Hallingskies

I recently put up my latest image on my blog, a stab at  Sh2-115.  One of my acquaintances showed it to her astronomy-mad granddaughter, who thought it looked like a horned troll, trying to grab the star cluster in front of it with two massive paws...

I think she has a point, don't you...?

I think software folk get bored once they write stuff and it just works for their customers.  They then feel the need to change the things around and “update” stuff to make their own lives easier, whilst confusing and infuriating the end users who are perfectly comfortable with what they use.  It’s a shame that ATIK has caught the Microsoft disease. 

Artemis works.  Dawn doesn’t, at least not for me.  Why mess around?

Huh.  The Andromeda shot looks worse than my first attempt at it some 15 years ago, an image so poor I didn’t even bother to post it on my own blog.   Still, I guess each to their own: one person’s reject is another’s “art”...

 Be interested to know how you get on.  Thought you might have got some other input from the “experts” on here,  but these days they only seem to reply to each other!

This adapter is certainly a real boon to many astro-minded Samyang 135 owners.  Just wondered if FLO were planning a T2 threaded version that would fit Starlight Xpress equipment?

I've found that the easiest way to "process out" star haloes is to make a starless version of your finished (and presumably stretched) stack using Starnet, and then layer over an unstretched version in "Blend Lighten" mode. You may need to play around with just how much you stretch out the image before star removal, as sometimes the larger haloes can get left behind, but once the stars are out of the way you can really go for it on processing nebulae if you want.

However, I've also found that I quite like a little bit of halation - it makes an image look more natural.  I think your image above looks great and the star haloes enhance the view, rather than detract from it.  Each to their own, though...

Astonishing.  Should be a NASA APOD - indeed, of the year!

Alignment needs to be good at higher magnifications.  

M101 is not an easy target and I think your image is pretty good.  It nearly always comes out a bit fuzzy, even in all but the very best shots taken with large aperture high resolution kit.   Only thing I would suggest based on your write-up is to go for longer subs, your HEQ5 should be capable of 5min subs or longer and is a very good mount.  Sky conditions need to be pretty good as well, the slightest bit of haze blows out details in the core and arms.  You probably need to wait until M101 is overhead to give yourself the best chance of getting the most out of it.

Try your imaging rig out on a few less demanding targets (e.g. M81/82, M42, M27, M13) and see what your results are like before spiralling into the never-ending cycle of kit upgrades...

Astigmatism drove me down the imaging path!  Long relief eyepieces are helpful though, I have a set of old Vixen LVs that are quite spectacle-friendly.  I never got the hang of contacts, made my eyes sore.

I had a similar problem with a neighbour’s back door light blinding my western view.  Fortunately I get on reasonably well with them, and he explained he had put the light up to illuminate his garden path for putting his chickens to bed at night!  He subsequently put a timer on it that switches it off at 10.30, and I put up a lightweight screen made of gardening moisture membrane to blot the light out if I am pointing the scope that way before then.  Compromise of sorts.

14 hours ago, wookie1965 said:

Just read this unbelievable,

 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8607127/NASA-ridiculed-dropping-Eskimo-Nebula-Siamese-Twins-Galaxy-nicknames.html

I suspect the usual Daily Mail troll-bait for the credulous...

My own area of Kent is Bortle 5-6 and my own experience of a CLS filter is that it doesn’t seem to do an awful lot for you.  I wouldn’t bother in Bortle 4.

That's a lovely rendition as usual, but I am a bit surprised at your observations of the ease (or lack of!) picking up the X1 bubble.  It showed up, faintly but distinctly, in my own less distinguished effort under a Bortle 5-6 sky from less-than-sunny Kent, UK.  I would agree that it is more prominent in OIII but it did show in my Ha data as well.

You've really made it stand out, though.  Is that using your wizard wheeze of blending in equalised data (a trick I am grateful you shared with us)? 

They are both beautiful images, well worth the effort you obviously put in.

1 hour ago, RayD said:

You know I was thinking just this when watching the docking of the Dragon module from the Space X launch.  It looked more like a video game, with 4k clarity meaning it seemed almost unreal (it definitely was before any conspiracy theorists think I am questioning it 😂).  When I watch footage of the Eagle module landing it seems so real and involving.  few guys lounging around a control room occasionally looking at their PCs.  It looked so easy (sure it wasn’t) it makes you wonder why we aren’t going to the Moon on an excursion basis.

Just a few guys lounging around looking at their PCs.  It was boring - how it should be I suppose, but it looked so easy (a mark of how much work and innovation had gone into it all, no doubt) that it makes you wonder why we aren’t going to the moon on an excursion basis.

Compare that to the tension and drama generated by the hundreds of support engineers in NASA’s launch control centre back in the Apollo days, and the sheer spectacle of a Saturn V launch.  Technology has certainly moved on...

On 12/07/2020 at 19:36, ollypenrice said:

Good stuff. I think the nebulosity is a great success. The stars, though, as is often the case with SCT deep sky images, are pretty large. Of late I've been seeing what happens when I use Starnet++ to de-star an image and then paste the original linear data on top of that in Photoshop's blend mode lighten before stretching that top layer till the stars begin to appear but in smaller size. It's quite simple and might work well with this data.

Olly

That works for me really well too, but I find I sometimes have to apply a tiny bit of Gaussian blur (0.7 or so) to the star layer to avoid the stars looking “painted in”.  

Hardest problem I had with Starnet was finding a computer in the house that it actually ran on. But for the price you pay for it...

Apple-type device screens are unforgiving, although your M13 looks very good indeed on my iPad right now.  What are the RGB values on the little colour sampler thingy in PS if you point it at some dark bits?  That’ll soon show if there’s any excess red.

I try and aim for 20/20/20, although it depends on how light or dark you like your backgrounds.

5 hours ago, tomato said:

I’m assuming Comet Neowise will rapidly diminish in size and brightness as the month end approaches?

It seems the beast has a 5km wide nucleus, so hopefully it won’t crash in brightness too much in the next couple of weeks.    According to predictions to date, it should still be third magnitude right through to August.

Good luck with the trip, hope the Cloud Goddess is kind to you...

9 hours ago, Davey-T said:

Good job, I still haven't managed to prize the ion tail out.

Dave

The “equalise” function in PSP (or PhotoShop as well, I think) shows up anything that might be hiding, you can then selectively layer in the stuff you want with a bit of tlc.

9 hours ago, Eddie Jones said:

one of the best I've seen

 

Thanks, but it really doesn’t hold a candle to some of the recent ones on here, or here...

https://spaceweathergallery.com/index.php?title=neowise

Now the comet is rising into darker skies there should be some cracking shots to be had soon - skies permitting...

That is superb, up there with anything I’ve seen...

2 minutes ago, Scooot said:

That’s a cracker!  

Thanks.  Really needed a darker sky to do it justice.  I had to crop out about 50% of the frame, the gradients were that bad.  Might have another play to try and blend with some earlier wider field subs I took.

From around 3.20 a.m. on July 11th, 10 x 4s each for LRGB (Esprit ED100 and AtiK 460/EFW2 combo), stacked in Astroart and absolutely hammered in PSP to reduce twilight gradients and stretch out the ion tail which was hiding in the murk and background noise.  Still pretty ropey but I have now got square eyes from trying to process this.

I spent five hours faffing about taking what turned out to be some really crummy subs last night, but the night was saved by the sight of Comet NEOWISE, both naked eye early on, then bins.  Spectacular.  

I do wonder about getting rid of the gadgets and just getting a dob and some big bins...

Excellent, you can pick out some details in the tail in the last shot.