alan4908
-
Posts
1,458 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
7
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Gallery
Events
Blogs
Everything posted by alan4908
-
From the album: Lunar
A reprocess of the data from 1st June 2017 to highlight the V and X optical effects, colour and crater detail. -
Thanks John ! -
From the album: Deep Sky III
This image represents an attempt to obtain natural looking star colours with only narrow band data. It consists of the traditional SHO pallette, modified with the Bob Franke adjustments. Whilst this yields pleasing colours on the Trunk, the purple star halos, which also penetrated into the nebula did not look natural. I therefore parked this result and tried a bi-colour (HOO) approach. In my opinion, this led to less attractive Trunk colours but more naturally coloured stars. I blended the two results in an attempt to get the best of both approaches. LIGHTS: Ha:12, OIII:16, SII:8 x 1800s. DARKS:30, BIAS:100, FLATS:40 all at -20C. Taken with an Esprit 150. -
Thanks -
Thanks Olly. Originally, I was going to replace the NB stars with RGB ones - however, I quite liked the way the starfield turned out, so I decided to leave it as a "pure" NB image. Alan
-
From the album: Deep Sky III
A bi-colour image of the Cresent nebula with Ha mapped to Red and OIII mapped to Blue and Green. The OIII is very strong with this object to the point where it can overwhelm the Ha, reducing the redness, so I had to experiment with the relative contributions. I was quite impressed by the amount of detail revealed by the Esprit 150, in particular, I like the "bubble wrap" appearance made by the OIII contribution. About 8.5 hours total integration time. LIGHTS: 6 Ha, 11 OIII x 1800s, BIAS: 100, DARKS: 30, LIGHTS:40 all at -20C. -
M-42: The Great Orion Nebula in Narrow Band
alan4908 replied to nandopg's topic in Imaging - Deep Sky
Very impressive, I must investigate the HDR program that you used to construct the images, it has worked very well. Alan -
From the album: Deep Sky III
A narrowband data blend of Ha, OIII and SII data combined with LRGB stars. -
From the album: Deep Sky III
An experiment with very long (30min) Lum subs on a faint galaxy. Since I'm fortunate to image from a relatively dark location, I've often wondered if I should increase my Lum sub exposure lengths from my 10mins "standard" to something greater. Given the poor UK weather, I decided that 30mins would be the practical maximum amount, which would align with my "standard" for my NB exposures. After taking the 1800s Lum subs and 600s RGB, I noticed that some of the star cores with the Lum subs had ADU readings in the non linear portion of my camera, indicating that I was starting to loose information eg white clipping was starting. Since I'd previously measured the linearity of my CCD and determined that the non-linear portion starts at just over 47k ADU, I got CCD stack to reject all the pixels above 47k and set these to a Missing Value. In CCDStack a Missing Value is a special type of number that has the property: Missing Value + X = X. I then created a pseudo lum from the RGB information and replaced the Missing Values with the pseudo Lum information. LIGHTS: L:18 x 1800s, R:9, G:9, B:9 x 600s. DARKS:30, BIAS:100, FLATS:40 all at -20C. -
From the album: Deep Sky III
In an attempt to capture both detail and LRGB colours I mapped RED to (0.5*SII)+(0.5*HA), GREEN to (0.2*HA)+(0.8*OIII and BLUE to OIII - I then blended an LRGB image with the NB result via the Pixinsight script NBRGBCombination. The image represents about 25 hours integration time. -
Fireworks Galaxy (NGC6946) with supernova annotated
alan4908 commented on alan4908's gallery image in Member's Album
Thanks ! - yes, my first supernova that I have knowingly captured -
Fireworks Galaxy (NGC6946) with supernova annotated
alan4908 posted a gallery image in Member's Album
From the album: Deep Sky III
An identical image but with the supernova annotated. -
From the album: Deep Sky III
My first attempt at the Fireworks Galaxy (NGC6946) - which represents just over 15 hours. By accident it turns out that I also have captured a 2017 supernova - this is annotated in another image also in this album. My thanks to @gorann for spotting the supernova ! LIGHTS: L:11, R:9, G: 15, B: 9 x 600s; Ha:16 x 1800s. DARKS:30; BIAS:100; FLATS:40. Captured with an Esprit 150 -
From the album: Deep Sky III
This image consists mainly of Ha with a small amount of Lum also blended into the central region in order to to better resolve the stars. The corresponding LRGB image with an Ha blend in both the Red and Lum channels, can also be found in this album. It represents 5.5 hours integration time. -
Beating the weather (Cloud\Rain Sensor)
alan4908 replied to AlistairW's topic in Discussions - Scopes / Whole setups
Hi Pickwick I use the Hiitec software in conjunction with ACP to close and open the roof. The Hitec software monitors: 1. Sky conditions - eg how cloudy. 2. Rain - eg water content of the atmosphere. 3. Sensor inputs - optionally you can you install sensors that inform the Hitec software if the telescope is in a "safe" position for opening or closing the roof. This to prevent the roof opening or closing if the telescope is not in a "safe" position. So, if my observatory is imaging and it detects that either the Sky conditions have become too cloudy or rain is detected then ACP will attempt to firstly park the telescope to a pre-determined park position. When the telescope is parked, ACP will attempt to close the roof, however, this will only be allowed if the telescope sensor inputs (which monitor the RA and DEC positions) allow it. Conversely, if the weather becomes satisfactory again (eg sky clear and no rain), then the ACP will instruct the observatory to open the roof, the telescope will slew to the predetermined target and carry on the imaging session. To prevent hysteresis, the rate of opening and closing is limited by ACP to a pre-configured rate. The Hitec software is ASCOM compliment and ACP compatible which allows the observatory to open and close the roof according to the weather conditions. In my setup, ACP have overall command of all the elements of my observatory and instructs the the other software elements eg Hitech software, Maxim DL, FocusMax etc what to do and when. If it may be worthwhile you contacting Steve Richards aka @steppenwolf who has also automated his observatory. I understand that he has a Pulsar Dome and MaximDL but doesn't use ACP or the Hitec software. Alan -
From the album: Deep Sky III
This is an enhanced version of the M101 (reprocessed) image that can be found in my Deep Sky II gallery. The enhancement was achieved by adding about 3 hours Lum data from the Esprit 150 which boosts detail. The image represents about 20hours integration. -
Beating the weather (Cloud\Rain Sensor)
alan4908 replied to AlistairW's topic in Discussions - Scopes / Whole setups
I've found the Hitec astro sensor very reliable and use it with my ROR obsey in an automated set up. I would recommend it. Alan -
From the album: Deep Sky III
I've somehow managed to convince myself that I like the two bright blue stars in this field of view, along with their halos. An LRGB image with an Ha blend in both the L and R. The image represents a total of 16.5 hours integration time. A cropped and rotated view of the "mountain" part of the nebula is also within this album. -
From the album: Deep Sky III
An image of SH2-140 has been cropped and rotated to make the "mountain" like shape horizontal. I quite like the like/dark effect. It represents about 16.5 hours integration and is an LRGB image with Ha blend into both the L and Red channels. -
Thanks for the comment Olly. -
From the album: Deep Sky III
For my second attempt on M27, I used my new Esprit 150/10micron GM1000HPS combination (the result of the first attempt is in my Deep Sky album). This image represents about 10 hours integration. From a processing perspective, I decided to blend the Ha into both the Lum and Red channels using an Adam Block technique that I learnt through his "cosmic canvas" tutorial videos. Since the Ha is very strong and would obliterate the RGB information I decided to only blend a small amount into the red channel. Since I was interested capturing the faint outer halo, I decided to raise the level in this particular region. I was reasonably happy with the result - you can just about make out the outer halo, star colours are reasonable and you can see some inner structure to the nebula. LIGHTS: L:9, R:10, G:8, B:7 x 600s. Ha: 8 x 1800s. DARKS: 30; FLATS:40, BIAS:100 -
Thanks I'm somewhat fortunate that I live in a very low light pollution area, not quite a dark site, but close. I've also found that my new imaging set up (Esprit 150 on a GM1000HPS) at 0.7 arc seconds/pixel seems to be delivering the detail. I was a little dubious that 0.7 was going to be too low but it seems that the seeing where I image from is a little better than I thought. Alan -
Thanks !
-
From the album: Deep Sky III
In 2017 I went through a major upgrade of my imaging equipment and moved from a SW NEQ6/SW ED 80 to a SW Esprit 150/10micron GM1000HPS combination. In the course of testing my new mount in unguided mode I took some M51 Lum test shots at 600 and 1800s with the Esprit 150. Rather than waste this data I decided to see if I could use it to try to improve an Ha + LRGB image that I had acquired in 2016 with my NEQ6/ED 80 combination. Since I've never tried to blend data from two difference telescopes, I decided to take the lower resolution post processed Ha + LRGB image and to treat it as "RGB" data (this image can be seen in my gallery Deep Sky II M51 reprocessed). I then took the higher resolution Lum data that I had acquired with the Esprit 150 and used this as a Luminosity layer within PS (I aligned the Lum and "RGB" data via Registar). After a little processing in Pixinsight and PS I got the above result. -
From the album: Deep Sky III
A cropped image of the Cat's Eye Nebula that is also in this album.
