First light for Atik 314L+ Megrez 72

[Astroblagger]

Hello here is my first image with my Atik 314L+ with megrez 72 and filters, Its been a steep learning curve! both imaging and processing, its not perfect by any means but its my first Mono image ever so i cant be that downbeat about it, the stars are a mess and i was struggling with focus whilst taking the subs, will need to work on it, blue seemed really unfocused. i thought the filters were suppose to be parfocal? About 30 min L, 10 min each for R,G,B taken from a really dark site.

Just want to thank the folk on here for all the advice on cameras etc.

[Velvet]

you should be really pleased with this. Well done.

Filters are supposed to be parfocal ......but... as always you need to check with each one may require adjustment

Velvet

[Fogboundturtle]

If I can do this picture on my frist try, I would be spamming the world with my pure joy.

[Gina]

I think that's magnificent and far better than my effort - well done M42 looks like a pig's face to me

[mytola]

Since it's blue giving you trouble with focus, could it be that this is not so good corrected as the other wavelengths in the scope?

[johnrt]

Your filters will not be parfocal with the Meg 72 as it's a doublet and has poor colour control in the blue especially. I had the same combo of scope and camera and found lrgb imaging very difficult because of this reason. On the up side it makes a cracking hydrogen alpha and narrowband scope in general!

[cfpendock]

That's a really nice image. For a first mono image, it's pretty incredible....

Chris

[Astroblagger]

Thanks for the comments, i dont really want to buy another scope if i can help it partly cos im skint after buying the atik! as long as it can refocus when changing filters? might just have to live with it, i found the stars quite bloated though?

i was using Astronomik LRGB filters, maybe my L focus was off? Very impressed with sensitivity of the camera though.

[ollypenrice]

John will be right, the blue issue will be bloat from an inability to focus blue from the doublet.

But hey, this is good. I'd suggest you exclude the stars from any sharpening. They get rings round them and a hard look. Don't be frightened of soft stars. Also your blue channel seems to be misaligned slightly. Sorting that would help. When this happens to me I align in Registar which is infallible.

Olly

[swag72]

I think that as a first attempt at mono imaging this really is excellent. A couple of things though, as said, do not rely on the filters being parfocal. I always refocus between filter changes. Also, have you done any kind of noise reduction? I ask as although the gas detail looks good, it seems as though it's been smoothed out.

[Astroblagger]

yes i used noise ninja, i really just try this, try that when processing and see what happens! looked at afew tutorials etc but have along way to go with processing! yes i did notice the blue but had flattened and saved it before i really noticed it? how do you exclude stars from sharpening is there a tutorial for that somewhere? Dont think i will going back to a dslr now! im i right in thinking then that a triplet doesn't require refocusing?

[3ggman]

Excellent image well done, its a steep learning curve alright (I also learned the hard way to refocus when changing filters)

[Fay]

Fantastic image!!!!! Well done

Fay

[laser_jock99]

Nice M42.

[Quatermass]

Lovely

Sent from my Scroll Plus using Tapatalk 2

[Uranium235]

Great first go!

Your filters would only by parfocal in a telescope with perfect colour correction, so it should be a matter of routine that you always refocus after changing the filter. Its better to take your time with blue as well, I often find that one a bit tricky to get it bang-on.

If you want to sharpen the nebula, but not your stars:

1) Use noels "select brighter stars" to create a selection. Then CTRL+J to create a star layer

2) Reselecting the background layer, run the select brighter stars action again

3) Inverse the selection so everything except the stars is now selected.

4) Run whatever sharpening routine you use on the selection

5) You may notice that has a effect on the brightness of your smaller stars (they now look dimmer), that is fixed by selecting your star layer and giving it a very small curve adjustment.

6) Merge & flatten

7) Done!

Its better to go light on the sharpening in order to avoid introducing noise, so its best to experiment to see how far you can push it

Hope that helps!

[davies07]

I first spotted this on your Flickr site. Fantastic.

[starnut]

Another WoW image well done