Open Cluster M67

[MattJenko]

I did consider giving up after Tom and Olly's image, but life must go on

Here is my first image with my new 414ex. It is an open cluster, M67. The mono ccd is sooo much better at picking up colour than my dslr, but I feel like I am at the bottom of the learning curve again, but it is always good to keep on learning. I can feel an open cluster binge coming on...

Thanks as always

Matt

[Ian J]

Nice picture, have yet to get to grips with my dslr outfit as it's still on it's way and no doubt I will find it frustrating but looking at the images on here be it ccd or dslr drives me on.

[Chris]

Mighty fine star colour Matt, I'm looking forward to seeing more from this new camera! You couldn't squeeze in a galaxy or nebula into your open cluster binge could you Matt?

[MattJenko]

Thanks. Am struggling with creating decent RGB images from the individual colour channels at the moment with PixInsight (will try PhotoShop later this week), so practising on a few clusters. When I get a handle on that I'll move on to LRGB and the vast amount of galaxies that are starting to appear during prime time. I also have had to pickup a cheapo Windows laptop as my Mac + Nebulosity was being problematic with capturing properly and I am impatient. Another whole new world of learning. EQMOD, Sequence Generator Pro trial, CdC all new to me tonight. Be lucky to get anything If everything goes according to plan and the weather sticks to the decent forecasts, I'll try and gather some galaxy data at the weekend, as smaller DSOs are a big reason I bought this camera rather than staying with the 450d.

[nightster]

I am thoroughly impressed with this.  The star color is nice, but wow does it seem crisp to me.  Please what are the specifications on this image? And how much/what kind of processing did you do?  I am in process of collecting my Mono CCD gear, the Filter wheel and filters have been ordered hoping to have the camera by first week of April.  Which scope was this taken with?  Very interested in seeing more from you and this rig.  

[MattJenko]

This image was taken with a Skywatcher ED80 with an Atik 414ex mono CCD with Baader RGB filters. 15 x 5 min exposures for each RGB filter.

I had some ugly edge flares which were processed out using darks. This appears to be a Mac issue, so an trying out a Windows laptop now. This image is almost completely uncropped, so the full FOV of the sensor.

Mashed together in PixInsight. In the end, after much failed experimentation, I used StarAlign and then the RGB combine processes and on to standard linear (eg DBE) and non linear processing so the images were channel merged at the linear stage. Not sure if that is technically correct, but it worked for me in this instance. DSS was used for the calibration/stacking. I have yet to brave PI for this.

I also used a reducer/flattener purely to shorten the focal length for balance reasons and to not need extension tubes, not because I needed a flat field or particularly wanted a faster rig. The 55mm distance doesn't seem too much of a problem. I think I need to slightly reduce the exposure time for the stars as the cores are still saturated, but my efforts last night we spoilt by me trying to be too clever and do alternate filter exposures in Sequence Generator Pro and I have realised that the filters matched with this scope are not parfocal and I have no autofocuser

Always learning...

[nightster]

Thanks for that info. I am interested in this ccd due to its price. While I'd prefer the 460 with my 80/480 triple, the price is a problem for me now. So I am craving user reports like yours.

[MattJenko]

This one is for you Chris

Managed to [removed word] up the R + G frames by messing up my meridian flip, managed to lose the target, mess up tracking and gave up, but here is the Lum which has been lightly processed to remove the dust bunnies that my lack of flats left behind. 9 x 10mins: