It's been a long time coming - 3.5 years

[MarJax]

First time posting a new topic but wanted comments on what I've managed after 3.5 years doing astrophotography here in the UK, Surrey, under light polluted skies. Needless to say that it has been a steep learning curve for me with the equipment I've got and I may have started out a little differently if I new then what I know now. This is obviously not my first photo but, as I am quite critical of myself, I have not been as happy as I am with this one. The M57-Ring Nebula...

I started out with the Celestron NexStar 8SE, moved the 8" to a Celestron AVX mount then finally onto the AZ-EQ6.

My current set-up is as follows (in depth till I am granted signature rights so apologies)

Hardware:

Skywatcher AZ EQ6-GT mount

HitecAstro EQDIR adapter for EQMOD

Celestron C8 XLT (with ADM Losmandy-type Dovetail)

Celestron 0.63 Reducer

Starlight Instruments Feather-Touch MicroFocuser

JMI Motofocus For Starlight Instruments Feathertouch

HitecDCFocus unit

Skywatcher Startravel 80 OTA (piggy backed onto the C8 for guiding)

Lodestar X2 guide camera

Canon EOS 600D (Full AstroMod)

Baader Protective T-ring for Canon EOS with Mounted UV/IR blocker/L-Filter

2 x StarTech.com 4 Port Black USB 2.0 Hub

2 x 15m USB Active Repeater Extension Cable USB2.0

Capture Software:

Stellarium Scope

Stellarium

EQMOD

Sequence Generator pro

BackYard EOS

PHD2

Processing Software:

DeepSkyStacker

PixInsight

Other:

One very tolerant wife

And finally the M57-Ring Nebula which was made up of 15 x 90 sec Lights, 20 Darks, 20 Flats and 20 Bias frames all stacked in DSS then processed in PixInsight.

This is a full, uncropped image.

Let me know what you think. All comments most welcome.

[Ruud]

It's beautiful.

[MartinB]

That's a fine clean image. I get the feeling you are a very methodical person who is seeking perfection. You're ready to roll with some of the great Autumn targets now. Don't leave it 3 1/2 years before posting your next image!

[xtreemchaos]

a lovely image mate, well done, 3.5 years well spent.  thanks for sharing  charl.

[Thales]

yes! agreed, great image, just to see the nebula in a star field context. That's what I like about observing!

[MarJax]

Thanks for the comments and yeah, hopefully they will start coming sooner than every 3.5 years now, now that I sort of know what I'm doing.

Think that's what I love about this (expensive) hobby.

There is ALWAYS a challenge

[laudropb]

Very nice image. Thanks for posting.

[triton1]

I agree lovely image love the colours against the background of stars

[toxic]

really nice image

[ollypenrice]

Good.

May I suggest that you watch your black point? Don't clip too much off to the left hand side of the histogram peak. I wonder if you might not find a tad more faint detail outlying the nebula in your raw data.

Olly

[MarJax]

Thanks Olly, just the sort of comments I was hoping for (don't mind all the "well done's" either though)

Still learning the ropes with PixInsight, just had it a couple of weeks now and WOW what a piece of software.

Need to learn to take things slow on the processing front as it is so easy to over process

[MarsG76]

Nice Smoke ring.. might give it a got next year.