M16 Eagle - Atik460ex First Light

[badgers]

I reprocessed everything again, after a fresh round of online videos and tutorials for PixInsight.

I lowered the sigma clipping values to prune away the trails. I've managed not to screw up the colour too much this time (I think).

Going in the right direction, I hope.

previous round below:

Processing:

Pixinsight registration, all images aligned to the best Luminance frame

Pixinsight Integration for L, R, G and B separately, Sigma clipping to kill trails (1.0) (thanks Rik)

RGB combination

DBE on the L

DBE on the RGB

Stretch Applied to bring out contrast in the structures at the centre, then LRGB combination (Saturation 0.4).

Another Stretch Applied to cloned images to bring out the outer nebulosity, then LRGB combination

Blended the two images in photoshop.

High Pass filter (45px) on the inner core area.

Bit of tweaking of contrast and curves in PS.

[Black Knight]

Looking better Badgers

[Gina]

That's a really beautiful image

[Quatermass]

great to see your first image with the new camera badgers, that is a cracking image and just goes to show that perseverance pays off. If you get a chance have a go at the Trifid Swan and Lagoon all in that part of the sky and quite close to each other. Your going to have such a great time this year using that wonderful bit of kit mate great job

[RikM]

Looking even better. Nice colour in the stars too. Well done indeed.

[badgers]

Thanks guys, I'll keep tinkering to improve my processing skills but I'm pretty happy with the current version.

I'd love to have a crack at the lagoon and swan, but if they are near M16 then I'll have my Stanstead Airport problem again : )

Not sure what to image next, I think I'lll spend some time tweaking guiding and setup before the next imaging run.

Hopefully, I've have a good solid setup as the Autumn Season begins.

[Quatermass]

Looking forward to seeing more of what your new set up can produce for you Badgers if this one is anything to go buy there going to be very cool.

[ollypenrice]

Very good indeed and clear proof that the Sony chip is loads more sensitive than the 8300 which is large but grindingly slow.

I think your green is too low, giving the image a magenta caste. Yes, you have some small trailing but I think your focus was on the button. This is a hell of a good start in CCD imaging. Seriously!

Olly

[nytecam]

Fantastic effort - well worth the trials experienced.... but then I'm sitting pretty

[badgers]

Thanks guys, and Thanks Olly for the feedback on the green and focus, I'll take a look at what happened on the green channel.

I spent an age fiddling with the FWHM lark in Maxim DL, but gave up and went for the Bahtinov using the bahtinov grabber program, seems to give consistently good results.

I'm glad I went for the 460ex, it was about twice what I was expecting to pay for a CCD, but this hobby has grabbed me, and I figured I'll use it for years to come.

[Black Knight]

I'm glad I went for the 460ex, it was about twice what I was expecting to pay for a CCD, but this hobby has grabbed me, and I figured I'll use it for years to come.

It looks a great camera, that's for sure. One for the wishlist I think!

[MeyGray3833]

Well done, considering the dramas you had! Keep it up!

[sologuitarist61]

Excellent image - well done.

[Tom OD]

Good pic, and a great start into ccd imaging.I love the Sony chips. Low noise, its gives a smooth image.

Tom

[fredster]

Great image and a nice looking location too.

[LDUNN1]

......I set up in the back garden on Saturday night hoping to give M16 a go, BUT M16 only just clears the roof of my house from my observing spot......& there were too many fast moving scattered clouds, so I ended up going for M13 very late in the night......too late, the last of my colour subs were too washed out to use.

So M16 will have to wait for another day for me, but it would be ace to compare notes & processing Anton.

Regards,

Lawrence.

[badgers]

Hi Lawrence,

That's a shame, I chose M16 for my first trip out to the countryside with my scope because It would be too low for me in Cambridge and I'd have to image right through the light-dome of the city.

Looking forward to seeing your shots, hopefully you won't have the wind to deal with and can get cleaner stars and more detail.

Anton

[LDUNN1]

Hi Anton - finally got round to imaging M16 & just about remembered to come back to your post & add my own image:-

152mm f9 scope, 460EX, 4x300s 1x1 L, 4x300s 2x2 RGB each (I think!),

[badgers]

Well done Lawrence, That's a stunning image and at f/9 too!

Great to see the 460ex in action again.

What kind of scope are you using ?

Mine is offline right now while I'm moving to an off-axis guider, but the results I've seen have been excellent so far.

[Nathan_Pembs]

Amazing image, well done

So would you recommend putting a 150P on a HEQ5? Do they work well, compared to an EQ3-2?

[LDUNN1]

thx Anton......yes it is good to see any sort of image from a 460EX isn't it? - what with the poor conditions since the camera hit the market!!

I started adding the focal ratio alongside my sub shooting data as I figured sub shooting times in isolation don't really tell the complete story when looking for & comparing output sensitivities from different cameras.

My scope is a very old 1988 scope I picked up second hand last August. I have some issues with it that I have been working to resolve, I'm getting mis-shaped brighter stars whcih I am having to manually touch up, but I think I may have traced this down to the nuts that hold the lens cell in place, as I recently made the condition worse when I removed the lens cell to clean it & had to bond a couple of the nuts in place to aid retightening of the lens cell & the adhesive increased the hight of the nut & intruded into the light path - so I suspect this is the cause of my issue (I hope) & I have now taken measures to correct for this. Anyway, to answer your question it is an Astro-Physics 152 (6") f9 starfire. I have the AP .75 reducer which brings he scope down to a more image friendly sub f7, but I only use this when I need to capture a greater path of sky, rather than to speed up the imaging.....I prefer to have the image scale over speed when the targets don't fill the frame, I have yet to use the reducer with the 460EX though.

Nathan, I'll let Anton answer your 150p on HEQ5 vs EQ3-2 as I have no experience of any of those 3, & figure you were directing the question to Anton.

[badgers]

So would you recommend putting a 150P on a HEQ5? Do they work well, compared to an EQ3-2?

I did quite a bit of imaging on the EQ3-2, but it was hard work.

You need to strip the mount and regrease it and remove backlash and you also need to fill up the tripod legs with sand for stability.

When this is done, you can happily shoot 1-3 minute shots pretty reliably, especially with a finder-guider etc.

Moving the the HEQ5 Pro made a big difference in terms of my imaging. Some people move straight to an EQ6 type mount, but the HEQ5 Pro is just fine on a 6" scope fully loaded with cameras etc.