Stephan's Quintet improved.

[ollypenrice]

Focus drift compromised the image I posted earlier this week but a re-shoot in Luminance has greatly improved the resolution. It now has 30x15 mins of L and an hour per colour. Focus is still drifting and needs watching like a hawk, something I put down to the extremely hot weather. (Upper thirties C.)

The stellar magnitudes are not as deep as the galactic because I did a soft starfield stretch to keep them down. All the faint fuzzies got the full treatment though.

Yves' ODK14 on Mesu 200 (the best mount on Earth??) and full frame SXH36 mono CCD.

Olly

Fullsize image; http://ollypenrice.smugmug.com/Other/Best-of-Les-Granges/22435624_WLMPTM#!i=2032396959&k=TNbqhgh&lb=1&s=O

[NickK]

I think I like this enough to "like" (a world first).

A little blitzed in some of the cores but.. look at the last photo.. the bottom 1/4 in.. that lovely little "fuzzy" is lovely and clear.

[ollypenrice]

I think I like this enough to "like" (a world first).

A little blitzed in some of the cores but.. look at the last photo.. the bottom 1/4 in.. that lovely little "fuzzy" is lovely and clear.

Heh heh, you are right. I did push the sharpening a little beyond my normal limit here. (Maybe this is destined for the Cloudy Nights market! ) I guess I should back it off a bit but it's fun to vary one's style from time to time.

Olly.

[Mr Spock]

Lovely image (need a thumbs up smilie)

[RikM]

Wonderful image. Has the soft stretch on the stars kept the colours a deeper shade than normal?

Forgive the numpty question, did you bin the colour on this?

[ollypenrice]

Wonderful image. Has the soft stretch on the stars kept the colours a deeper shade than normal?

Forgive the numpty question, did you bin the colour on this?

Yes, keeping the luminance down on stars gives them stronger colour. Lots of imagers remove the L layer from the stars where possible to avoid blowing the stellar cores and bleaching them to white. However, I agree that they are a deep colour and I may have another look at that.

We can't bin with the H36, it doesn't work. I dare say we would if we could because at this focal length it would have little if any effect on colour resolution. It's just something that this camera doesn't seem to like.

Olly.

[Gina]

Amazing

[Tinker1947]

Really nice image,and not the easiest DSO to find....

[ollypenrice]

Really nice image,and not the easiest DSO to find....

No, I'm often asked to find it in the Dob and easy it ain't, especially with my ageing eyesight!

Olly

[Tinker1947]

No, I'm often asked to find it in the Dob and easy it ain't, especially with my ageing eyesight!

Olly

Yes,,,age....my state pension cut in couple of months back......I can find the brighter DSO, NGC 7331 then just shift it to the edge of the FOV , i'm thinking of a Starlight Express Lodestar in a ST80 as a autoguider, not sure if it can be used to make short star hopping images on a laptop screen then move the mount accordingly ?? a 16" Dob with tracking will be some time next year.....

[old_eyes]

A lovely image Olly. Very rich and creamy with beautiful dust lanes.

When you say many images reduce or leave out the luminance data on stars to keep them under control; wpuld that be with a star mask?

old_eyes

[ollypenrice]

A lovely image Olly. Very rich and creamy with beautiful dust lanes.

When you say many images reduce or leave out the luminance data on stars to keep them under control; wpuld that be with a star mask?

old_eyes

I don't know how others do it I'm afraid. I just get an RGB only layer underneath at the same levels as the LRGB on top and then erase the sellar cores.

Olly

[farunj]

Simply stunning!!

[Tom OD]

Another super one Olly. I don't think you overdid the sharpening by the way. I think it needs a bit more colour. Is that 3 hrs RGB and 7.5 Lum?

T.

[ollypenrice]

Another super one Olly. I don't think you overdid the sharpening by the way. I think it needs a bit more colour. Is that 3 hrs RGB and 7.5 Lum?

T.

Cheers, Tom, and yes, that's the balance. As you say, a bit underdone on the RGB. I might just have a word with Captain Yves and see what he thinks...

Olly

[vdb]

I didn't redo my version yet, but my initial version had "more" saturation, so I don't think we need more imaging time on rgb,

we can do it in "post production"

I love the detail in this one, and sharpening is not overdone, but that is personal ... as always ...

Yves.