M65/M66, first reasonable LRGB

[rfdesigner]

Hi

I've been trying to get a whole lot of new kit all working together recently and I've finally got something that's not too embarrasing to show for my efforts.

This was taken with my 383L+ my new Atik filter wheel, new filters, new Baader MK3 coma corrector some new code running on the mount and the results of a mount stripdown and rebuild.

Known issues:

I've found I've introduced a bit of sticktion into the mount (by error) so the guiding's a touch jerky, so my stars have gone a bit eggy

The scope tube is flexing a bit at the focusser and pushing me out of collimation which means I'm getting little comets (but at least they're the same all over the image, which suggests the coma corrector is working fine)

I also hit a snag in Artemitis. During setup the camera power was briefly unplugged then replugged, the result was that Artemitis automatically reconnected but didn't get control of the cooler, So all images are effectively taken at about 0C chip temp, not the usual -15C... which for a 383 means my raw frames were a snow storm.

So despite all the above I still got a pic.

50mins L 1x1 bin. 17 mins each RGB 3x3 bin. 100% processed in IRIS. North is to the right.

thanks for looking

Derek

Edit: (And if anyone can explain why this looks nothing like it did in IRIS please be my guest!)

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice one. SN2013am showing up nicely too

[ollypenrice]

You'll get it debugged in time. This is very attractive.

True about the Atik coolers if interrupted. I unplug everything, power off the camera, close and reopen Artemis Capture and re power the camera because interruptions seem to confuse the coolers and can leave them confused all night!

Olly

[rfdesigner]

Thanks for the replys, I've been busy with the obsy build so hadn't realised about the supernova.. that's my first one! I've just had a play with the JPEG data to see if I could pull a little more out of it. All my processing is on the other computer at home, so I'll have to give it another go this evening.

Anway: additional process: extract luminance, log it, adjust levels, everal itterations of selective blur, re LRGB with new L and old RGB.

Beginning to look a little better... 100% IRIS again.

[rfdesigner]

Now I get home and have a look at this on the other machine.. the first image looks way better.. one of the screens must be miles off cal!

[Gina]

Really great image - both galaxies look lovely

[sologuitarist61]

Very nice