M97 - The Owl nebula

[swag72]

This is my first image with the C9.25 running at it's native f10. I said that imaging at this speed was possible and I think it is. What I have found though is that regarding processing it is very unforgiving indeed, this was a nightmare to process. I can't help thinking that this isn't the most 'wow' blob in the universe, so I probably expected too much.

What I found hard was the background and the outer halo. In the end, after a number of goes at it, I realised that the background noise I was seeing and trying to deal with, was in fact stars from the luminance layer. There's certainly a few fuzzies in here that I've not noticed in M97 before. I don't like the background, but there's little I can do with it!! How can I get rid of stars?!!

I would welcome your thoughts on this - It has been very difficult and I have sat on this now for a few days with a continued air of disappointment.

Details

M: Avalon LInear Fast Reverse

T: Celestron C9.25

C: Atik 460EXM with 3nm Ha and OIII filters and a Hutech P2 for luminance

14x1800s Ha

22x1800s OIII

19x1200s Lum

Total integration time 24h 20m

You can see a larger version here http://swagastro.weebly.com/uploads/2/3/3/7/23377322/m97_upload.jpg

[MartinB]

Nice capture of the halo Sara.  I imaged this some time ago and found it difficult to pull anything out that gave me much satisfaction.  You've done a much better job

[Sp@ce_d]

Well, I also had a go at this with the C925 a couple of weeks or so ago, but gave up in disgust. Don't take this the wrong way Sara yours its still way better than my attempt, but I don't feel quite as bad now I've seen it.  It really is a bit of a 'Blob' as you say and just had me re checking focus all the time.

[Sandancer10]

Hi Sara and well done considering the comments above it seems like a 'bit of a mare' to process.

To get rid of some of the stars, using PS goto filters/noise/dust & scratches or try despeckle.  I also brought Astronomy Tools and that has a reduce star size action.

Hope this helps.  

[swag72]

Thanks for your comments Martin, Spaced and Brenda

@Brenda - Using star reduction etc was a nightmare as the stars are quite faint and it just made everything more lumpy looking. The stars and fuzzies are there and I just have to accept it - Don't like it though!!! Trying to reduce them just made matters worse!

[lensman57]

Thanks for your comments Martin, Spaced and Brenda

@Brenda - Using star reduction etc was a nightmare as the stars are quite faint and it just made everything more lumpy looking. The stars and fuzzies are there and I just have to accept it - Don't like it though!!! Trying to reduce them just made matters worse!

Hi Sara,

I have only imaged this little beauty in widefield so I imagine that capturing the little blobbler at the native FL of a 9.25 will be notthing short of a nightmare, so well done and congratulations. As for the star reduction I use a couple of involved methods in PI but recently I have come across "Staraton" software and I have downloaded the trial version and it seems to work great. The licence is 15 Euros you can give it a try and see what you think of it.

Regards,

A.G

[swag72]

Thanks for the comments AG. I've got Straton and do use it quite a bit, it's an excellent piece of software.

To be honest I'm not sure if losing the stars is the answer, they are there after all. I think this is a 'put it down to experience' blob an time to forget it and move on!

[MartinB]

The stars look fine to me.  It's a nice visual target  I've never done very well on the Eskimo or M57 either.

[Martin-Devon]

Sara, I've looked at a few other versions of the Owl nebula, and no question, your version stacks up with the best. It's one of the more difficult targets and tackling this with F10 optics and delivering an image of the quality you have is quite an achievement.  

Martin

[Mark72]

this is a tough one, mine is a third that good;)

great work on this.

Mark

[andyman]

Showing some nice detail there....very nicely done

[Coco]

Cracking

[swag72]

Thanks Martin, Mark, Andy and Guy - Most kind all of you

[sologuitarist61]

First class image Sara!

[swag72]

Thanks Richard - A first class nightmare

[Earl]

Great effort, I do think that at F10 you are going to need 4 x the data you would normally consider enough though to get to your normal standard.

[swag72]

Cheers Earl - I can't help thinking you're right there - Loads more data needed, but not on this boring blob!!! I can see a lot of experimentation will be in order.