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M57 and M31/M110 from 10th August 2007

SteveL

By SteveL
in Imaging - Deep Sky

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SteveL

SteveL

Posted
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Despite the high thin clouds, I managed to get some failry decent sequences out of my setup. Last night was the first light for my William Optics Zenith Star 66 SD and the counterweight system...oh man, I wasnt disappointed :lol:

First up, yet another M57, and the first one I`ve captured with some nebulosity round the edges. (Almost cerainly due to my installation of Bob's Knobs and collimating it to within an inch of its life!)

OTA: NexStar 8 GPS @ f/10

Guiding: PHD + WO66 + DSI (yes, was subpixel guiding at FL 388mm @ f/5.9 without too many hiccups)

Camera: Canon 350D (unmodded)

Sequence: 10 x 240 seconds @ ISO800 (+ 5 darks, no bias or flats)

Stacked: Deep Sky Stacker

Post Process: PSCS2 + Noels Astronomy Tools

(Note:This is cropped but not reduced from RAW image size)

m57_2007810.jpg

Next M31, and I`ve been waiting for this one to peek its head over the roof/gutter for a few weeks now. For thisone, I reversed the imaging/guiding train, so the WO66 was imaging and the NS8GPS was guiding.

OTA: William Optics ZenithStar 66

Guiding: PHD + NexStar 8 GPS @ f/10 + DSI

Camera: Canon 350D (unmodded)

Sequence: 10 x 120 seconds @ ISO800 (+ 5 darks, no bias or flats)

Stacked: Deep Sky Stacker

Post Process: PSCS2 + Noels Astronomy Tools

A little distortion at the edges, but I dont have the 0.8 field flattener for it yet)

(Please click on images for a larger version)

m31_20070810_800x600.jpg

Now I understand when people state that the WO66 can punch well above it weight... this "little" OTA rocks! :(:):lol:

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MartinB

MartinB

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Superb results Steve. M57 is very good and you are getting excellent guiding results. M31 is better still - you've brought out the dust lanes very well - did you use a high pass filter at all? You have a little radial gradient which I've had a go at cleaning up using Russel Croman's gradient exterminator. I would strongly recommend this bit of software.

The ZS66 is a mighty performer, perfect for this target as well as objects such as the horsehead, Rosette and M42/running man. One problem with the DSLR is that it doesn't has a particularly flat field so you will notice star distortion at the peripheries. This isn't intrusive at all on this image though.

image.jpg

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SteveL

SteveL

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Thanks Martin, something else to add to my never decreasing list of stuff to get :(

No filters used on either shot, and I`m aware of the distortion (0.8 FR on the list mentioned before to flatten it)

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SteveL

SteveL

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Updated M31 image, using layers on my 120sec and 60sec subs (yes, colour balance is all wrong on the layer, and different ebtween large and display version). Was an interesting test of my photoshop abilities :D

Click on image for larger version

m31_20070810_layer_800.jpg

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SteveL

SteveL

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Thank you sir... This took a lot of time, but from the moment I did the single layer 120 sec version (at the top of this thread) I knew I had to look into layering it with the 30 or 60 second sequence. There is a slight colour halo around the layer edges (just outside the core) which I am aware of. I think the trick is to have both final stackedimages open and make changes to both at the same time so the contrast and colour balance stays similar. I`m happy with this one... so much so that I submitted it to S@N. We shall see (I cant be that lucky, just been published in PC Format magazine for my touch screen gaming project I have been coding for a couple of years)

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