M57 - My first image for ages!!

[joecoyle]

This was last nights attempt. I'm very out of practise! Our first really clear night for months.

15 x 2 minute subs in LRGB and Ha and OIII. Total integration time ~2.5 hours.

I thought i'd see what i could get out of some narrowband filters (my first time). There is a much more pronounced red edge than without the Ha and the OIII has intensified the blues. But still to me, it doesn't look right.

Subs were captured using SGPro and processed in PixInsight, but I think I overdid it. I always try to follow the Light Vortex PI tutorials, but mine always end up worse off!

Thoughts / comments / advice appreciated as always.

Cheers

Joe

[ChrisLX200]

With all those separate channels it's going to be tough maintaining any sort of nartural-looking colour balance after combination, and this can be seen in the star colours which have a yellow/green bias (not white on average). M57 itself is actually tiny and requires a big magnification to get the image scale, the Ring Nebula may be famous but it's a relatively tough target to image. Focus has to be absolutely accurate even at these long focal lengths you're working at if you're going to tease out anything in the ring structure. Anyway, well done - you must be pleased with the result

ChrisH

[joecoyle]

Yeah my focal length is huge. I am planning on getting a nice frac and motorised focuser for Christmas but making do with this SCT for now. I may have a go at doing just a pure NB image. 

What would you recommend frac wise? 

I checked my focus last night using my Baht mask and the spikes looked pretty good. But maybe i need new contact lenses!!

Joe

[Mike Hawtin]

What Chris said Joe! Plus your collimation appears to be out a bit.  Have you tried collimating your scope?  A sct is actually pretty straightforward to do as you only have adjustment of the secondary to worry about.  Still for that scope and camera combination that is a very creditable effort, well done.

Mike

[joecoyle]

6 minutes ago, Mike Hawtin said:

What Chris said Joe! Plus your collimation appears to be out a bit.  Have you tried collimating your scope?  A sct is actually pretty straightforward to do as you only have adjustment of the secondary to worry about.  Still for that scope and camera combination that is a very creditable effort, well done.

Mike

I have done a collimation yeah, maybe it wasn't quite central - I fiddled with the screws until the silhouette was as close to central as I could get.

I think there might be a slight twist in my imaging train somewhere too. Although i could be wrong. 

It's not my usual image standards!

as I said, when I get a frac, hopefully it will be easier to image with - I know this focal length combo isn't great

Joe