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southern pleiades The Southern Pleiades ( IC 2602 ) - Open Star Cluster in Carina
By
MikeODay, in Imaging Challenge #12 - Open Clusters (Now Closed)
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By Xiga
Hey guys
So with no new data at hand (or on the horizon it would seem) i decided to go back and re-process my short stack of M81 & M82, being the glutton for punishment that i am! The last time i re-processed this was about a year ago, so i was curious to see if i could get any more out of it.
It's hideously low on data (nothing new there!), this is just 9 x 600s of colour (with an IDAS-D1) together with 7 x 1200s of Ha (which i only used to Lighten the Reds in the Ha jets of M82 and the small spiral regions of M81). AstroPixelProcessor used for stacking and gradient reduction, and PS for everything else.
I mistakenly shot the colour at ISO 800, instead of the usual 200 i always use. A mistake i imagine every DSLR user has made before! And i have to say i really noticed it during processing. There was noticeably less colour in the stars.
That being said, i was still able to bring out more colour in the core of M81 this time. And i think M82 looks a bit better as well, it was definitely over-sharpened before.
I really love these targets, but they just make me wish i had more reach!
CS!
Here is the original thread:
And here's the new one, including a cropped version:
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By Xiga
Like the lunatic that I am, I decided to get the scope out last week during that storm that was passing through. The skies were clear and there was no moon about, so I figured why not! Only problem was the 17-20 mph winds, lol.
I got 2 hrs of subs but had to throw away half of them due to guiding problems more so than the wind, amazingly. This was the 2nd time in a row i'd had Dec guiding problems, and that's after about 2 years of not having a single problem guiding. After the 1st hr of wasted subs, I turned off Fast Switching in Dec and chose to only Dither in RA, and the Dec problems mostly went away, at least to allow me to capture 1 hr of 'still dodgy but just about useable' subs. Once M42 disappeared behind the neighbour's roof, I then re-calibrated on the Celestial Equator (Dec 0) and when I switched to the Pinwheel Galaxy I was able to guide as normal again (with Fast Switching and Dithering in both RA and Dec both turned on again) and didn't lose any subs, despite the wind, so I've decided that from now on I won't be calibrating at the target itself, i'm always going to do it at Dec 0.
I decided to throw this in with another 1 hr of subs (plus 10 x 30s for the core) that I took back in Jan 2017 (has it really been that long?!). That hr also had issues, with some weird streaking in the lower left that I could never work out what caused it. The D5300 hadn't been modified at that stage either. So I fired it all in to APP and decided to stack it anyway, and give it a quick process. Then chose to crank it up to 11 on the colour front, just for laughs.
It won't be going on the wall anytime soon, lol, but I suppose it came out a bit better than I was expecting, all things considered.
20 x 360s with an IDAS-D1
D5300, 80ED, HEQ5-Pro.
Stacked in APP, processed in PS.
CS!
edit - I forgot to downscale it - so no pixel peeping allowed 😋
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By Xiga
Between the clouds, moon, neighbour's roof, nearby floodlights, and all the usual general life stuff, i've simply not been able to get any meaningful data on the HH (or Orion for that matter either) for the last 2 years! To say it's been my nemesis would be an understatement. At this rate i'll be glad to have that box ticked proper before i hit 50 😅
So when we had a few hrs of clear sky (and no moon) a couple of weeks back i knew i had to give it a go. I luckily managed 9 x 7mins before it disappeared behind the neighbour's roof. I also have 5 subs of Ha (90 mins in total) from last March, although it wasn't of great quality (there was a nearly full moon right beside it, plus the neighbour's fire smoke was billowing up through the Fov 🤨 ).
I've been waiting patiently for more clear skies to add to this, but that 's not working out too well, lol. I really shouldn't be processing this, but all work and no imaging makes Ciaran a dull boy, so here goes nothin...
9 x 7mins with an IDAS-D1
4 x 1200s and 1 x 900s of Ha
~2.7 hrs in Total
Stacked in APP and processed in PS. Lots of heavy lifting needed in PS, and i've reduced it to 50% in size as well.
For now, at least, this will have to do. There's a lot of good HH's about so hopefully this one's not too hideous! 😂
I'll post what the 2 raw stacks looked like below as well, just for kicks.
Here's the 9 x 7 mins raw stack (with DDP stretch):
And here's the ~90min Ha raw stack:
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By tasheeya
Leo Triplet (M65, M66, and NGC 3628), The Leo Triplet is a small group of galaxies about 35 million light-years away in the constellation Leo.
large version at astrobin
https://www.astrobin.com/391520/
Date: 4th January and 2nd February 2019
Mount: Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro
Telescope: Orion 10" f/3.9 Newtonian Astrograph
Camera: Nikon D5300 self modded full spectrum
Total exposure: ~3 hours
Subs : 300sx36, Flats, Bias, Darks
ISO: 400
Guide Scope: Orion 50mm
Guide Cam: ASI120MM
Filter: Optolong UV/IR cut
Corrector: Baader MPCC Mark III Coma Corrector
Capturing: digiCamControl
Guiding: PHD2
Stacking: Deep Sky Stacker
Processing: Pixinsight/Photoshop
Location: Ridiyagama, Sri Lanka
thank you and clear skies.
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