15h Crab Nebula with an ED80 (and lots of patience)

[graemlourens]

Hi everybody.

My backlog on processing is gigantic, but i've gotten round to finishing M1.

I always loved this target, but never tried, as i knew with my ED80 and a fairly wide view i would not see much. But i sett off and got 15 hours of SHO-data and processed the monkey out of it to get anything clear (my skies are dark, but not crisp).
Obviously this will never compete with somebody with a 2000mm focal length but you got to do with what you've got, right?

First time i'm publishing a picture with narrowband stars, but as there's not nebula, throwing the star color away looks strange, and replacing the narrowbandstars with rgb-stars also seems wrong, as you're mixing 2 color palettes.

This is heavily cropped (probably half of my fov)

I've got the feeling in my mambo-jambo processing i broke some color balance, as it doesn't look anything close to the majority of the M1 pictures i've seen, especially the strong OIII on the left lower side. I checked multiple times, but thats how it seem to be in my subs.

Any thoughts welcome.

Kind regards, Graem

[Daz69]

I have no knowledge of astrophotography, but people like you make these gorgeous DSO's visible for us observers, in all of their beautiful colours, so thank you for spending all of those hours getting them together and allowing us to see them.

[groberts]

Very nice picture, especially with an 80ED.  I've struggled with the WO GT81 so this gives me hope.  

[mikeyj1]

beautiful!  I would love to do anything close to that in the future!

[graemlourens]

1 minute ago, Daz69 said:

I have no knowledge of astrophotography, but people like you make these gorgeous DSO's visible for us observers, in all of their beautiful colours, so thank you for spending all of those hours getting them together and allowing us to see them.

Thank you for your kind words!

1 minute ago, groberts said:

Very nice picture, especially with an 80ED.  I've struggled with the WO GT81 so this gives me hope.  

I shot an 1200s HA first, and saw that it could be possible, but to get a crisp defined core, you need to sharpen way beyond what feels comfortable, but the nice thing with this target, is that its pretty much nebula free surrounding it, so you can easily sharpen JUST the core with simple mask.

2 minutes ago, mikeyj1 said:

beautiful!  I would love to do anything close to that in the future!

If i can do it, you can to. I started Astrophotography merely 2 years ago!

[gorann]

I think it is stunning how much detail you managed to capture with an 8 cm scope - I have seen images with much bigger scopes not being near your resolution. Great processing and a dark site and 15 hours must have helped a bit. I just wonder why you do NB imaging when you have a nice dark site that can give you true RGB colours.

[LukeSkywatcher]

I was just thinking the other day that we dont see too many images of the crab on SGL.

[triton1]

Wonderful loving the detail definitely more of a wow than looking at it visually.

[Barry-Wilson]

Great capture Graem.  You must be very pleased with this M1 and you've captured all of the features.

[graemlourens]

2 hours ago, gorann said:

I think it is stunning how much detail you managed to capture with an 8 cm scope - I have seen images with much bigger scopes not being near your resolution. Great processing and a dark site and 15 hours must have helped a bit. I just wonder why you do NB imaging when you have a nice dark site that can give you true RGB colours.

Thank you so much for your words. Do you mean why i do NB imaging in general, or on this specific target?

2 hours ago, LukeSkywatcher said:

I was just thinking the other day that we dont see too many images of the crab on SGL.

This is true. I guess cause most 'starters' like me are on more widefield setups and are intimidated by small objects, as it does not feel as rewarding. To be honest, i also only went for M1 as i had exhausted most larger objects for january / february and seriously have to dig in programs, forums etc to get something to shoot that i don't know yet! now the exploration starts

1 hour ago, triton1 said:

Wonderful loving the detail definitely more of a wow than looking at it visually.

Thank you!!

38 minutes ago, Barry-Wilson said:

Great capture Graem.  You must be very pleased with this M1 and you've captured all of the features.

Only half... I'm very pleased with the detail, but i'm worried i screwed up the colours. I know that in narrrowband the balance is not strict, as in RGB, but it looks little like a rainbow, and nothing like the hubble image! (and i don't mean detail, i mean colours!)

I hope maybe somebody can relieve my fears, or confirm that i messed up the colouring

[ollypenrice]

This is what happens when the imager puts in the hard work - a lovely and exciting result!

Yes indeed.

Olly

[RichLD]

Excellent capture Graem!

[graemlourens]

9 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

This is what happens when the imager puts in the hard work - a lovely and exciting result!

Yes indeed.

Olly

Means a lot to me coming from you. If you would have to criticise something, what would it be? (you know i like the hard truth  )

9 hours ago, RichLD said:

Excellent capture Graem!

Thank you so much for your kind words!

[ollypenrice]

7 hours ago, graemlourens said:

Means a lot to me coming from you. If you would have to criticise something, what would it be? (you know i like the hard truth  )

Thank you so much for your kind words!

OK, maybe the background is a touch red and the red stars are tending slightly towards greenish-yellow but I adore the Crab.

Olly

[DaveS]

That's much better than I got with my 130 f/7 and 694 camera at 910mm fl. I really must revisit this target when it comes around again.

[graemlourens]

51 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

OK, maybe the background is a touch red and the red stars are tending slightly towards greenish-yellow but I adore the Crab.

Olly

Thank you Olly! Indeed if i look at the curves, red is slightly biased higher, i suspect my background sample was not terrific. Will look into that!

44 minutes ago, DaveS said:

That's much better than I got with my 130 f/7 and 694 camera at 910mm fl. I really must revisit this target when it comes around again.

Dave, thank you!

[laudropb]

Lovely image with great detail captured.

[frugal]

That is really lovely. I have always put off imaging M1 as I assumed it was so small it would never be more than a couple of pixels wide in my ED80, but you have captured lots of detail. Admittedly you have darker skies and a CCD, but I might still have to give it a go to see what I can get.

[Rodd]

Wow--that does look like it was taken with a much longer focal length.  That is on thing you get with great data--the ability to zoom (or crop).  Did you use the SHO pallette?  You could try blending the % of each channel if you don't like the colors.

Rodd

[graemlourens]

On 3/30/2017 at 16:58, laudropb said:

Lovely image with great detail captured.

Thank you so much!

On 3/31/2017 at 10:34, frugal said:

That is really lovely. I have always put off imaging M1 as I assumed it was so small it would never be more than a couple of pixels wide in my ED80, but you have captured lots of detail. Admittedly you have darker skies and a CCD, but I might still have to give it a go to see what I can get.

Go for it!  It will depend on your pixel size (chip size will probably be irrelevant for this small target). With the Atik i have 4.54um, so that helps but if you don't try, you'll never know!

[frugal]

1 hour ago, graemlourens said:

Thank you so much!

Go for it!  It will depend on your pixel size (chip size will probably be irrelevant for this small target). With the Atik i have 4.54um, so that helps but if you don't try, you'll never know!

My Canon 60D also has 4.54um pixels, but it is bayered. So unless I take lots and lots of images and Bayer Drizzle them, I am effectively working at 9um

[graemlourens]

On 3/31/2017 at 16:11, Rodd said:

Wow--that does look like it was taken with a much longer focal length.  That is on thing you get with great data--the ability to zoom (or crop).  Did you use the SHO pallette?  You could try blending the % of each channel if you don't like the colors.

Rodd

Thank you Rodd! Yes thats SHO (also the stars).

5 minutes ago, frugal said:

My Canon 60D also has 4.54um pixels, but it is bayered. So unless I take lots and lots of images and Bayer Drizzle them, I am effectively working at 9um

Try and you'll know  Drizzling could help a lot if your skies are not the limiting factor. (Depending also mainly on the dslr sensitivity to HA, but i'm not familiar with Crab results with a dslr)

[PatrickGilliland]

Gream, overall super image, lovely detail. Always a few tweaks but nothing to be concerned with here

[graemlourens]

3 hours ago, PatrickGilliland said:

Gream, overall super image, lovely detail. Always a few tweaks but nothing to be concerned with here

Thank you Paddy!

I'm actually starting to like it myself  all your feedback really surprised me positively!

[PatrickGilliland]

2 hours ago, graemlourens said:

Thank you Paddy!

I'm actually starting to like it myself  all your feedback really surprised me positively!

 

Funny how that works - I often finish an image and don't like.  Publish and then see it in new light!  Expectations are dangerous!