very limited capture of only 40 x 120s, due to the restricted view from my balcony. Will need to do another couple of nights at least. Samyang 135mm at f2.8 ASI294mc pro at unity gain, -10C StarAdventurer tracking mount Processed in Astro Pixel Processor, Starnet++ and Photoshop CC.

Grabbed nearly two hours worth of 120s subs on a very windy night two days ago from my balcony. Used an Optolong L-pro to counter some of the light pollution. Guiding was pretty poor also. Samyang 135mm at f2.8 with Optolong L-pro filter ASI294mc pro @ unity gain -10C 60 x 120 subs and calibration Skywatcher StarAdventurer tracker Processed in AstroPixelProcessor, Starnet++ and Photoshop CC ArcsinH stretch and basic processing of starless image with a false luminance layer.

Cheers Paul 😊

Thanks Peter, that means a lot to me! 😊

Thanks! That’s exactly what I was aiming for 😊

Took some time to try and clean up some of the messier bits - still noisy as hell as it's a DSLR shot at the end of the day but I think I've got some better contrast and sorted the stars out a bit, as they suffer when using a dual narrowband filter.

Have been processing this dataset for a couple of days now, trying new techniques and tools and combining images in a variety of workflows to different ends, some good, some not so. This is the version I think I am happiest with, it's basically a combination of three previous attempts, hopefully merging the best of each. Two nights capture from my balcony's limited seeing resulted in 2,5 hours worth of usable lights. Processed using AstroPixelProcessor, Starnet++ and Photoshop CC. WO Redcat 51 using a StarAdventurer tracker guided in RA only. ASI294mc Pro OSC camera with Optolong L-Pro filter All capture and guiding managed via iPhone using an ASIair Pro controller.

Another version, this time processed the full-size file (doh!), still managed to forget to sort the final star-size though....next time! (double doh!)

Here's the 2.5 hours of data version after adding last nights captures and reprocessing using Starnet++ and Camera Raw filter in the processing.