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M27 bicolur @ 1960mm focal length

x6gas

By x6gas
in Imaging - Deep Sky

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x6gas

x6gas

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I was inspired by morimarty's excellent Ha image of M76 to mount up my HD11 and take a poke at some planetary nebulae.  This is also the first time I've been back to a target, I think, as I'd imaged M27 in August last year...

Anyway, this is a bicolour version with Ha and [OIII] data and a synthetic blue channel generated using Salvatore Grasso's method.

Not a huge amount of data - I only managed an hour per channel in 10 minute subs and so I am quite happy with how this has come out given the limited number of subs and the fact that it was blowing a gale and thus my guide graph was distinctly choppy.

Scope: Celestron 11" EdgeHD with Celestron 0.7 focal reducer

Mount: CGEM DX

Camera: Atik 490ex

Guiding: Atik OAG, IMG0H, PHD

Processed using AstroArt 5.0, Registar, Straton, and Photoshop CS5.

post-11821-0-30104500-1382890443_thumb.p

As always, comments very welcome.

Thanks for looking, Ian

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x6gas

x6gas

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Wow, what an amazing level of detail, especially at 1 hour per channel! Don't think I've ever seen the outer shells so well brought out.

Many thanks for your kind comments.  The prize for the best amateur image of M27 must go to Andre van der Hoeven and chums which is utterly stunning - at least it's the best I've seen...  But then, they did have 24 hours worth of data!

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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Unbelievable. An hour per channel? I think I'll just buy an Edge 11 and reducer immediately!!

Lovely work, and processing which must have been aggressive but absolutely doesn't look it. That's the way. 

Low bow,

Olly

PS, Trying to get it in Ha/OIII enhanced RGB is a pig becaue you can't keep the stars down, though you do get star colour. Yves and I hammered away for about 20 hours on this one. http://ollypenrice.smugmug.com/Other/Best-of-Les-Granges/i-VTWp94c/0/X3/M27_HaO111RGBWEB-X3.jpg

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x6gas

x6gas

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Stack of detail in this, I like it!

Great pic. It gives a real sense of depth to the outgoing bubbles.

That's brilliant for an hour per channel - love it

Very many thanks all.

M27 sings in Ha and [OIII], of course, and the reducer speeding up the optics helps - and I forgot to mention that the camera was binned 2x2 - but I was pleased to get the outer halo with so little data.

My usual modus operandi is to capture lots of data (which makes the processing a lot easier) so I had to work a bit harder on this one.  I made starless versions of the Ha and [OIII] using a new (to me at least) program called Straton which allowed me to drop stars in that hadn't been stretched as aggressively as the nebula.

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x6gas

x6gas

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Unbelievable. An hour per channel? I think I'll just buy an Edge 11 and reducer immediately!!

Lovely work, and processing which must have been aggressive but absolutely doesn't look it. That's the way. 

Low bow,

Olly

PS, Trying to get it in Ha/OIII enhanced RGB is a pig becaue you can't keep the stars down, though you do get star colour. Yves and I hammered away for about 20 hours on this one. http://ollypenrice.smugmug.com/Other/Best-of-Les-Granges/i-VTWp94c/0/X3/M27_HaO111RGBWEB-X3.jpg

Really appreciate the comments Olly.  I don't think I've got the best out of the Edge 11 up until now as I've struggled with collimating the thing and getting my previous reducer (Optec Lepus) square.

The processing was indeed much more aggressive than I would usually attempt.  I think this is indicative that I am gradually adding more techniques to the tool box and - crucially - beginning to understand when to use them!  The latest addition to the tool box is Local Contrast Enhancement - thanks to your good self - and while judicious high pass filtering did the donkey work on this image, the LCE was useful too.

I would love to have RGB stars on this.  My plan is to capture some RGB data at some point and add that in to the starless version of each channels which I hope will work so long as I have the nebula and stars stretched appropriately - think that will work?

Thanks again.

Ian

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Naemeth

Naemeth

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Unbelievable. An hour per channel? I think I'll just buy an Edge 11 and reducer immediately!!

Lovely work, and processing which must have been aggressive but absolutely doesn't look it. That's the way. 

Low bow,

Olly

PS, Trying to get it in Ha/OIII enhanced RGB is a pig becaue you can't keep the stars down, though you do get star colour. Yves and I hammered away for about 20 hours on this one. http://ollypenrice.smugmug.com/Other/Best-of-Les-Granges/i-VTWp94c/0/X3/M27_HaO111RGBWEB-X3.jpg

I never thought I would hear Olly say he would buy an SCT for DSO AP. How times change.

I can see why though, absolutely amazing image, and it's very refreshing to see this image scale, it's rare you get to see the Dumbbell this 'close'.

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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I never thought I would hear Olly say he would buy an SCT for DSO AP. How times change.

I can see why though, absolutely amazing image, and it's very refreshing to see this image scale, it's rare you get to see the Dumbbell this 'close'.

No, my anti-SCT position concerns beginners who tend to be very attracted to SCTs (as I was) but who will find long focal lengths an absolute nightmare. Also Celestron have at last got the reducer on the market, without which the Edge made no sense. Tim has already shown what the Edge can do and here is more proof.

Olly

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Naemeth

Naemeth

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No, my anti-SCT position concerns beginners who tend to be very attracted to SCTs (as I was) but who will find long focal lengths an absolute nightmare. Also Celestron have at last got the reducer on the market, without which the Edge made no sense. Tim has already shown what the Edge can do and here is more proof.

Olly

Ah yes, of course. My apologies Olly :).

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x6gas

x6gas

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Amazing capture.

A.G

That's stunning. The detail is incredible. You can see what appear to be shockwaves.

Quite Simply stunning imaging Ian, This is just what the hd11 was made for Brilliant!

Fantastic :)  Must have a go at this one myself but doubt I'll match that - wonderful capture of the outer shells :)

Thanks all - I really appreciate it!

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x6gas

x6gas

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No, my anti-SCT position concerns beginners who tend to be very attracted to SCTs (as I was) but who will find long focal lengths an absolute nightmare. Also Celestron have at last got the reducer on the market, without which the Edge made no sense. Tim has already shown what the Edge can do and here is more proof.

Olly

Ha! - and Olly's right, even reduced down, guiding at ~2000mm focal length is not for the faint hearted.  The advice I got (again from SGL) to go down the OAG route makes it a bit easier, I think, so long as you don't mind scarily alpine guide graphs.  Even imaging at this focal length was a non-starter until I hypertuned my mount.

The Celestron reducer is expensive but works well - gives a great corrected image circle and retains the same back focus as the native scope.

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Naemeth

Naemeth

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Ha! - and Olly's right, even reduced down, guiding at ~2000mm focal length is not for the faint hearted.  The advice I got (again from SGL) to go down the OAG route makes it a bit easier, I think, so long as you don't mind scarily alpine guide graphs.  Even imaging at this focal length was a non-starter until I hypertuned my mount.

The Celestron reducer is expensive but works well - gives a great corrected image circle and retains the same back focus as the native scope.

How did you go about the Hypertuning? Apologies if this is hijacking the thread a bit.

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