Eskimo in 1sec exp!

[nytecam]

The bright "Eskimo" planetary neb is currently wellplaced early evening in Gemini near brilliant Jupiter.   In my attempt to see what can be recorded in ever briefer exposures, here's my recent Eskimo shot - the image also captures stars to mag 14 as noted on the pic - pretty amazing for just 1s exposure   Data on image.

[DoctorD]

Wow Maurice that's fantastic!!

Just wish Id had some clear weather to try out my Lodestar!!

Still getting to grips with the Lodestar-USB software (whilst trying Paul's Lodestar Live).

Managed to get a few wide field shots of M42 using my little refractor.

Clear skies

Paul

[nytecam]

Wow Maurice that's fantastic!!Just wish Id had some clear weather to try out my Lodestar!!Still getting to grips with the Lodestar-USB software (whilst trying Paul's Lodestar Live).Managed to get a few wide field shots of M42 using my little refractor. Clear skiesPaul

Hi Paul - glad you've started to get results via the Lodestar-C - perhaps you can start a thread to show your progress when you're ready :-)

[DoctorD]

Hi Maurice

I most certainly will - however it will be a while before I get anything like the results you achieve!

Paul

[budman1961]

Nice shot Maurice.

That being said, why are the stars so saturated? I have seen M1 many times with a DSLR, CCD, and Video camera, and I just cant see the blue stars, and the blue tinging in the nebula itself.

Am I confused?? I dont think I am......please help me to understand how you are getting the colors that you put up.

I have a very good friend with a Lodestar-C, an Edge 11 HD, reduced properly to f5, and, our results arent close to yours. We are in SW Missouri, USA, and dont have anywhere near the LP of downtown London, UK, like you claim....please help me to understand.

I am not doubting your methods, or equipment, but it just doesn't make sense to me. I keep seeing these "1 second" images, with what appears to be very good dynamic range, especially considering your viewing conditions...when I look at your extended integration shots, I just cant make sense of them. I see more star color, very deep blacks, almost no noise (sensor or otherwise), than just about any "live", "near live", "near live and stacked/processed", or hybrid CMOS/CCD/DSLR images. Can you help me and the general community?

I really like SGL, and have enjoyed most all posts.....even though the exact content of your posts have spilled over into Cn (and I am sure others), word for word. I have asked a few times how your images come together, and I just dont have a clear understanding. I have a Mallincam, I use the Miloslick software, and I am also active on NSN. I dont feel that those purchases exclude me from making honest questions about other systems. And I look forward to hearing you answers.

I know the Lodestar is a very good camera......you appear to be very fluent with video capture programs, I figure that since you post the Youtube videos a lot.....can you PLEASE post a video of what you do with your "raw" camera images,to get them to the nicely polished public images and videos that you post?

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to your response. I am really looking for Maurice's input, thanks you all others for looking.

Andy 

[nytecam]

Andy sorry you're confused - and me for a different reason - why can't you post normally in SGL format? Is it your way of SHOUTING. !!!!

[budman1961]

Sorry Maurice......not a shout, just a normal query!

Nice shot Maurice.

That being said, why are the stars so saturated? I have seen M1 many times with a DSLR, CCD, and Video camera, and I just cant see the blue stars, and the blue tinging in the nebula itself.

Am I confused?? I dont think I am......please help me to understand how you are getting the colors that you put up.

I have a very good friend with a Lodestar-C, an Edge 11 HD, reduced properly to f5, and, our results arent close to yours. We are in SW Missouri, USA, and dont have anywhere near the LP of downtown London, UK, like you claim....please help me to understand.

I am not doubting your methods, or equipment, but it just doesn't make sense to me. I keep seeing these "1 second" images, with what appears to be very good dynamic range, especially considering your viewing conditions...when I look at your extended integration shots, I just cant make sense of them. I see more star color, very deep blacks, almost no noise (sensor or otherwise), than just about any "live", "near live", "near live and stacked/processed", or hybrid CMOS/CCD/DSLR images. Can you help me and the general community?

I really like SGL, and have enjoyed most all posts.....even though the exact content of your posts have spilled over into Cn (and I am sure others), word for word. I have asked a few times how your images come together, and I just dont have a clear understanding. I have a Mallincam, I use the Miloslick software, and I am also active on NSN. I dont feel that those purchases exclude me from making honest questions about other systems. And I look forward to hearing you answers.

I know the Lodestar is a very good camera......you appear to be very fluent with video capture programs, I figure that since you post the Youtube videos a lot.....can you PLEASE post a video of what you do with your "raw" camera images,to get them to the nicely polished public images and videos that you post?

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to your response. I am really looking for Maurice's input, thanks you all others for looking.

Andy

[Paul73]

Sorry Maurice......not a shout, just a normal query!

Nice shot Maurice.

so saturated? I have seen M1 many times with a DSLR, CCD, /quote]

Andy

Did you mean M1? That is the Crab Nebula in Taurus. I don't think that the Eskimo is a Messier.

The whole imaging thing is a confusing closed book to me. But I enjoy the images and marvel at the amount of work and technical know how needed to get them to this point.

Keep posting guys.

Paul

[Dwight]

Unprocessed images taken during full moon (and light pollution) will show noticeable vignetting and gradient biased in the direction of the moon, especially at very fast focal ratios. Unprocessed images (live or "near" live) will have low SNR, dust bunnies, low color saturation, hot pixels, column defects (which Lodestars are well known for). Some software for some cameras can compensate for these defects on the "fly" but I haven't seen flat field correction nor really effective dark frame subtraction on the "fly" as of yet. Miloslick software can remove some of the hot pixels but that is only for Mallincams. To get a reasonable image in a very short exposure significant post-processing will be required, not the least of which is stretching the histogram. Posted images really are not representative of what astrovideo is or is capable of. Most of my astrovideoing is done watching a TV at continually refreshed images or, when I am broadcasting on NSN, the computer monitor. The view of raw, unprocessed images on a TV is best IMHO, warts and all. ....Dwight

[nytecam]

Unprocessed images taken during full moon (and light pollution) will show noticeable vignetting and gradient biased in the direction of the moon, especially at very fast focal ratios. Unprocessed images (live or "near" live) will have low SNR, dust bunnies, low color saturation, hot pixels, column defects (which Lodestars are well known for). ..Dwight

Really Dwight - since when (in your absence of Lodestar camera use !) Have you become an expert in Lodestar use beyond miss information and rumor !

[DaveNicko]

What on Earth os going on in this thread?

Sorry Maurice......not a shout, just a normal query!

Nice shot Maurice.

That being said, why are the stars so saturated? I have seen M1 many times with a DSLR, CCD, and Video camera, and I just cant see the blue stars, and the blue tinging in the nebula itself.

Am I confused?? I dont think I am......please help me to understand how you are getting the colors that you put up.

I have a very good friend with a Lodestar-C, an Edge 11 HD, reduced properly to f5, and, our results arent close to yours. We are in SW Missouri, USA, and dont have anywhere near the LP of downtown London, UK, like you claim....please help me to understand.


Thanks for reading, and I look forward to your response. I am really looking for Maurice's input, thanks you all others for looking.

Andy

As said before this isn't M1 - it's the eskimo nebula (NGC 2392) which is quite a lot brighter. It also isn't really appropriate to compare an image taken with a scope at f/5 with this which, according to the data on the image, was taken with a scope at f/2.8. That's almost a full stop of light (i.e. almost twice the light). Also Surrey is quite big - I presume (I may be wrong) that Maurice is based away from downtown London.

Unprocessed images taken during full moon (and light pollution) will show noticeable vignetting and gradient biased in the direction of the moon, especially at very fast focal ratios. Unprocessed images (live or "near" live) will have low SNR, dust bunnies, low color saturation, hot pixels, column defects (which Lodestars are well known for). Some software for some cameras can compensate for these defects on the "fly" but I haven't seen flat field correction nor really effective dark frame subtraction on the "fly" as of yet. Miloslick software can remove some of the hot pixels but that is only for Mallincams. To get a reasonable image in a very short exposure significant post-processing will be required, not the least of which is stretching the histogram. Posted images really are not representative of what astrovideo is or is capable of. Most of my astrovideoing is done watching a TV at continually refreshed images or, when I am broadcasting on NSN, the computer monitor. The view of raw, unprocessed images on a TV is best IMHO, warts and all. ....Dwight

But if Maurice is away from light pollution then this wouldn't be an issue. The image was taken on 4th December so there will have been no moon either (6% - 2 days old). I'm no expert on the Lodestar, but at f/2.8 for 1 second assuming a sensitive CCD and nice dark skies the image above doesn't strike me as particularly suprising. In fact it is close to what I saw visually last week with an f/6 scope and with my own eyes...

Dave.

[nytecam]

Hi Dave

pont 1-   I don't know where you are [you coyly don't say!] but I'm in Surrey in a little niche into the Great Metropolis [literally a stones throw from my obsy] and surrounded by 12M folk that puts LP way up MY agenda! 

point 2 - Andy [bD61] is multiple posting across the internet from another forum and referring to my M1 shot in 1x20s under moonlight - he is always quibbling about my Lodestar results probably because they're very good   

Peace

[DaveNicko]

Hi,

I'm actually in North Yorkshire not far from York, buy far enough to luckily have dark skies. But when I viewed the Eskimo it was about 60 or 70% I think so in effect creates its own "light pollution".

I've seen shots of yours before and have been impressed. Actually thinking about it I should probably be quibbling about your results too!

Nice to know your skin is sufficiently thick :-)

Dave.

[DaveNicko]

*The Moon! The Moon was 60-70%, not the Eskimo nebula. Obviously. But you didn't need me to tell you that did you?

(don't think I can edit my posts yet)

[nytecam]

Glad that's sorted Nick - have a good day

[Dwight]

Well Maurice, nows your opportunity to enlighten the great unwashed with your workflow to produce such "semi-live" images and clear up rumour and innuendo. That is my challenge to you. I didn't just fall off the wagon last week either. I had two Starlight Xpress CCD cameras for over 10 years, one being the MX7C. I know about vignetting and brightness gradients and what must be done to remove them.

[nucleardwarf]

Well Maurice, nows your opportunity to enlighten the great unwashed with your workflow to produce such "semi-live" images and clear up rumour and innuendo. That is my challenge to you. I didn't just fall off the wagon last week either. I had two Starlight Xpress CCD cameras for over 10 years, one being the MX7C. I know about vignetting and brightness gradients and what must be done to remove them

Toys coming out of prams all over the place here.

[Dwight]

Nice colloquialism, here's another: If you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen.

[nucleardwarf]

Oh hum.

[Paul73]

Back story here???? Or just some misinterpretation of some hastily chosen words on a friendly public forum.

To the casual SGL observer. It is beginning to look a bit like Mr Nuclear dwarf says.....

Paul

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Gentlemen , behave, or else I will have to put people on moderated posts or worse. Those guilty know who I am talking to

Just a general note that there seems to be some real hostility between Malincam and Lodestar users going on. This kind of bickering is futile. People have different preferences, and a balanced discussion on the merits of different types of kit are more than welcome. What we will not tolerate are slanging matches between different cliques of users. Such behaviour will result in members being banned.