Sterrenland

An L-Enhance (tri-band).

Adam...The thing that seems strange is that this ring only appears around one star out of approx. 1300 in the image. And I've checked - it's on all 62 subs. Very odd. Thanks for your suggestions though.

Thanks for the info Magnum. The ring on mine doesn't look like the usual star rings and it does seem strange that only one star out of approx. 1300 has this quite separate ring around it. Really not sure...but thanks for taking a look.

Was good to be under the stars again last night...decided to try the Heart Nebula for the first time. I found framing it quite difficult due to the FOV, but was pleased with the final orientation. The seeing was pretty good and I was quite pleased with the tightness of the stars. Overall I managed two hours of 120sec subs. I'm not sure what the 'ringed' star is to the left of the Nebula (I've included an enlarged image below)...it was the only star in all the subs to have what appears to be rings around it. I obviously suspect it might just be an 'artefact' fo some kind, but cannot understand why it only affects this one star. I did check in Stellarium, but couldn't really see what it might be.

😮😮😮

I like the framing and the colour! Lovely detail around the edge of the nebula.

Love the subtle colours...quite beautiful.

Nice capture...having an 80ED I do like the extra reach of the 120. Think I'll have to start saving. Great detail in the nebulosity.

I was soooooooo fed up with more cloud the past week that the hint of a possibility of some clear sky motivated me to get set up last night. Have been hoping to try the Crescent Nebula again - last time was last year with my DSLR. Despite the odd bank of cloud drifting over it was reasonably 'clear', but I think the seeing wasn't very good...coupled with me possibly knocking the polar alignment. Guiding took ages to settle down between dithering and the numbers on the door weren't brilliant and the smaller stars definitely weren't round! Anyway, managed to get about 2 hours of subs and managed this. First time I spent some extra time cleaning up masks in Photoshop and am reasonably pleased with the result - just don't look at the stars!

Stunning image...sharp focus and amazing contrast. Beautiful!

Yes, I love the little details like those pillars...they're not brilliant shots, but it just blows me away that I can capture these from my back garden and see such detail. Makes the lack of sleep worth it!

It's going to be clear all night they said. As soon as I'd set up and taken a couple of shots out came the clouds! Grrrrrrrr! By midnight I was debating going back in, but thought I'd wait another half hour...and then the clouds suddenly disappeared. After 7 hours of getting the pics I got to bed. The seeing wasn't brilliant, but regularly managed 0.9 guiding which wasn't too bad I suppose.

Welcome! I'm a bit further over just outside Dover...we do seem to have our own climate here near the coast. Enjoy the skies!

Thanks Bryan...I'm using a Zwo ASI294MC on a Skywatcher 80ED and a HEQ5 Pro mount. I also used an L-Enhance filter. The image is the result of about 2.5 hours of 120s lights together with the associated darks, flats and dark flats.

Well, the skies weren't as clear as the forecast said they were going to be...quite a bit of high cloud moving across 🙄 I think the somewhat compromised seeing ended up in less than perfect data...coupled with the relatively low surface brightness, I suppose I should be pleased at getting what I did! But mostly I'm blaming it on the weather! 😀 Anyways, managed just short of 2.5 hours before I gave up.

Looks a lot better in the second version with the increased contrast. Great image.

After another frustrating week of cloud and wind I finally managed to get into the garden last night. Here's my first attempt at the Elephant's Trunk Nebula. I managed 100mins using the 294MC and a L-Enhance filter. This was only my 3rd time guiding and I was pleased to get the figures lower than they have been. It's all a learning-curve! 😆

The links are in the discussion above.

Well, it's a pseudo SHO/Hubble palette as it's created from a OSC image - Luke Newbould who is on this forum has posted an excellent tutorial video on Youtube which shows how to do it. Basically it involves using the red channel as a Luminance channel, creating a new blue channel with less noise...etc etc. Probably easier to watch the video! He also covers using Starnet++ in Pixinsight...it's a great way to remove the stars so that you can process the background. I find reducing the stars using Morphological Transformation before recombining stars and background is a good way to allow more focus on the nebula, etc. without having too much star-distraction. I quite like this type of colour palette as I think it often shows more contrast/detail particularly in the bright areas of nebulae.

@Lee_P That's brilliant...it's always sooooooo handy to find a well-illustrated tutorial. I found Luke's video a few weeks ago and have been trying it out with my new ASI294MC...it's a great method to process targets and I often find the (pseudo)SHO palette brings out a lot of detail that isn't always visible with a more 'conservative' method (especially, for example, where illuminated ridges of gas in nebulae stand out against darker dust).

You'll probably hate it, but I was bored not being able to get out and do some imaging as it's cloudy...again, so had a play with your data in Pixinsight just to practise some bits and bobs. Very much at the start of my Pixinsight learning curve 🙄 Hope you don't mind?

Beautiful image...love it.

I initially started out using just a DSLR camera, then progressed to a Skywatcher 80ED with the DSLR and have finally very recently swapped the DSLR for a ASI294MC Pro. I realise the SW 80ED may be just a little bit larger than you intended, but I can certainly vouch for it being a super 'little' scope, certainly for its price. It's not too unwieldy in size to make it a struggle to set up and its aperture has managed to bag some amazing sights for me. Yes, my processed pics aren't going to win competitions, but in the end most of us do this hobby out of sheer excitement at what you can 'see'. The scope that is the best for you will be the one you actually use. If it's tooooo heavy to carry...too complicated...requires too much maintainance...it'll end up being left indoors.

Well, I wasn't going to set up last night as the forecast was sort of undecided as to clear skies, but in the end I did and the conditions turned out to be pretty good. This was my second outing with the new ASI294MC...for some reason it took a bit longer to get everything up and running, but I managed 70mins of integration with 120s lights using the L-Enhance filter. The image was processed in Pixinsight...nothing toooo dramatic, though I did reduce the stars and edge towards a pseudo-SHO palette. I must say I'm blown away by the detail the filter has managed to bring out. Another one of those targets that makes you go 'Wow!'.

@Luke Newbould Well, finally got to try out my ASI294MC PRO last week for the very first time...lots to learn like guiding, dithering, etc. Decided to go for the Witches Broom Nebula/Western Veil using an L-Enhance filter as it was just a few days before full moon. Managed just over an hour of 120s lights plus calibration shots. Spent last night following your video and came out with the version below. Pretty pleased with it considering it's my first shot with the new camera AND my first attempt at your Hubble-palette workflow! Thanks again for the great tutorial.