A quick Orion nebula

[Andyfx]

My views to the south and east are a bit obscured, and although it was a cold night, I still wanted to finally get a few subs on Orion. I set up and everything went to plan, guiding was ok, new Synscan 3.32 firmware ok, only problem was that Orion barely made it over my roof top! Anyways, I managed some 30 second and 2 minute subs, and this is the result:

[drummermandan02]

Nice. How many subs did you have to take to get that?

[Paulus17]

That looks lovely Andy

[andy77]

Fantastic image, hope I can manage something Luke this with abit more practice

[Andyfx]

Thanks everyone. There were 137 subs in all, only 50 of which were 2 minutes. Was a crisp clear night though and my phone said it had dropped to minus 4 brrrrr lol.

[Gina]

Very nice indeed

[Jessun]

That's excellent result Andyfx for so little time!

All screens are different in calibration I reckon, and on my screen the image has a little blue tint to it. I tried to balance it out - in lack of any data of my own to work with - and I hope you don't mind me having some fun with your image!

See what you think about this tweak

/Jesper

[Andyfx]

Not at all, feel free to tinker

In fact I think you've managed to bring out more red, which I tired, and failed to do!

Oh, and thanks for all the nice comments too everyone.

[Andyfx]

Thanks Gina, I see you're Crab nebula avatar, was that taken with your new Atik?

[Andyfx]

That's excellent result Andyfx for so little time!

All screens are different in calibration I reckon, and on my screen the image has a little blue tint to it. I tried to balance it out - in lack of any data of my own to work with - and I hope you don't mind me having some fun with your image!

See what you think about this tweak

/Jesper

Just checked my original image and yep I blundered! You was completely right and there was too much blue, as I had forgotten to check levels before saving lol.

Here's my final image:

[Jessun]

Here's my final image

Not so fast Mr , that one is a tad greenish now.

Well, at least on my screen.

PS There's no such thing as a Final Image

/Jesper

[Catweazel]

Nice image, thanks for sharing

[Andyfx]

@Jessun. Nooooooooooooooooo better run HLVG then lol! Too true about the final image thing, it's final for now.... until I get more data

@Catweazel. Thanks mate, come out much better than expected, must of been the unusually cold and clear night.

[Jessun]

@Jessun. Nooooooooooooooooo better run HLVG then lol!

Haha, I tried that on your green rendition but it ate away too much and messed up the running man. I think levels and curves are suitable weapons of choice .

/Jesper

[Andyfx]

Not so fast Mr , that one is a tad greenish now.

Well, at least on my screen.

PS There's no such thing as a Final Image

/Jesper

Right, bye bye greenies!

[stem1989]

love the colours and the sharpness of the detail. great image

[Andyfx]

@stem1989. Thanks mate, nice of you to say

[Andyfx]

Argggghhhhhhhhhh had to lighten it up a touch too. Jessun this is all your fault lol!

Seriously though, thanks for the tips everyone, think the data is at it's limits now.

[Jessun]

Final and beautiful Andy!

Great framing too I think

/Jesper

[Andyfx]

@Jessun. Thanks so much and thanks again for the help. Really must go do some of my course work now lol zzz zzz!

[Damian1985]

Wow, looks amazing mate, did you stack all the images? and also did you includes darks/flats? I'm new to this imaging and am only using single exposures at the moment as I haven't had much success with the stacking side.

[Andyfx]

@Damien1985. Thanks very much, and yep the individual subs are stacked in 'Deep Sky Stacker'. I did use darks, flats and a few bias too, but have these stored and re-use them.

Here's a link to DSS, but if you need any help there's loads of nice people on here to give you advice.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/DeepSkyStacker/

[Damian1985]

Cheers mate, I have that program on my home PC and have had a little play, I think it's a little bit of me not knowing what I'm actually doing and also not sure what to expect it to actually do. Also I haven't had more that 8-10 actual images to stack as I've just got started and been a bit overexcited abut taking pics so have been flitting from Andromeda to Orion and all over the sky! Next time out, I shall just pic one subject and image it for the night!!

[Andyfx]

Sounds a plan, stick to one object and get a nice lot of subs and I think you'll be surprised what sort of image you'll get even with just short exposures.

[Stephen Green]

A very nice image

Stephen