Owl Cluster

[gnomus]

Having finally got the green for my M13 last night - https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/276558-esprit-120-first-light-m13/ - I had a little time for another object.  I decided to grab 30 mins (6x5 min subs) of R, G & B on the Owl Cluster.  The capture was hampered somewhat by high thin cloud.  This is also on the Esprit 120 with the QSI 690 & Astrodons.

 

[laudropb]

Very nice image of the Owl.

[Barry-Wilson]

Another good second light image . . . like the off-centre framing

[gnomus]

I tweaked it a bit to emphasise the cluster a bit more.  It looked to me as if the cluster itself was being swamped a bit by the surrounding stars.  So, I ran Noel's 'Make Stars Smaller' action a couple of times, but masked off the cluster stars from the effect of the Action.  I don't know if this is cheating.

[Scooot]

Lovely ! I was looking at this the other night in my 16" and it looked so good I wanted to image it.  

[gnomus]

I know exactly what you mean, Richard.  I first saw this object in March through my new Dob.  I thought it was one of the prettiest objects I had seen, and I instantly wanted to take a picture of it.  So I needed to buy a new refractor, a new camera, a new ..........

Edited August 30, 2016 by gnomus

[PatrickGilliland]

Ah there it is [so you had another clear night already - something must be amiss!] - nice look at the cluster and the new kit is handling the stars well.

Paddy

[gnomus]

After some modest success with my all-PI, Pickering's Triangle - https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/276701-pickerings-triangle-bicolour-pi-only-experiment/ - I thought I might rework the Owl using solely PixInsight.  I did drop into PS at the end to run a couple of Noel's Actions (Increase Star Colour and Make Stars Smaller), and I resized for posting in PS whilst there.  Everything else was PI.  I didn't 'cheat' with the differential star shrinking this time either:

Edited September 1, 2016 by gnomus

[toxic]

very nice image steve

[gnomus]

Thanks Chris.

[ollypenrice]

Both first and second light have gone well. I like the first Owl best. In the second we see a blue colour outlying the bright stars, most notably in the second but also visible in the third. I don't know the cluster from experience so, in writing this, I thought I ought to check if the blue is real or not! Now that I've checked a few other images I see others do get it to some extent but I still can't be sure whether it's an artefact or not. Watching the RGB carefully during a plain unmasked log stretch ought to tell you, though. Anyway, the 120 works!

Olly

[gnomus]

Thanks for commenting Olly.  I have gone back and re-stretched (in Photoshop this time) in an attempt to cut down on the excess halo-ing.  This is the result:

  

[Paul73]

Good choice of target!

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As you can see. I do like this cluster. It is one of those that, when using a big scope, you get too many stars and loose the Owlishness of the cluster.

Paul