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M27 up close in narrowband.


RobH

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Hello all,

Here's an image of M27 in narrowband using Luminance, Ha (luminance blend and red), OIII (green) and H-beta (blue).

This started life as a set of subs that I didn't expect any results from but, with no new images left to process, I decided to see what I could make out of them.

As I had so little hope that I could get anything out of this data, I didn't bother with any calibration frames.

Consequently, there was a lot of background noise and quite bad colour gradients to deal with.

Plus, I'd been trying out a new focal reducer and the spacing was wrong so it looked like I was heading towards M27 at warp speed on the Enterprise, coma was that bad! :hello2:

In addition, I'd rotated the camera by about 30 degrees to reframe for the OIII and H-beta shots, and then given up and moved to another target.

This meant that my Ha, OIII and H-beta subs were way out of line with each other, meaning, that when I had aligned them, large areas of OIII and H-beta were cropped. The nebula was there in all of them ok but the starfield wasn't.

The end result of all of this was that I had to work hard at the processing, and have gained quite a lot from this as every shot in the processing arsenal had to be used, plus a few new tricks too!

In the original subs, if they're heavily stretched, you can see some of the very faint outer envelope.

I made a conscious decision not to try to bring this out in this image, as the noise levels were too high. If I want the outer layers, I'll have to go back and do longer subs.

A hint of this layer is still just visible here, but I have sacrificed it somewhat to get a cleaner background.

The lesson from all of this.....

You can almost always get something useful out of your subs with careful and patient processing. Just keep bashing away!!

Alway shoot some calibration frames!!

Anyway, I'm quite pleased with the end result and have had a great time working on this. :clouds1:

Hope you like it.

Cheers

Rob

LX200GPS 14 inch @ F5 (Lumicon reducer), Atik 16 HR, Astronomik filters.

Subs are mainly 4 minutes with a few 6 minute ones thrown in.

L x 25

Ha x 17

OIII x 18

H-beta x 16

Total imaging time approximately 5 hours.

7646_normal.jpeg

(click to enlarge)

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Rob,

Great looking image, 5 hours really ought to do for a bright object like M27. i feel your pain in dealing with rotation.

M27 may be first light for our new Astrograph, if we ever get the weather.

I too hope to capture the detail you have managed to bring out.

paul

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Are you sure you haven't got a remote controlled scope parked on the darkside of the Moon. That is an awesome capture and process it looks so organic like a sea creature.

Regards

Kevin

Thanks folks...this really was a struggle on the processing front, but one only learns through adversity I reckon.

Mrs H doesn't like this, or the crab....says they remind her of brains!!

For me, it just goes to show the fractal nature of whatever it is we live in....the same patterns are repeated at every scale....

Cheers

Rob

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It's a remarkable image in so much as it looks not dissimilar to the M27 featured in Giles Sparrow's "Cosmos" book, and that was taken by either Hubble or the VLT...(can't remember which and the book is away)

superb...utterly superb

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Excellent image Rob, something to aspire to. M27 is the first target on my list in narrowband when I get my 12" LX200 in the new obsy, hope it is still visible by the time I get finished, work seems to be taking priority at the moment.

Steve.

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