Quick attack of heart and soul

[GlassWalker]

My first go at the heart and soul of my guided EQ6 era.

I know I could have tweaked the framing a bit, or better still, zoom out a little to help get it all in. Maybe one for next time. There's a bit of residual gradient I didn't correct well enough, but what's that dark patch between the heart and soul? I don't have any dust there on my flat... is it some dust out there, rather than on my camera?

Modified 450D, Astronomik CLS-CCD, Sigma 120-300 OS HSM at 300mm f/2.8. 22x2m with flats.

[Martin-Devon]

I think that's a pretty good capture - you've framed 2 lovely targets really well & the colour is excellent, well done!

[Dave Smith]

Lovely image, There is a bit of a gradient along the bottom edge but gradient exterminator gets rid of it nicely.

The dark patches are actually there. I have captured them in an image of just the heart. http://astrosnaps.co.uk/Heart.html

Dave

[GlassWalker]

Thanks all, I'm still playing with various gradient removal methods and tools so hope to do better in future. That was with a manual gradient removal using DBE in PixInsight, as I found the auto version a bit too aggressive. I find most gradient tools find it hard to distinguish between faint nebulosity and actual gradient leaving some unwanted effects in the dark areas.

Forecast still looks good for tonight so I hope to have another go perhaps at 200mm to get the lot in, and maybe also try adding some narrowband data as time allows.

[sologuitarist61]

Great image

[stellawolf]

Super image well done

[GlassWalker]

I did return to it again, this time zooming out a bit to get the whole lot! So many starts... Pretty much same settings otherwise. 46x2m subs.

Couldn't resist a bit of narrowband too. Only tried Ha and OIII, the latter wasn't terribly interesting but the Ha presented above has some potential. I have no idea how to add it to the RGB though... one for later on. 17x4m subs, Astronomik Ha 12nm.

[Austin]

very nice! great image

[Gina]

Beautiful

[GlassWalker]

Have one more presentation of this subject. This is a Ha/OIII bicolour image.

17x4m Ha

14x4m OIII

I kinda prefer this version myself as the stars don't dominate the whole image as they do in RGB.

[Moon monkey]

fantastic ...

[Gina]

Fantastic! Lovely image Did you use a camera lens for that wide field coverage?

[GlassWalker]

Yup, same lens, the Sigma 120-300 OS HSM. This time zoomed out to 200mm. I don't think I'll be using the lens like that any more. The performance at 200mm is worse than it is at 300mm!

[Gina]

Still a very good looking image