MikeCM

Hi all, Probably my last effort of the year. Managed 75 mins luminance and 30 mins in RGB on whale and hockey stick galaxies. Had to contend with a lot of gradients but GraXpert seemed to do a fine job. First time I have had a go at the plethora of galaxies in Coma Bernices with my WO GT81. Hope you like it although the JPEG format seems to take away some detail Mike

Hi, Here is an image of my favourite cluster duo. Exposure consists of 60 mins in RGB. Happy with the image but took a bit of manipulating to get the contrast of the orange with the blue/white stars. I am particularly happy with the star shape - guiding was behaving at RMS 0.12 !!

Have copied picture as png as the original file very big and not visible unless uploaded

Its been quite a while since I have posted, but have been getting my observatory and new mount up and running. I've had a go at my first mosaic as the pointing accuracy of my mount is much better and has made the process of making a mosaic easier. The picture consists of 4 panels in Ha - each about 90 minutes exposure in 10 minute subs. Don't look too hard as it looks like I was slightly out of focus in a few panels. I used photoshop's photomerge which seems to have worked OK. As mentioned it is a work in progress and hopefully I can extend the mosaic to include the soul nebula as well as add O3. Hopefully if I get some focussed RGB stars, I can replace the out of focus Ha stars after using starnet. Comments and suggestions much appreciated as always Kind regards Mike HeartHa.tif

Hi Westmoorland, I have been using my AVX until recently for astroimaging with quite a bit of success. If you set up at the same location each time I ensure that the three legs of the tripod are marked on the ground ensuring the axis of the mount is pointed roughly at the celestial pole. I use a polemaster to ensure the polar alignment is accurate then fire up the AVX ensuring I have put in the correct date and time before doing a 3 star align. This does seem to do the trick although obviously the more stars you use with your alignment the more accurate the pointing will be. Hope that helps Kind regards, Mike

Thanks Steve,Michael and oldfruit👍

Impressive for a first

Thanks Jeremy

Having just retired I have had the luxury of staying up to the wee small hours and not worrying about getting up in the morning.😀 Made use of the recent clear nights x2 Here is my first post retirement image - 1 hour each in RGB as well as 150 mins luminance. Struggled a bit with the gradients but quite happy with the result. Would welcome any constructive criticism and here's to many nights to follow Cheers, Mike

At last managed to get some imaging on a clear night with only half moon in sky. Ha 150 mins in 10 min subs and RGB 5 x 180s for star colour. Ha mapped to red channel and used as luminance layer with some sharpening using high pass filter and noise reduction using Noel Carboni's actions. Unfortunately guiding not too good resulting in slightly elongated stars but at least I was able to get something. Hopefully 2021 will be cloud free for everyone Wishing everyone on the forum a Happy New Year when it comes 😀

Well done to the winners

Thanks for providing us with this superb data to practice our processing skills. Here is my attempt using photoshop -Just some simple stretches along with selective colour and high pass filter using masks. Used Ha as luminance layer.

I really like the deep rich colour which is accentuated by the lack of stars. Great stuff. What did you use to remove the stars if you don't mind me asking ? Kind regards, Mike

Thanks for the kind comment Mars

Impressive shot. Certainly more detailed than my rendition

thanks steve

Thanks for the comments domstar and sunshine

Managed to get 1 hour each in RGB few nights ago. It actually stayed clear long enough!!! My set up is not to good at obtaining detailed galaxy shots (This image is cropped ), but quite happy with RGB combined. I did not manage to obtain much of the gas above and below the plane of M82. Is this something that will stand out if I get some Hydrogen alpha data? I do intend to try to get some luminance in due course which I am sure will help with the image. Feel feel to criticise - its the only way to improve 😃

Just picked up on your thread Jim. So this is the telescope Euan has been telling me about - Looking pretty impressive so far and look forward to seeing pictures of the final article. Regards Mike