mackiedlm

A typical West Of Ireland imaging Session - three different forecasters giving 3 different forecasts, and a night spent dodging clouds. I ended up losing a good 20% of subs to clouds but at least I got out.

About 4 hours of 180s and about 40 minutes of 120s  SW 80ED, EOS700D(a)

C&C welcome and appreciated.

Well I think thats a really nice image and would be delighted to produce something as good as that. My eyes, screen or both are obviously not sharp enough as I'm not seeing anything wrong with the stars.

Trying to get a Hubb;le pallete look from L-eNhance data. Not quite there!

Evostar80Ed, EOS1100D, 60 X 240s

Another HOO process from the l-eNhance and a DSLR

60 X 240s ISO800, Evostar 80ED, EOS1100D(a), NEQ6

The colours are not really what I had envisaged but I was struggling to get anything better.

C&C very welcome.

Full res image is here  https://astrob.in/ma4c3v/0/

2 panel mosaic, each panel about 3 hrs of 240s subs

Full res image here https://astrob.in/ye7dzb/0/

C&C welcome

Oh I really like that!

Thats a really nice image - I do prefer the less saturated version. you have nice detail well into the core.

10 hours ago, rickwayne said:

As well you should be!

Care to detail any of the issues you encountered making the mosaic and how you solved them? I'm also an APP user, and when the Moon quits squirting light all over the sky I'm going back to my M31 mosaic.

Thanks for that.

So, having read a post by Mabula of the APP Forum, link below, it appeared that this was not, in APP terms, a "mosaic" and I should register it using the "normal" registration mode not the mosaic mode. I did that and found a problem in the what would be the North East of USA (see the quick stretched full image below and a crop of part of the problem area) What I found really strange was that although this was in the overlap area, not all of the overlap was misaligned. The stars in what would be the mid-atlantic are largely ok.

So I went back and started again (which was a real pain because, with my creaky old desktop the first integration took literally hours!). This time I registered and integrated each panel separately, then registered/integrated the two panels using "mosaic" and it was spot on - I know where the seam should be and I simply cant see it and the star alignment is - to my eye anyway, nearly perfect.

But, another problem is that when I try to further process the integrated images in APP (from both the first and second run) when I hit the "neutralise-BG" checkbox the image just goes completely white. I have no idea whats going on and since I intended to do most of the post processing in Pixinsight it did not really matter and I did not bother trying to root-cause it. I am wondering if it could somehow be related to the fact that the first 2 hours on the pelican are from the 700D and everything else is from the 1100D - but I dont really see why that would make this problem.

Anyway, bottom line is that when done with the "mosaic" registration the final integration was seamless (pun intended!) so all's well that end well.

APP Forum re normal or mosaic registration https://www.astropixelprocessor.com/community/faq/what-is-a-mosaic-and-when-do-i-need-to-use-the-mosaic-registration-mode-or-why-does-registration-take-forever/#post-2705

First integration showing smeared stars in NE USA

Tight crop over NE USA coast!

I hope that helps and good luck with your M31

My first ever mosaic (only 2 panels but its a start)

Each Panel is about 3 hrs of 240s at ISO800 (half with my EOS700d the rest with the 1100D) through the Evostar 80ED with l-eNhance.

I had the devils own job getting it merged in APP but i'm reasonably happy with the end result.

C&C Very welcome

Hey Ruz! Nice images.

My favorite nebula has to be IC1396  The Elephant Trunk. Its just such a strong defined shape within that huge cloud.

Still trying to get an image that does it justice!

Thats really nice. Lots of red for an unmodded camera

I really like that. I too prefer the wider field of the second image.

I think thats really good. I like the colours and the trunk and other features are showing well. For me though the stars feel just a little too sharp and particularly near the centre.

But its a nice image with good atmosphere.

I really like that - the tadpoles are showing up really well.

11 minutes ago, alan potts said:

Well, that's different. I use PS and don't have anything else apart from more clear skies that the Uk. As for being a beginner, really, I think we in the most part we are, though there are some really top rate astro-photographers on SGL some of the stuff we see posted is truely stunning.

Great image and thanks for having a go, I have just shot another 3 hours.

Bed time,

Alan

No bother - it was fun to use data from a cooled dedicated camera - I only use DSLR at this stage.

GradientXterminator works really well in PS for removing gradients.

looking forward to seeing it with the additional data.

Hi Alan,

So here is my interpretation of your data. Its great clean data and I dont think I've done it justice (but remember I'm very much a beginner and I'm sure others could work it better)

I've got a bit of a "cinematic wide-screen" thing going on and I've brought out the blues, the ha and the details of the core more - because thats what I like! Not everyone does.

Anyway - if you want I can give you the linear tiff with just the gradients removed if you would like to try it further yourself - just let me know and I'll PM you a link.

What are you using for processing?

Hi Alan,

I'm having a lash at your m33 data but to do a Photometric colour calibration in pixinsight I need to know the imaging focal length ( after any reducer) and the pixel size of the imaging camera - Can you provide that and I'll get back at it?

Rgds

David

Redone to try to reduce the saturation (as suggested by @ollypenrice and @Allinthehead - thanks folks) and also to bring out the dust more.

SW Evostar 80ED, EOS700Da, NEQ6

58 X 240s ISO800

C&C Welcome as always.

Original version is here

8 minutes ago, paul mc c said:

Lovely image,i had the scope on this last week for over three hours......or so i thought,when i got up around 4 for some reason every thing had closed down on the laptop after less than an hour.

Hate that!  I lost 5 hours from a 7 hour run on the Pelican to a dew heater not turned on a few weeks back!

Hi there - thanks for that.

Weather wise its awful again -two clear night last week and then closed in for the foreseeable - wall to wall rain for the last 48 hours.

Pandemic wise not much better - we are going int a full lockdown again from midnight tonight but just like last time there seems to be no real exit strategy.

Much the same for both up in the north I believe.

Take care,

David

Combining my 6 hours of Ha (astronomik 12nm clip in) posted a few weeks ago with a short 3 hours of RGB captured last week.

82 LX200 GPS, EOS1100D

Its a bit pink I guess!

C&C very welcome.

3 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

I think reducing the colour saturation considerably would give a calmer, cleaner image. Otherwise it looks great to me.

Olly

Thanks Olly.  I increased the saturation selectively in the dust right at the very end and that was a mistake. I really need to work on subtlety but I've never been much good at that.😆

27 minutes ago, Allinthehead said:

Ruins many a good clear night.

 Nice Iris, maybe a little overcooked. I think if you try a more gentle approach to the process and work a little on the colour balance you could improve it. Sometimes less is more. 

Thanks for that. I think you are right, overcooked!  I'm just learning Pixinsight and I need to tone various processes down a bit. I'll give it another go at the weekend.

I worked hard to bring out the dust on this and I am not sure it really works that well - maybe looks a bit overprocessed? Comments and suggestions for how to make it better please.

SW Evostar 80ED, EOS700Da, NEQ6

58 X 240s ISO800 ( should have been more but mist!)

This is  my first attempt to do HDR in PixInsight

60 X120s ISO800

45 x 240s ISO800

Skywatcher Evostar 80ED, EOS700Da, NEQ6

C & C very welcome