Cygnus Loop NB Hubble pallette - First Light Tripple Widefield Rig in NB

[Gina]

Thank you both

[WyomingRob]

Now that's a nice image.

Shows what a well set up scope will do un-guided.

Rob C.

[Gina]

Thank you Rob

[Gina]

I have now taken all the decent subs from several nights imaging and produced a Hubble palette combined image. Ha 87 x 5m - OIII 116 x 5m - SII 109 x 5m. Stacked in DSS, stretched in Ps and aligned with RegiStar then combined and further processed in Ps to the Hubble palette, cropped and rezized.

With the current number of subs there is little point in collecting any more 5m exposures so I'm moving on to other targets until I get guiding fixed when I expect to come back the this. Then longer subs may fill in more of the background luminosity.

[Dave Smith]

Fantastic work Gina - I just can't imagine having to keep all of those working at the same time. I mostly use Maxim for guiding which occasionally throws a wobbly and then it is PHD to the rescue.

Dave

[Gina]

Thank you Dave There are rather a lot of things to remember to set up before assuming the imaging run is proceeding correctly. The proceedure is:-

1. Switch everything on
   
2. Run CdC
   
3. Start EQMOD/Ascom from CdC
   
4. Run Artemis and choose first camera
   
5. Run Artemis and select 2nd camera
   
6. Run Artemis again - only one camera left so no choice
   
7. Run AstroTortilla and slew to target
   
8. Set up Artemis on one of the cameras with suitable exposure and binning and start capturing and saving for AT to fine tune the position.
   
9. Repeat slewing and capturing until on target.
   
10. Set up and calibrate guiding if appropriate (ie. if it works )
    
11. 3 lenses to focus
    
12. Stop imaging on all camreras
    
13. Set each copy of Artemis to the right exposure
    
14. Set each to 1x1 binning
    
15. Set each to save images
    
16. Start each capturing
    

Yes, plenty of opportunities to forget something and only notice on looking at each of the 3 first subs after 5mins or whatever! It does take a bit longer to get this lot set up than a single camera system But at least I don't have to worry about a filter wheel

[Dave Smith]

Surely your EFW2 is no trouble at all

Dave

[Gina]

No it isn't In "automotive parlance" it's "the nut behind the wheel" In fact the settings entered into the Artemis Sequencer are set in individual copies instead. EFW2 is easier in that the subs are saved automatically and exposures and binning can be set up and saved. So it's then just a metter of loading the settings and setting it going - much less to get wrong but I can still manage it

[Gina]

Had a little tweek but I overdid the lighter parts earlier on in the processing and it's saturated so it wants a re-process really - may do that later. Anyway, here's the result of the tweek - mainly a bit of sharpening and noise reduction.

[Quatermass]

That's great Gina and what a lot of hard work to.

Your dedication is really paying off what's your next target going to be how about the eagle or swan or wild duck there might even be a chicken up there somewhere:D

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

[Komet]

May try AA5 (should get that sorted out sometime ).

Do .... imo it blows PHD out of the water.

Nice work

[Gina]

Thanks Mick

[Gina]

Last night we had the best clear sky I've seen for some time. The Milky Way was clearly visible with the naked eye and seeing and transparency were good. Had the lowest FWHM I've seen yet with under 2 on all 3 cameras. Images were good right up until dawn. I started the imaging run proper at about 10pm having framed the image, checked and adjusted focus and set PHD going. There were plenty of stars to choose for guiding and I chose the brightest. Calibration was done in about a dozen in each direction and guiding was excellent with a 2s integration time.

I started off with a couple of 5m subs in each channel and then 3 10m before setting up 20m subs. It was a great night with good subs until dawn I collected 17-18 good subs of 20m in each channel. As it happens I could probably have gone for longer subs but recent experience has shown that what was good at midnight deteriorarted as mist or cloud came in soon after leaving it to itself. Totals were actually 7 hours on Ha and OIII and 6h 40m on SII so overall a total of 20h 40m for the night How about that then? And in summer - should be good if we get any such great nights in the winter.

Here's a screenshot of the PHD graph.

And finally the Hubble palette combined image with all the usual processing.

[Gina]

I've done a bit more processing to bring out more of the faint stuff.

[Gina]

I decided the processing could do with some changes at the earlier stages so I did a reprocess starting with the individual channel stacks. I've been trying to correct the oversize stars in the SII channel but I'm not really succeeding as yet. I think this is an improved result generally though.

[Gina]

In view of the SII problem I have done another process without it - a "natural palette". This is Ha - OIII - OIII+25%Ha.

[VigdisVZ]

I think i like this palette a bit more. Great job!

[Epicycle]

Great to see that guiding is being sorted! That PhD graph looked quite good.

[Gina]

Thank you both