The sisters, unguided with an achromat

[stan26]

Took advantage of the gap in the weather over mid suffolk last night and started my M45 project. I always knew that pleiades would prove to be an editing challenge for me because the subject is made up of the achro's worst enemy - bright stars...= purple halos everywhere! That said working the magic in PS CS2 for an hour or so has I think reduced the CA enough to gain an acceptable image. This is work in progress, I intend to add at least another hr of data and lots more editing time.

As usual kit used - ST102, EQ3-2, RA drive, Canon 500D, stacked in DSS, all editing done in photoshop.

139 x 30 sec @ ISO3200 + 30 x darks.

So here's where I am so far......

Regards

Stan.

[AndyH]

Cor!!

Very pleasing to the eye, as it is.

Andy.

[stan26]

Thanks Andy !

I would be interested to know if the vignetting/gradients look bad on peoples screens? I have just loaded this pic on my phones tft screen and there are some awful greeny gradients, but the pic looks ok in photoshop and not to bad on here, although my monitor and browser (chrome) are not calibrated.

Cheers

Stan.

[twotter]

That's a nice image. I'd be interested in seeing the original with CA as well?

[Sierra Golf Mike]

Lovely image, can't wait to get started on imaging myself this winter.

Cheers

Steve

[stan26]

As requested by twotter, attatched are two images from the same stack. The first being a completely unedited final stack pic without any stretching whatsoever. The second pic is a quick stretch to bring through the fluffy bits, this is where the achromatic CA problem really starts to show. Obviously I have reduced CA a great deal in my above pic, but the it has still left the "scar" of the halos. I will spend a lot more time on my final M45 stack/edit. Still, for £150 I think the ST102 does a good job for budget AP.

stan

[cloudbuster]

that really is a great image stan. i imaged m45 for the first time the other evening, and am really struggling with the processing in PI.

cheers

bob

[Telrad]

Great image of M45 Stan. Fantastic!

[dweller25]

Excellent, well done.

[lukebl]

That's great. Tempted by one of those scopes myself. Get some flats, and that image would be even better by removing the vignetting and gradient.

[drewk1]

Looking good

They are one of my planned targets so watching this thread with interest.

[jammo]

Looks great to me, love the shot

[Quatermass]

I feel inspired to have another go at this one now great image Stan. Another clear night tonight I am I dreaming?

[twotter]

Thanks for the extra pics. Really interesting to see the differences

[stan26]

Thanks guys, no worries twotter.

I will also be reducing the star bloat with my next edit. The brighter stars are much to blobby in the above pics.

And I need to learn about taking flats and how to use them....

Cheers

Stan.

[Black Knight]

And I need to learn about taking flats and how to use them....

Cheers

Stan.

I take my flats with a folded white T-shirt draped over the end of the scope, smoothed so there are no wrinkles and secured with an rubber band. Then I just point the scope at my laptop screen running Notepad maximized and set the camera to AV. I should probably be a bit more scientific about it, but it works for me . BTW, you just need to ensure you don't alter the imaging train in any way between your lights and your flats. Don't move the camera or the focus.

And er, nice pic BTW .

[Mkofski]

Great looking pic on my iPad.

[ollypenrice]

Remarkable since it must be the hardest choice in the sky to do with an achro! If it's any consolation I'm struggling with an FSQ on this because there is an internal reflection from the blue filter which is giving me bright echoes all over the place. I'm about flummoxed, to be honest.

Flats? For the small outlay an EL panel is by far the easiest and most reliable way.

Anyway, well done on doing what, to be honest, I'd have thought would be impossible.

Olly

[Rob L]

Another great image Stan, I'm always amazed at the detail you manage to squeeze out in PP.

[lukebl]

Again, a great image. Hope you don't mind, but I had a bit of a play to show the sort of effect taking flats would have, in bringing out the nebulosity from the background gradients. Here's my quick effort after playing around with artifical flats and GradientXterminator in Photoshop. Obviously, using real flats and adjusting the original High-res TIF would give a much better result, but you get the idea.

[prokyon]

Great to see, what is possible with only 30 s subs. Very nice!

[stan26]

Thanks for all you help & comments guys, I have just set/balanced the scope ready for some more M45 data capture later tonight. Lukebl I think the gradientxterminator plug-in is the way to go for me, for now anyway. Just had a play with it in cs2 and it seems to work wonders. I read up a bit on flats. I get the basic idea but there seems to be so many mixed views and how to use them and what good they do. More research here I think (where did i put that making every photon count book..?) Hey olly thanks for your comments, I think that almost any of the brighter targets are possible with a cheap achro, its just a matter of expectations, not to be compared with good quality APO, and the same goes for the EQ3-2 mount.

Thanks

Stan.

[SJJ]

Hi Stan, really nice image good job. I know from myown struggles processing M45 that it's a difficult taget.