How to control Alnitak.

[ollypenrice]

At last I know the answer. In the past I've used multiple stretches and many layers, gradually to reduce this supernova-like explosion of light bursting all over images of the Horse and Flame. (I've imaged it in an old Pearl River Genesis, a Tak FSQ 85, a Tak FSQ106 and an Altair Astro 115.) But there is an easier way...

Buy a TEC 140 APO and TEC flattener. (I didn't say the solution was cheap!  )

Below is the linear luminance stack and, to the right, the same image stretched and cut back in two doses of Levels and Curves. Absolutely nothing whatever has been done specifically to Alnitak. As you can see, there is almost nothing further needed. I found this quite incredible and have never seen it behave like this before. The great advantage of having the star optically controlled as it hits the chip, rather than controlled in software afterwards, is that there is Flame data right next to Alnitak. This isn't the case if it isn't controlled from the start.

The new flattener seems to have done wonders for the TEC.

Olly

[narrowbandpaul]

Hi Olly,

Nice to see it being controlled optically rather than with Photoshop jiggery pokery. Too many seem to throw every photoshop tool at their images and I firmly believe that a good image has high S/N rather than high processing times in PS. Having had the fortune to image through the TEC140 though without the dedicated flattener I can agree its a fine scope. What then makes this combo better for controlling star flare rather than other high quality imaging apo's like the FSQs. I think what's obvious is that you can't beat high quality optics....especially a nice big bit of glass.

Paul