Veil Nebula - NGC 6992

[Gina]

First proper go at the Veil Nebula last night. I've selected the best data with 19 lights of 240s at ISO 1600 plus 35 darks and EXIF T of -15C. Stacked in DSS which chose 15 lights to stack. No flats or bias frames as yet. Processed in PS, scaled to 1024px wide and saved as PNG. I also have 22 lights of 120s which I shall try adding later.

[RogerTheDodger]

Excellent! bet it feels good to use the camera at last

[fwm891]

Well done Gina, Camera working well, that must be rewarding after all the effort on the mod

[leelee970]

very good.

[Gina]

Thanks everyone Yes, very nice to get imaging again and yes, particularly having just finished the camera mods I'm pleased with the results too

[davew]

Hmm. The best yet. That Gina, is damn good

Looking at the results of 240 seconds I'd be disinclined to take subs of any less duration. As you've got 120 sec subs give them a try but I wouldn't aim for 120 in future.

Are you telling DSS to drop certain subs ? Have a good look at the rejects. If they in fact look ok then reassess your settings.

Flats have got to come very soon. They will take that image forward no end.

Dave.

[Gina]

Hmm. The best yet. That Gina, is damn good

Thank you very much

Looking at the results of 240 seconds I'd be disinclined to take subs of any less duration. As you've got 120 sec subs give them a try but I wouldn't aim for 120 in future.

Yes, I agree. It would probably have been better to have gone for all 240s but that's what it's all about - experience and learning I have just completed processing with the extra 22 120s subs added in. I think it's helped a little but no doubt 240s ones would have been better.

Are you telling DSS to drop certain subs ? Have a good look at the rejects. If they in fact look ok then reassess your settings.

I'm letting DSS choose the subs to use. I'll have to see how to find the rejects

Flats have got to come very soon. They will take that image forward no end.

Yes, I'll be doing the flats this afternoon.

[davew]

I wouldn't let DSS make too many choices

If you open up a new instance of DSS and load your subs in check all and go to Register checked pictures. There you will find a tick box telling DSS how many to use. Untick it if it's ticked.

Once registered DSS will show you more than you realise. Go to the far right of the GUI. Here you will find FWHM and sky background figures. Take a peek at the FWHMs. Are they all very similar ? If so go to the Score line. Are they all similar again ? If so all your subs are probably ok. If not then try and look at the sub to inspect it. This can be done by clicking on the duff sub and looking at the picture at the top of the page. If it's too dark to tell then just remove or uncheck that sub.

This is more laborious but worth it. It has thrown out 16 minutes worth of work and you should want to know why. Just imagine if these were 15 minute subs !!

Some people get DSS to reject 10% of their subs. I don't think that's a good idea.

I hope you haven't moved the camera / scope about. There's a bit of dust that can move around. Get those flats done Gina

Dave.

[Quatermass]

That one came out great Gina lots of lovely detail and colors in there to play with as well nice to get out and do some good imaging.

[Gina]

Here is the result of adding in 22 120s (2m) lights.

[RikM]

Smashing shot Gina; the colour is wonderful. Flats really will make a huge difference.

[Gina]

I wouldn't let DSS make too many choices

OK thanks for the advice - I'm very much at the learning stage ATM

If you open up a new instance of DSS and load your subs in check all and go to Register checked pictures. There you will find a tick box telling DSS how many to use. Untick it if it's ticked.

Once registered DSS will show you more than you realise. Go to the far right of the GUI. Here you will find FWHM and sky background figures. Take a peek at the FWHMs. Are they all very similar ? If so go to the Score line. Are they all similar again ? If so all your subs are probably ok. If not then try and look at the sub to inspect it. This can be done by clicking on the duff sub and looking at the picture at the top of the page. If it's too dark to tell then just remove or uncheck that sub.

This is more laborious but worth it. It has thrown out 16 minutes worth of work and you should want to know why. Just imagine if these were 15 minute subs !!

Some people get DSS to reject 10% of their subs. I don't think that's a good idea.

Thanks very much for that

I hope you haven't moved the camera / scope about. There's a bit of dust that can move around. Get those flats done Gina

Dave.

I normally park the scope and close the roof before I pack up and go to bed leaving APT running taking darks. Maybe I should get a my light box done and take flats straight after taking lights. So far I've taken flats the next day by using daylight and a white T shirt over the end of the scope. Just going out to do that now.

[Gina]

That one came out great Gina lots of lovely detail and colors in there to play with as well nice to get out and do some good imaging.

Thank you Yes, I'm well pleased with it considering there weren't very many lights. And yes, I feel a lot better having actually managed to do some decent imaging

[Gina]

Smashing shot Gina; the colour is wonderful. Flats really will make a huge difference.

Thank you Yes, I've found flats have made a big difference in the past.

[Black Knight]

Very nice Gina, like it a lot.

Flats have got to come very soon. They will take that image forward no end.

Dave.

Agreed, that will sort out the vignetting you have. Personally I found taking flats a daunting prospect before I eventually started doing them, and I used to make all sorts of excuses to myself to rationalize why I wasn't doing them. But they're really not that difficult once you establish a good workflow for them. It's well worth sorting this sort of thing out before the next imaging "season" starts in earnest.

[Gina]

Very nice Gina, like it a lot.

Thank you

Agreed, that will sort out the vignetting you have. Personally I found taking flats a daunting prospect before I eventually started doing them, and I used to make all sorts of excuses to myself to rationalize why I wasn't doing them. But they're really not that difficult once you establish a good workflow for them. It's well worth sorting this sort of thing out before the next imaging "season" starts in earnest.

I don't find flats any problem - just a matter of setting the exposure to get the histogram somewhere near the middle. Once that's set up it's just a matter of letting APT shoot away.

[Gina]

Right - taken loads of flats and re-processed the data. Maybe I could do some bias frames but otherwise I think that's about it for the current set of lights.

I'll list the parameters (as many as I can think of) :-

• Scope - SW Evostar 80 ED DS Pro with SW 0.85 focal reducer / field flattener
  
• Guiding - ST 80 + QHY5 and PHD
  
• Camera - 1100D with full spectrum mod and cooling (EXIF T of -15C)
  
• Filter - Astronomik CLS-CCD clip-in
  
• Lights - 19 of 240s plus 22 of 120s at ISO 1600 - 32 stacked in DSS
  
• Darks - 35 of 240s at ISO1600
  
• Flats - 43
  
• Post processing in PS, scaled and converted to PNG for attaching to post
  

[Black Knight]

Much better, the flats have improved it enormously! Very nice result Gina

[Gina]

Thank you

[RikM]

Fantastic result

[Stu]

Fabulous image Gina

[carastro]

Some excellent colour in that Gina, well done.

Carole

[badgers]

Great picture and great colour, its been lovely following your camera trials and tribulations and the obsy build.

Everything seems to be delivering you results now!

B

[Gina]

Thank you everyone, your comments are much appreciated Have to say I'm very pleased with this one - I feel the hard work is beginning to bear fruit

[Chris]

Thats a lovely image Gina, really love the colour and detail its a very interesting nebula and those flats have certainly done the trick, congrats:)