KELLING IMAGES

[lunator]

Steve

You should post the unprocessed image it looked fantastic

cheers

Ian

[SteveL]

Well, not sure how much more I can tease out of this without having to shoot some shorter subs to get the core detail (and that wont be until December in my home location), so here we go then...

M42

Imaging: William Optics ZS 66 SD (piggybacked), QHY8 Camera (Gain 50, Offset 120), MaximDL/CCD, 17 x 300s

Guiding: NexStar 8 GPS @ f/6.3 (FR), DSI-C, PHD

Processing: Deep Sky Stacker, Photoshop2 + Noels Tools

Notes: Saturday night was the first time I had seen or imaged M42.. EVER! Just as I started to "get a clue" earlier this year, it had disappeared into the sunset, so Saturday morning I was itching to see it and get some subs.

(Click on image for larger version)

[barkis]

I am speechless.

Ron.

[Andrew*]

well.......... what words describe an image like that?!? :shock:

.....

.....

Nope. Took another look at it and still no words come to mind!

Andrew

[centroid]

That's a beautiful wide-field view of M42 Steve, and you have also captured NGC1977, the 'running man nebula'superbly, and that isn't always easy to do that

I can only congratulate you on an excellent result.

Very well done indeed!!.

Dave

[Jamie]

I have to say that all the guys that took images at Kelling have done a fantastic job.

The bar has just been raised again...

[peonic]

Holy S***t!

Chris

[MartinB]

I can't see Steve's M42

[MartinB]

Close to dawn on Sunday morning Mars was getting reasonably high and venus was rising like the Star of Bethlehem. Had a fun break from DSOs with my toucam and NS8 with x2 barlow. Mars is very small at the mo and I managed to burn it out a bit.

[cygnusx1]

I can't see Steve's M42

me neither!!

[CELESCOPE]

i can and its a cracker, must say Steve has leaped up big time with this camera , after a few more , we will all be in for some dynamic images ,

well done Steve , you made it darn hard now for image of the week

Rog

[Whippy]

That's the one we all went 'wow!' when we saw it on Sunday morning. Chuffing great Steve, nice one .

Tony..

[MartinB]

Got it now, yes that's a beauty. There's dim background nebulosity across the whole field of view which you've left in place as well. Fantastic result

[Jeff RV]

Wow!! first class images.

Images like these just a few year ago was only expected from the large main line telescopes.

Congratulations on work well done.

Jeff.

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

OMG!

Looks like Mr L had a lot of fun doesn't it? TWO for the magazines Steve, get 'em sent off ASAP.

Kaptain Klevtsov

[Naz]

The images being produced by all of you are something else, remarkable in every sense of the word. Truely stunning, As the Kaptain says get them into the magazines ASAP!!!

Well done everyone.

naz

[anthony]

Guys - these images are superb. Lovely stuff. M42 and all the stars - top

Anthony

[MikeD]

:shock: :shock: :shock: well done guys, all of them fantasic results but That M42 is a killer image.

Mike.

[daz]

Absolutely superb Steve!!

I have to tell everyone that on Sunday morning, after brekkie, Steve was hopping up and down like a kid with a grin the size of the Norfolk on his face. When asked why he just blurted out "I've got M42!!!".

You can see why he was grinning!

[Ant]

I can second that!

Cheshire cat springs to mind. That is a superb image.

The quality of images posted so far are amazing. Haven't looked at mine yet, but will hopefully have something to post tonight! Although they won't be up to the standard already posted!

Ant

[SteveL]

Which do you prefer? The original at the top, or the new and improved sharpened one below?

[CELESCOPE]

Hi Steve ,tis difficult, both are so good ,and on this carp monitor here at work is not the best judge , but as far as i can see the bottom has it,

have a better look when home ,#

Rog

[Albedo 0.39]

Absolutely stunning Steve.

Congratulations on your superb pictures.

David :wav:

[steppenwolf]

Some great images coming out of the Kelling weekend but that M42 of Steve's is just stunning!! What a great combination, QHY8 Camera and 66mm refractor - a marriage made in heaven if ever there was one and great skill by the imager himself .....

[MikeP]

Having seen the fantastic images submitted so far, I humbly submit my more modest efforts of the Dumbbell and Veil nebulae. These are the first images ever produced by my previously virgin Atik 16HR. While they are nowhere near as impressive looking as MartinB’s, SteveL’s, KaiHerb’s etc., I’m still gob smacked by what the ED80 is capable of and I’m inspired to try to follow in their footsteps.

I take little credit for the images. When Rog (Celescope) heard it was my first go, he and Dave (Centroid) gave me a tremendous amount of help. I’ve set out the few details I can remember for those of you who are as uninformed as I was.

Rog did a polar align (first time my polar scope has been used since I can’t see Polaris at home) and then after we star aligned the GOTO, he showed me how to use the Artemis capture software. Initially it was with very short exposures to centre the DSO and focus on the nearby stars. Then the looping facility was used to take a series of 45 second exposures, each of which was written to my laptop as a separate file.

After about 50 had been written, the looping was stopped and Maxim was used to combine the files into a single .png file. Since the EQ6 had done such a good tracking job, this didn’t take more than a few mouse clicks and hey presto, the image appeared – unbelievable.

The next part – processing the images was started with Maxim and completed with Photoshop. I have little memory or understanding of how it was done, partly because I’m “an old dog” and partly because Rog did most of it and the laptop screen was a bit difficult to read at an angle – well, that’s my excuse.

Anyway, here are the images - no filters were used (I haven't got any - YET). It will be a little while before I post any more because I think it will take quite an effort to begin to master the processing. However it is important that those of us who are beginners do post regularly otherwise we will become intimidated by the quality of the experts’ images.

Mike

Dumbell

(click to enlarge)

Veil

(click to enlarge)