M63 - First one of the night!

[Darth Takahashi]

Do want to jinx it but I can't believe the spell of good weather we are having, I have even managed to leave my setup out all night!!!

Here is the first image of the night, a RED of M63... More to come in the net few days, hopefully...

The BLUE channel is pretty weak as usual:o.

[Darth Takahashi]

Here is M63, I tried to add a few more subs last night but my power supply blew up! Couldn't take 4 nights of imaging on the run, are well, never mind.

As a result the luminance subs aren't deep enough yet to exposure the loop. But on a positive note I have now cracked the colour balance issue. I have calculated my theoretic colour bias in excel and applied it to the RGB component and what do you know, it worked perfectly!!!

I have also completed my transition to the dark side by actually taking FLATS. There is no turning back now!!!

I hope you like the image, I'll be adding more data when I can.

[Luke]

Looking good, Neil. I hate to admit it but after a clear run of nights I sometimes, argh, can't believe I am admitting it, almost wish for the dreaded c word! Curse you, need for sleep!!

[NickK]

I have calculated my theoretic colour bias in excel and applied it to the RGB component and what do you know, it worked perfectly!!!

That process is what I want to build into my app eventually.

[Darth Takahashi]

Wait until you see my reprocessed M51 including H Alpha!!!!

I have now managed to create a procedure for H Alpha that doesn't compromise my star colours or background hue.

I really feel like one of the last pieces of the jigsaw puzzle just fell into place and that I now have a solid image processing workflow that turns good data into good images and not the other way around.

Really really pleased with myself at the moment.

[Adamski]

very good pic. I live in south devon and the weather has been very naughty for the last week now and i'm really bored. I left my gear out for nearly 2 weeks before the weather changed.

Adamski

[SlipperySquid]

Great capture Neil! I really like it! I'll email you to find out how you calculate your colour bias but no big words in the reply please and lots of pictures

The colour looks bang on and the detail coming through in the arms is excellent!

It's just started raining here now so that's the end of the good stuff for a couple of days I think

Have you posted M51 yet sir?

Matt.

[Darth Takahashi]

Hi Matt,

Thanks for the comments, the weather here seems to be holding for one more day at least. I'm trying to get deeper lums at the moment, running 20mins to try and expose the loop.

[Darth Takahashi]

I managed to obtain another 2.5 hours of data last night with 20mins sub's. I was trying to deepen the luminance to bring out the loop. Unfortunately, while the seeing was good the transparency was only average, almost boarder line for imaging.

I figured as the night went on it would get a little better, apparently it didn't!!!

Anyway I have managed to improve the luminance a little so here is the new image.

I have pushed the saturation a little more but the star colours and background have remained unaffected so I'm happy with the colour balance still.

[Catanonia]

nice effort, I needed over 6 hours of lum to get the loop in mine.

[Darth Takahashi]

nice effort, I needed over 6 hours of lum to get the loop in mine.

How fast is the telescope?

I'm at F7.7 with my Tak. I have the feeling this is a job for the newt once I get it up and running, since its F4.

In total now this is approaching 4+ hours.