Petergoodhew

4 minutes ago, Allinthehead said:

That looks very nice indeed. You image some very interesting targets.

Thanks Richard - yes I do like the less well-known (and sometimes ridiculously faint!) targets. 

Peter

6 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

Not sure if it is the saturation in the first or "distribution" of hot / cold stars (image "warmth").

Most stars in the image are likely to be main sequence stars, and only very small percent of those are in fact white and bluish - less than 4%. This however does not mean that there should be 94% yellow/orange stars in the image - with decreasing temperature - total luminosity also goes down - white / blue stars can be recorded over greater distances as yellow/orange ones are much fainter.

In absence of color calibration, I would expect to see at least half of warm stars in the image (unless of course it is specific object - like cluster with young hot stars dominating). Both images show domination of white / blue stars over yellow/orange ones.

An interesting point. I always struggle with colour calibration Vlaiv. Is there a technique that you would recommend?

Peter

24 minutes ago, kirkster501 said:

Very nice Peter, I want to have a go at this too and I hope that when I do it will be as good as yours.

Two observations (nit picking...!)  I think this could be sharpened a tiny a bit to bring out more detail in the nebula.  Also, the stars to me seems to be either the same blue, or the same orange and little in between ????

I really like it though!

Try this version....

4 minutes ago, kirkster501 said:

Very nice Peter, I want to have a go at this too and I hope that when I do it will be as good as yours.

Two observations (nit picking...!)  I think this could be sharpened a tiny a bit to bring out more detail in the nebula.  Also, the stars to me seems to be either the same blue, or the same orange and little in between ???? 

I really like it though!

Thanks. I'll take a look at increasing the sharpening (Don Goldman's version has more detail - although the Capella Observatory version has less!), and also take down the saturation.

Peter

A rarely-imaged planetary nebula in the constellation of Cygnus. It is expanding at 30 km/s. Also known as PLN 77+14.7
It's very faint, hence the Ha and OIII were captured at bin 3x3 and 1800s.

39 hours 30 mins total integration (34x1800s OIII bin 3x3, 21x1800s Ha bin 3x3, 31x600s Luminance bin 1x1, 13x600s Red bin 1x1, 13x600s Green bin 1x1, 15 x600s Blue bin 1x1)
 
Image captured on my dual rig at EyE, Extramadura, Spain

APM TMB 152 F8 LZOS, 10 Micron GM2000HPS, QSI6120ws8

A lovely image.  I really like the gentle use of colour that makes an SHO image look very natural.

2 hours ago, newbie alert said:

Is there much chance in the uk would you think? 

Yes if you've got really dark skies. Only try to capture when there's no moon around, or it will be drowned out by moonlight.

3 minutes ago, newbie alert said:

Fantastic Peter   but 42 hours at a presumably dark site.. 

Yes, very dark.  The e-EyE hosting site in Spain.

Allegedly one of the faintest planetary nebulae, this really was a challenge but eventually I managed to drag out of it some structural detail. But then I did have to capture over 42 hours of OIII at bin 3x3! Not for the faint hearted!

Luminance was 18x300 bin 1x1.

RGB were each 10x300 bin 1x1.

Captured on my dual rig at e-EyE in Spain.

27.5 hours total integration, captured on my dual rig in Spain.

Just now, ampleamp said:

The antenae look a lot better defined on this version and the core is imo excellent; well worth revisiting!

Thanks Alistair.  I found that going for 10 minute luminance subs made a huge difference in pulling the antennae out of the noise/sky background.  With hindsight I should probable have gone for 15 or 20 minute subs.  Still learning!

1 minute ago, carastro said:

 

Great image Peter.

I got all excited then thinking you had done it from the UK until I saw you did it in Spain.  Going to Spain on Friday, but will only have a skytracker and camera lens available.

Carole

Thanks Carole.  These are pretty low altitude even in southern Spain.  I wouldn't attempt to capture them here in London.

Enjoy Spain - you should have clear skies as the weather forecast is good.

Peter

NGC 4038 and NGC 4039 - known as the antennae galaxies in Corvus. Two interacting galaxies causing giant tidal streams and starburst star creation as they interact.

21h20m total integration (48x600s and 56x300s L, 37x300s R, 32x300s G, 34x300s B).

Image capture on my dual rig in Spain (APM TMB 152 LZOS refractors, 10Micron GM2000 mount, QSI6120wsg8 cameras).

8 minutes ago, gorann said:

Superb images both of them, and this is a question to both Peter and Olly:

How did you mix in the NB data to the RGB? Just Ha to red and Oiii to blue? Or did you only use the RGB data for the stars?

Göran

Göran, I always create an RGB image as normal and then add the Ha to red and OIII to blue in lighten mode

9 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

Are you sure you didn't get them? If you were using the Astrodon 3nm I suppose it's just possible that they are shining in the NII line but it seems unlikely.

I've no longer the data but failed to see these when I tried processing.  I'll shoot more data and give it another try. How long were your exposures for the core? I was using Astrodon 5nm for Ha so it should be ok.  It's a massively challenging target - but an invaluable learning experience.

Peter

1 hour ago, Tom OD said:

Super pic Peter. I love the 68hrs, and that little galaxy on the lower left.

The background is super smooth which I like.

My only criticism is that there are 2 dust bunnies on the top right hand corner.

Tom.

Thanks Tom - I'll take a look.  These bunnies have a knack of sneaking in when I'm not watching!

Peter

Olly, that’s pretty impressive. Was that on the TEC140? I failed to get anything like that with my TMBs in Ha.

6 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

Peter, I've just realized that you used the C11 for core luminance. I found that the core revealed most of its detail in Ha. I didn't use a longer FL for the core because I don't have one available but I suspect that you'd find more detail in Ha. Just a thought.

Olly

Thanks Olly.  I'll have to give that a try.  I did luminance because I don't have a filter wheel fitted yet!  But I will give it a try with Ha when fitted.  I have horrendous seeing here in London - which is very evident at 2880 focal length! So it will be interesting to see how the longer exposures in Ha come out.

PS where can I see your Cat's Eye?

6 minutes ago, MarsG76 said:

what focal length is that imaged at??? Native C11 FL or Hyper star?

Most was captured at 1200mm FL on the APM TMB 152 refractors. The core was captured on the C11 native at 2880 FL.

1 minute ago, ollypenrice said:

The core is bright but the outer shells not so and in this rendition the outer shells are lovely and clean while still being bold. You put my own 15 hours of integration to shame! This really is clean and bright.

Since the image is close to perfect I'll be really picky and say that, using layers, you could tighten up the brighter stars in the starfield.  Please take this as a compliment because I'm driven to nit-picking here!!!

Olly

Thanks Olly. Please do nit-pick away! Your guidance and constructive criticism over the years has been invaluable to me, and I still feel that I've a lot to learn.  I'll have a go at tightening them up.

Peter

2 hours ago, PhotoGav said:

This is a wonderful piece of work with impressive dedication to get those integration hours! How strong is the signal in Ha and in OIII? Which is stronger? I’m guessing OIII from the colour.

Thanks Gav.  Both are strong - but the OIII is by far the stronger.  They tend to have the same structure - so the OIII sits on top of the Ha.  With 37 hours of Ha I had hoped for more from it!

2 minutes ago, wornish said:

68 Hours !  Wow.  My max to date is 2.5 hours, being in cloudy, rainy, windy, Cheshire.

Your image is amazing well done.

Thanks Dave. I know the feeling - here in London I also have light pollution and the Heatrow approach path to contend with!  Decent Spanish weather and dark skies do make a massive difference.

2 minutes ago, Ibbo! said:

and did wonder how you managed the core

I found the core the most difficult part. It is extremely bright and also very small.  I tried several techniques for trying to capture it using the 6" refractors, including very short Ha exposures - but I just couldn't get the resolution I wanted - hence resorting to my C11 in light poluuted London - but the brightness of the core was sufficient to get through the light pollution.  I used Registax to process the core, using planetary imaging techniques, and then combined in Photoshop.  Good luck. It's a very beautiful target.

A very bright planetary nebula in the constellation of Draco.

68h30m total integration (52x1800s OIII, 75x1800s Ha, RGB all 20x300s). Captured on my dual rig APM TMB 152 setup.

The core was captured on my Celestron C11 in London (500x10s luminance)

e-Eye, Spain 15/3-28/4/2019.

A planetary nebula in the constellation of Ursa Major.

Exceptionally faint and rarely imaged because it's so faint. Indeed the only previous image I could find was by Robert Pölzl.

A very obscure high excitation planetary nebula discovered in 1995 by James Liebert, Richard Tweedy, Ralf Napiwotzki and Michael Fulbright. At its heart is the eclipsing binary star system BE Ursae Majoris.

This is so faint that it's almost invisible on 1800s exposures, so I had to resort to capturing OIII data at bin 3x3, and lots!
There is a tiny amount of Ha, but even 1800s at bin 4x4 it was too faint to use.

26h40m total integration (40x1800s OIII at bin 3x3, LRGB all 20x300s at bin 1x1). Captured on my dual rig APM TMB 152 setup.

e-Eye, Spain 4/5-7/5/2019.

APM TMB 152 F8 LZOS, 10 Micron GM2000HPS, QSI6120wsg8

Many thanks to Sakib Rasool for suggesting this target to me.