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Working on a Narrowband Mosaic Project: ~20 panels per channel

antimorris

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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Anna, you've seen these things from Telescope Service? I find it absolutely essential for focus. The adjustments on FWHM are miniscule and with this you can do it. It really brings down the star size which is the bane of camera lens imaging.

Olly

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iwatkins

iwatkins

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Hi Anna,

I must have missed this thread when it first started, but I've caught up now.

All I can say is: WOW!

Good luck with the rest of the project and keep us updated.

As for binning, I don't know. But the theory suggests 2x2 binning is helpful. I guess you'll just have to try it :)

Printing wise, I would agree that something special would be needed. Have you considered printing to block acrylic? It works really well for very colourful images, but not sure for a mainly black background.

Oh, I hope you have a robust backup routine? :)

Cheers

Ian

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antimorris

antimorris

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Ian -

I will check into block acrylic .... once I am done it will be color (doing full narrowband - eventually :) ) Thanks for the suggestion.

2 computers with the data as well as a 2TB HD ... thinking of burning this project to CD as well after I finish each channel just in case :)

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old_eyes

old_eyes

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Its been a few more weeks with very little progress. Was hoping to be done with the Ha by now, but I am almost there - only 1, maybe 2 nights left. Here it is as it stands now. 16 panels, 53.34 hrs.

For larger you can either see the zoomable version on my website or see it Large on Flickr

Just zoomed in to have a look at the Pelican's head. Absolutely amazing image Anna. This is going to be one hell of a view :D

old_eyes

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antimorris

antimorris

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FINALLY got a clear night to finish up the Ha portion of the mosaic (do happy dance now) - now to get enough clear nights to do the OIII & SII (I have a plan to minimize the amount of nights I will need for them).

Image details:

Object: North American Nebula & Pelican Nebula

Image date: May 21, 2011-August 7, 2011

Image type: 17 panel mosaic

Camera: Atik 314L+

Guide camera: Starlight XPress Lodestar

Scope: Orion EON 80ED

Filter: Astronomik Ha 12nm

Integration time (per panel): 10 x 1200sec

Integration time (total): 56 hrs 40 min

Zoomable (to 1:1) version located here: North American & Pelican Nebula Mosaic Project

This is a high-res project. The total image file for just the Ha is 1.23GB and is over 72 inches square. I have shrunk this enormously to throw on Flickr and here but have the full-res image available at: http://www.eprisephoto.com/.

post-24627-133877643656_thumb.jpg

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blackparticle

blackparticle

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;) That little missing chunk must have been driving you mad all month. I've just has a zoomify around it.. Amazing detail.

My friend can't find the details for the metal printing process.. But he does know it was in Whitstable.

There is a place that does it here though - Not sure of price.

Metal Printing - Digital Printing Direct To Substrates From Evans Graphics

Also check out the 8ft x 4ft Foamex special offer they have on ! :rolleyes:

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AndyUK

AndyUK

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Truly fantastic Anna....! And I sincerely respect your committment to this - The weather has certainly not been working with you (or any of us, come to that!) this so-called summer... I hope the cloud Gods finally decide that they've had enough and give us a break so that you can get the SII / OIII for this... Of course there's always next year, but that's not really the point!

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antimorris

antimorris

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Thanks Andy.

My "plan" for the OIII and SII is to try it first with my ccd on a 105mm lens with the Geoptik adapter I got I can throw one of my filters in there so am going to give that a go as I would be able to get one whole filter in one night and since I will be tone-mapping the OIII & SII I don't need the resolution I have on the Ha so I figure its worth a try and if I don't like the result I have only wasted one night (as I figure I will know after one night whether I will like it or not). Hopefully it works and then using the Ha for Luminance as well as Red should produce a really nice result, but we will see. I might end up doing the 56+ hours on all 3 filters and if thats the case I will do it as I really want a nice result out of this.

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antimorris

antimorris

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Using my 105mm lens and Atik 314 I have been able to get some OIII over the past week, a little at a time during cloud breaks. Doing the OIII & (hopefully soon) SII this way as I am just using them for tone-mapped color seems to be working well (I did one night as a proof of concept and did ok so I kept going as I could with the OIII) .... I now have a bi-color image although am hesitant to post it as I really want to finish all three before I really process all the color so this is a quick interim job just to show the progress and I am probably going to do one more night of OIII just to have a bit clearer data with the moon gone (as most of what I have is with the moon up). It's a bit orange still for my liking - I had it toned a bit more red, but figured I would keep the orange as it shows a bit more depth and contrast at the moment. I will eventually probably process it all as the HST palette but still deciding :)

With that said, here is a small version. Like I said, since it is just an in-works bi-color while I wait on more clear hours of night I won't be doing a large version yet so don't be TOO harsh on the colors yet

post-24627-133877647157_thumb.jpg

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antimorris

antimorris

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Registar does a good job matching up the different size images and rescales the smaller one up for me. Since it aligns each star it accounts for distortions as far as I have seen in my limited experience with it.

Shaunster-yup just Ha and OIII so far. I use the Ha and OIII to create a False green for this and mapped the OIII to blue and Ha

to red for this version. Then I used selective color and levels

to adjust and boost the colors

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antimorris

antimorris

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Thanks all. I did a quick retune of the colors just to tone down the orange a bit. Still not fully working on the color, but it was a bit orange for me to just leave it even though this is just an interim update post :) (it wouldn't let me edit the above post so just reposting the less orange version)

I can't decide what palette I should do the overall image in . . . Hubble, "natural" colors, custom, or something else. Suggestions? I am leaning towards Hubble, but open to doing something different as well.

post-24627-133877647261_thumb.jpg

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antimorris

antimorris

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Blackparticle: I attach it via the Celesteon piggyback adapter I have on my CPC800...the camera adapter has a tripod mount hole on the underneath side so it goes right on. I'll pop out and get a picture in just a bit

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antimorris

antimorris

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I have now been doing astrophotography for almost exactly two years. Quite a journey this has been and it has culminated with my summer-long mosaic project.

If you have not read this ENTIRE post about that on-going project I will give a quick synopsis: I have been working on an 18 panel, full narrowband mosaic of the North American and Pelican Nebulas. As I am using an Atik 314L+ and Orion EON80ED, this is quite an undertaking to get both of these nebulas in the same image - hence the ridiculously large mosaic. Throw on top of that the fact that I am doing this here in England which is not exactly known for its clear skies it has been a monumental task. I was determined and took advantage of pretty much every clear hour of darkness over the past 3 months by having my scope semi-permanently setup in my backyard under a Telegizmo cover so it was already polar aligned and very quick to just turn on and start imaging.

Well, for my two year astro-anniversary image I am pleased to announce that I am done! You can read a more in-depth blog post about it on my blog

and I am currently uploading both the 1:1 zoomable version and a full-res image on my website (these last 2 links will show the final image as soon as they finish uploading)

I hope you all enjoy the final result!

Here are the final image details:

Object: North American Nebula & Pelican Nebula

Image date: May 21, 2011-August 21, 2011

Image type: Full narrowband (SII, Ha, OIII) mosaic

Camera: Atik 314L+

Guide camera: Starlight XPress Lodestar

Scope: Orion EON 80ED

Filters: Astronomik Ha, SII, & OIII

Total Integration Time: 72 hours

Integration time/channel: Ha-58 hrs 40 min, OIII-6 hrs 20 min, SII-7 hrs

Mapping: Modified HST (SII, Ha, OIII), Luminance (Ha)

Low-res web version:

post-24627-13387764971_thumb.jpg

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