M13 in RGB

[derrickf]

Because the signal to noise ratio of bright objects like M13 is so high I normally revert to just collecting RGB subs and don't bother with luminance.

Now that I seem to be getting to grips with collimation of the Quattro, I thought I would try an RGB M13 before packing up in the early hours of this morning. The image is 5 subs in each of R, G and B of 600s unbinned. ST2000 + CFW10 + Baader Filters + Neq6 Pro.

I don't think the lack of luminance has harmed the result - what do you think?

[nmoushon]

That is fantastic! Beautiful star color

[Gina]

Nothing wrong with that

[Black Knight]

That is very nice. For some reason I never get very good results imaging clusters .... A case of must try harder I think! And yes, I agree with nmoushon - the star colour is very good!

[derrickf]

That is very nice. For some reason I never get very good results imaging clusters .... A case of must try harder I think! And yes, I agree with nmoushon - the star colour is very good!

I've always found the key to producing pleasing globs is to be very careful in using curves in Photoshop (or whatever tool you use for non-linear stretching); it is very easy to saturate the bright core of the glob whilst not really bringing out the the faint stars in the halo. I tend to apply many iterations of a shallow curve keeping a constant check not to saturate the core.

Careful control of the stretching preserves the proper star colour and not using a luminance can certainly help with this too.

[Digz]

Looks great, the prop is starting to show nicely.

[Black Knight]

I've always found the key to producing pleasing globs is to be very careful in using curves in Photoshop (or whatever tool you use for non-linear stretching); it is very easy to saturate the bright core of the glob whilst not really bringing out the the faint stars in the halo. I tend to apply many iterations of a shallow curve keeping a constant check not to saturate the core.

Careful control of the stretching preserves the proper star colour and not using a luminance can certainly help with this too.

Thanks Derrick, I shall have to give that a go next time!

[Stargazer Jack]

Love it, well done