mackiedlm

So, after a run of clear nights, most of which were forecast as total cloud cover, I have a few images to process. This is one I've wanted to do for a long time but never has the conditions.

This was the last target I captured but the first to process as I was interested/excited to see how it came out. At a total of 10 hours integration its the longest one I've done to date.

Its 200 X 180s, Sharpstar 61EDPHII, ASI2600mc, L-enhance.

C7C welcome and thanks for looking.

25 minutes ago, gorann said:

Very impressive, especially with such a small scope and short integration time. I assume the IMX571 camera has something to do with it, in addition to excellent processing of course!

Thanks Goran. yes I think the IMX571 has a LOT do do with it. I've had the 2600mc for 18 months now and I am still astonished but the quality of the data that comes out of it. I think it allows for good images from much shorter integrations than before.  I also think that the match with the 61EDPHii has also worked out better, in terms of capturing detail, than I had hoped or expected.

As to the processing, coming from you, whose images I follow and aspire to, that is very flattering and appreciated. Thank you!

3 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

Phenomenal!  How do you get so much separation between the dust and the background?

Thanks Adam,

If I'm honest this turned out to be a less difficult process than some other projects, like where you have dust but then also red Ha and some reflection nebulae and you are trying to get them all showing at once.

The real key on this one was to use exponential transformation in Pixinsight - that really brought the dust out. Then some very careful curves. I think there is more much fainter dust in some of the background areas but at just 6 hours I decided to not push those too much and just go for the brighter (or less faint 😀) areas.

This is hopefully the start of a 4 panel mosaic of the Taurus Molecular Cloud. But Irish weather being what it is, 4 panels could take some time!

This is only 6 hours with a Sharpstar 61EDPHii, an ASI2600mc and a  L-pro filter

C&C Appreciated

Thats astunning image. Love it!

Thats a fantastic image. Well done.

On 12/10/2022 at 18:28, powerlord said:

very nice and sharp. Maybe a personal thing - but maybe try it and see what you think ? - invert it, and do an SCNR in Siril or if you use PI, the 'remove magenta stars' does the same thing. I think you'll find it will make those blues pop more, and make the ha more 'firey'. Then again, I'm probably teaching egg sucking and you prefer it that way - that's the great thing about this hobby - individual expression. great image 👍

Ok so heres the image with the magenta removed as suggested.

While the blue is better I'm not keen at all on the brown of the Ha.

This was another version i did earlier where i was trying, without much success for the gold colours of the Ha

Thanks for the comments / suggestions. Its always valuable to try a different approach.

3 hours ago, powerlord said:

very nice and sharp. Maybe a personal thing - but maybe try it and see what you think ? - invert it, and do an SCNR in Siril or if you use PI, the 'remove magenta stars' does the same thing. I think you'll find it will make those blues pop more, and make the ha more 'firey'. Then again, I'm probably teaching egg sucking and you prefer it that way - that's the great thing about this hobby - individual expression. great image 👍

Thanks for the comment and the suggestion. I'll give it a go tomorrow and see how it looks.

Both great images Carole and I dont think either is significantly better. If really pressed I would go for the second with the reduced smaller stars.

I agree with others that starless images are not for me. I think your image above does not really benefit much from the star reduction because the stars are not overly intrusive in the first place,

But take an RGB image of, say, the veil nebula, and it becomes difficult to appreciate the detail and beauty of the filaments because there are stars everywhere. In that case star reduction really improves the final image in my eye. But, as has been stated - in moderation.

But the real value of star removal (as already shown by Olly and Gorann) is the ability to remove stars, process the nebula, replace stars and then reduce the stars a little,.

David

last Friday was promised clear but with a nearly full moon, some high haze and passing cloud it turned out to be far from perfect.

This is around 7 hours with the Sharpstar 61EDPHII, ASI2600mc, L-eNhance filter.

C&C Welcome.

Stunning image, we rarely see the detail of the dust tail like this.

1 hour ago, gorann said:

Great image, and brilliant composition as Olly says! Of course including the shark is almost irresistible when you first start to think about it. A recent IOTD revealed even more creatures around (https://www.astrobin.com/ji4ems/).

Thanks Gorann! Yes that IOTD is super, I must have missed it though which is unusual as I normally look at the IOTD's. I'd love to expand my plan and include some more of that area but with the lack of clear moonless nights here a two panel is probably ambitious enough.

This is an incredibly busy part of the sky. So much dust and dark/bright nebulae. The dark shar is just belowthis image and i intend, when I get another clear, moonless night to do a second panel to join up with this.

But for the moment this is what I have.

6 hours of 180s subs, Sharpstar 61 EDPHII, ASI 2600mc, L-pro filter.

I had two short windows of clear sky this week and the new pier is really paying dividends - I would not have even set up for such short periods in the past.

So this ended up as a total of 3 hours over 2 nights.

Sharpstar 61 EDPHii ASI2600mc, L-eNhance filter, 61x180s

I am particularly happy with how much of the Oii is showing at the front of the crescent considering only 3 hours and only the L-enhance. This crop shows it more clearly but the detail in the crescent does not stand up well at this level of zoom.

That's a really nice image.i prefer the first as there is more detail in the centre of the lagoon. Excellent framing.

32 mins integration! I am finding that the 2600mc allows good images from integration times that we would previously considered way too short. This is an example of that.

Nice one.

@Cornelius Varley

I'd guess hes in the USA.

I wanted to come up with some  clever title including wizards and bubbles and caves and things but it was too difficult. 😁 

This was my first effort at a 2x2 mosaic - only ever done 2 panels before. I used the Photometric Mosaic Script in PI and must say i am very impressed with it. Unfortunately I'm not getting much Oiii out of it but I think thats the L-enhance and moonlight not playing nice.

Each panel is between 4 and 7 hours of 180s, through the 61 EDPH onto the ASI2600mc.

C&C very welcome

I'm working on a 4 panel widfield mosaic of the Cass/Ceph border. I have the wizard at bottom right and the cave and lobster claw middle and top.

When I stretch the image the wizard is blowing out before the other parts have got bright enough. I'm thinking to use GAME script to put a mask over him but not sure if that will work.

Any suggestions?

Very nice. 

I've set up a mini PC on my Todmorden PC which runs image acquisition software through my sessions. I bring it in when the scope etc is off and covered by a Telegizmos 365.

As autumn is coming in I am conscious that heavy dew is something I am going to have to contend with. And while we dont usually have extreme low temps out here -2 to -5 is not that unusual. But, I also dont want to hamper my wifi connection (I drive the mini-pc from inside over my wifi/internet connection using Anydesk)

So, my question is to anyone who leaves a mini pc out in our British Isles Conditions- or anyone more computer hardware savvy than me (which is probably everyone!) Do you cover the PC to protect from dew/low temps. How do you do it? When I left my laptop out overnight I used to stick a big plastic box over it but the mini PC hangs off the side of the pier to thats not an option now.

Bonus Question; is there a way to connect my laptop to the mini-pc wirelessly but locally i.e. without connecting via the internet? I get a little lag sometimes which though not a serious problem can be a bit annoying.

Thanks

David.

fantastic image, well done

2 hours ago, The Lazy Astronomer said:

Very nice - a great deal of faint dustiness in there. My only crituque (and it's possibly just a personal thing), but the stars look a little hard-edged to me.

Out of curiosity, what's your light pollution like? I've always wanted to have a crack at dark nebula, but not sure if it's worth it outside of a rural location.

Thanks for taking the time to comment and provide a critique - I do appreciate all comments as I'm still very much a learner.

I guess I see what you mean about the stars, they are a bit "stark"  in some places. I'm not sure why that would be or what to do about it.

As to my LP, I'm in whats classed as a bortle 4 on the map but I have a tall sodium street light just yards from my scope. I have a blind/shade I put up and sometimes use an L-pro filter - in fact I used it on this image and I wonder if that could be part of the "hard edge stars" thing..

4 hours ago, Laurin Dave said:

Great image and love the little galaxy!

Dave

Thanks Dave, yes the little galaxy is quite cute sitting out there all on his own. 😀

A clear, moonless night last Wednesday meant that I could go after some reflection/dark nebula, something I really want to concentrate on this year.

I decided to use the little 61EDPHii and found a nice framing of the iris Nebula which would incluse several dust clouds. I also positioned it to bring in the little barred spiral galaxy NGC6951 (also called NGC6952?) near top left. It came out better than expected

Overall I'm pretty pleased with it altough the Gosts in Vdb 141 are not as clear as i hoped - they need mor FL i think.

So this is about 5 hours at 180s and 30mins at 90s to allow HDR on the core of the iris. Sharpstar 61EDPHii, ASI2600mc