mackiedlm

That's a beautiful image of an object I have not seen before.

Great image. Congrats on the new camera.

That is justcstunning Richard. Beautiful image.

41 minutes ago, Allinthehead said:

Nice, you did well to get anything. I gave up about 22:30 as the haze was ruining my data. Same conditions here again tonight so I didn't bother setting up.

I had 3 hours on the tadpoles up to about 11.30 which is unusable and was about to to throw in the towel when it seemed to clear a bit and thats when I got the whale. Completely overcast up here tonight. Its ben an awful run of bad sky's since the beginning of the year.

Happy Paddys day!

AKA The herring and the Hockey-stick!!

A disappointing night last night with high haze really knocking things back - I think thats why I've got so little of the "tidal tail" of the crowbar. But never mind, It was a clear enough sky to get an image.

This is around 4 hrs of 180s subs with the Evostar 80ED and the ASI2600mc

C&C Appreciated.

11 minutes ago, MartinB said:

Nice colour, the camera/filter combination has worked a treat.

You have gone for quite a "sharp" process which works because you have managed to avoid introducing artefacts.  In fact the sharpness stands out.  It is purely an aesthetic choice but it might be worth doing a softer process as well.  I aways end up torn between crisp and soft!

Thanks for that Martin. I do see what you mean in terms of the stars. I did deconvolution on the Ha and Oiii separately but no real sharpening as such after that. I did some star reduction at the end and I wonder id that could be the reason the stars look so sharp?

Would you have a suggestion on how to soften it a little but without losing the definition in the dark and light structures of the nebula - I use PI and PS. (I'm still pretty much a beginner and trying to  work out how to get to a given end result is still my biggest challenge).

Thanks again.

Thanks for that!

This is about 3 hours with the ASI2600mc and the L-enhance. A  reprocess - stacked in APP with the extract Ha and Extract Oiii algorithms then processed in PI using the SHO-AIP script

C&C appreciated

22 minutes ago, vineyard said:

That is a cracking image - 90mins w L-eNhance not even L-eXtreme.  That's v helpful as an L-eNhance example - what Bortle are you in if you don't mind me asking?  

My apologies - when I first posted that I thought the l-enhance had been in place but when I went to use it some nights later i found it was not. So this was with no filter, and about 90% moon (Night of 1 March). It rather explains why I have so much colour in the stars but now how I managed to get an image at all with the moon so bright. I'm in Bortle 4 but with a dirty great sodium streetlight yards from my set up location.

Apologies again, I have edited the original post.

Hi,

Dust - yes. Vignette - kinda! but I'm more talking about the really dark in the corners although the way it turns light further in is part of it - here

Focus - - not sure how you are getting the bright halo, this is how it looks zoomed in on PI

But you can see it as fuzzy stars even at less zoom. Above also shows the streaking of red and blue which I think are hot pixels.

This is an overlap of your image (left) and mine - (same area, roughly same zoom, same autostretch same point in processing just stacked and autostretch) which gives a better idea of what the OOF looks like. (Up close mines are not perfect either!!)

what you are pointing at is indeed the nebula - the blue reflection part shows well but there is red Ha hiding behind it.

HTH, good luck.

3 hours ago, irtuk said:

Hey, 

First off that's a great image! I am currently working on the same target, but at a much lower level of skill!

I am using an unmodded Nikon D800E on an Altair Starwave 102 F7 ED & NEQ6  I have shot two sessions, one with 32 images  @ ISO 800 and 300 sec exposure for a total of 160 minutes and a second session trying ISO 640 with 120 sec exposures.

The results have been fairly disappointing relative to my first target, the Pleiades which obviously is a lot easier, I was able to bring out some nebulosity with nice crisp stars.

On C31 I have attached my stacked image, picking the best 7 NEF files for 35 minutes total exposure, as you can see the nebula is barely there!

For this target do I need to look at a modified or dedicated astrophotography camera? is the filter on the Nikon cutting out the light I actually want to capture ?

Autosave009.tif 207.54 MB · 5 downloads

Ok, I have downloaded that file and had a quick look at it in Pixinsight.

Unfortunately there is not much I can tell you from that file because it appears that it has not been calibrated at all (no flats, no darks). There is extreme vignetting and a lot of dust bunnies and there appears to be a huge amount of hot pixels which have been streaked bottom left to top right ( I assume no dithering) Also I think your focus is off quite a bit. All this comes together to make it nearly impossible to distinguish the underlying data. I tried cropping and background extraction (gradient removal) but it really did not achieve much.There appears to be some nebulosity showing but its difficult to be sure. Sorry to be so negative. On the plus your stars are quite round even if out of focus.😜

In relation to your camera, this is not the brightest of nebula so you may struggle with an unmodified camera. I dont use Nikon so have no direct experience but I am not one of those who says you'll get NOTHING without a modified camera. Since you have some nebulosity showing (I think) then perhaps with a much longer long integration time (3-4 hours minimum) you may be able to pull something out. But you need to address your underlying issues (focus and calibration - dithering if you are not doing it yet) first.

And dont be too disheartened - I could show you some of my first attempts which would make yours look like a masterpiece.

rgds

David.

that has come out great for just 45 minutes. That pair is next up on my list if i ever get a clear sky.

Super image, nice detail right in to the core.

that is a stunning image. i love the diagonal framing - perfect.

That's a super image. I love the wide field .

Really nice image. Well done.

22 minutes ago, Crackabarrel said:

Looks great for 90min, imaging time has been precious over Ireland recently

Yes it has been awful alright.

Thats come out well considering the conditions. The Christmas tree shape is very evident.

I was out imaging that night too and even though I'm way west of you I had exactly the same conditions. I got three hours on the Rosette  then moved to the tadpoles and managehd 30 mins before mist closed me down.

Thats nicely done. 

Another short break in the clouds allowed me to get some time on a new target for me.

This is only 90 minutes of 180s with the ASI2600mc but I think that for that integration time its not too bad. I was astonished at how much of the blue part of the nebula was standing out considering that this was Monday of this week and so moon was still 90%.

 I only wish only I could get some real time on something to do this camera it justice but I am becoming quite impressed with it.

30 X 180s, SW 80ED, NEQ6, ASI2600mc,

C&C welcome

Fantastic image, well done.

I continue to be plagued by poor skies so am struggling to give the new ASI2600 a decent try out. But Sunday gave me a few hours so I thought I'd try the Rosette.

So this is 67 X 180s (3.25 hrs) with the Skywatcher 80 ED, NEQ6, ASI2600mc, L-eNhance. Moon was 97% and about 90 degrees away so could have been worse.

There is a bit of coma out at the corners which I think is backspacing so I have added a 0.5mm spacer into the train which I hope will make the difference.

Stacked in APP, mostly processed in PI with finishing touches in PS

C&C very welcome.

On 26/02/2021 at 09:11, clarkpm4242 said:

...aka a 16:9 crop of the Heart as I cut off a bit of a ventricle.

First use of IDAS NBZ filter.  What black magic is this!!!  Was a full moon, like daylight!

48 x 180s subs, RASA8 and ASI2600MC Pro.  DSS and PS.

Cheers, Paul.

 

That's a really nice image. The filter did a great job.

Interesting that you see it as an anatomical heart diagram as I do. I think many people turn it on its side and see a love heart. But for me it is remarkable how close it is to my heart diagram from 4th year at school. In fact it's probably more correct than mine was😂

I have found M51 to be an unexpectedly difficult target and honestly I think you are going to struggle on it with a full moon. I'm in Bortle 4 also and without my l-enhance filter I'd not try anything other than clusters.  But to answer your question, with that much moon and that scope at iso800 you'll be looking at the lower end of your suggested exposure (120s or even 60) youll know quickly enough once you get your first image and check the histogram.

Good luck and be sure to let us know how you get on.

Thats a cracker. Love the colours