Fireworks Galaxy

[astro mick]

Hi.

NGC6946.

ED120.

18x600secs in Lum. Bin 1x1.

RGB 6x600 secs Bin 2x2.

Calibration was applied.

I think binning the RGB to 2x2 was a mistake, as my SXV-H9 is,nt suited to this as i believe it has square pixels.

However it is what it is.

Cheers.

Mick.

 

 

[pipnina]

Amazing!

[cfpendock]

This is pretty good for this target which I have found to be very difficult - not very bright and rather small.

Well done!

chris

[astro mick]

Thanks very much guys.

Mick.

[StargeezerTim]

Nice image... I've never got a decent image of this. 150mm scope still renders it quite small.

[MattJenko]

I found that binning RGB with my 414ex never seemed to work well either, albeit at a shorter focal length than you. This is a fine effort though all the same and you have avoided the temptation to push the colours, which is nice. I really struggled when I had a go at this target.

[astro mick]

Thanks Matt.

Yes your right, the 414 is,nt suited to binning at 2x2.Just trying to save time because of the pesky clouds.

Thanks for the comment.

Mick. 

[MartinB]

Looks great to me, nicely processed (except my monitor suggests it might be a little black clipped???) and you've gone very gently on the galaxy colour.

I don't think there is any problem with binning the colour with your camera and it may make sense with your ED120.  However, the main benefit of binning is that it gives you a quarter of the read noise and you can then take much shorter exposures for your colour.  2 mins should be plenty and you should also try just 1 min subs.  At 600 secs you will tend to burn out the stars (although your colour is good).  It is worth experimenting and finding out for yourself.  There is lots of comment on binning but the decision is based on your individual set up, your conditions and your time constraints and your image goals.  The potential benefit of binning is that it frees up a lot more time for those critical luminance subs. 

[pipnina]

2 hours ago, MartinB said:

 except my monitor suggests it might be a little black clipped???

I was thinking the background was rather light... Perhaps one of our screens needs calibrating

[astro mick]

8 hours ago, MartinB said:

Looks great to me, nicely processed (except my monitor suggests it might be a little black clipped???) and you've gone very gently on the galaxy colour.

I don't think there is any problem with binning the colour with your camera and it may make sense with your ED120.  However, the main benefit of binning is that it gives you a quarter of the read noise and you can then take much shorter exposures for your colour.  2 mins should be plenty and you should also try just 1 min subs.  At 600 secs you will tend to burn out the stars (although your colour is good).  It is worth experimenting and finding out for yourself.  There is lots of comment on binning but the decision is based on your individual set up, your conditions and your time constraints and your image goals.  The potential benefit of binning is that it frees up a lot more time for those critical luminance subs. 

Hi Martin.

Thanks for all the info,and had,nt realised i could be damaging the stars with my lengthy subs at 2x2.

I must admit i have never been a devotee of binning,as i normally end up with fat stars after i have resized,i normally have to apply a couple of star size reduction passes, but again i,m always looking to see if i,m damaging the image overall.

I process very minimally.

Mick.

 

[astro mick]

5 hours ago, pipnina said:

I was thinking the background was rather light... Perhaps one of our screens needs calibrating

Better check my calibration.

I know photo-shop is set to Adobe 1998, but maybe the screen calibration my not be.

Mick.