Deer lick and Stephans Quintet

[gonzostar]

Hello 

This is my version of NGC 7331 the very faint Stephans quintet and some other faint fuzzies.  This image is cropped. managed  16 hours  worth of Data over a few nights 

Telescope - 102mm APO ES refractor on a AVX mount

Camera- Canon 70d unmoded iso800 with a IDAS-D2 filter.  

Duration  16 hours - 300s lights., Darks, flats and bias frames also taken

Guided with PHD2 and processed in PS

Of course improvement advice much appreciated  I have also attached the Tiff file if anyone would like ago to see if you can extract more info

16hrs.tif

 

Cheers

Dean

[tooth_dr]

Very good Dean! Must be a faint target as you’ve plenty of data! I’ve never tried it myself. 

[wornish]

I am so sorry but I have got to be honest. 16 Hours hard work for not very much, is it worth the effort ?

I personally would go for brighter targets.

I really don't mean to offend its just my opinion and I am certainly no expert.  Others may like it.

[gonzostar]

3 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

Very good Dean! Must be a faint target as you’ve plenty of data! I’ve never tried it myself. 

Cheers, yes faint and a enjoyable challenge and testing my eyesight  

[gonzostar]

1 hour ago, wornish said:

I am so sorry but I have got to be honest. 16 Hours hard work for not very much, is it worth the effort ?

I personally would go for brighter targets.

I really don't mean to offend its just my opinion and I am certainly no expert.  Others may like it.

You are entitled to your opinion. For me yes it was worth all the effort in terms of guiding, my eyesight and trying to improve my processing skills. 

[Laurin Dave]

Hi Dean

I like it, and admire your perseverance.  I did a quick Pixinsight/Photoshop process which you can see below.  Much better backgrounds than I was getting with my modded  600D but I never went beyond about 90 minutes, clearly I should have.  Well done

Dave

[gonzostar]

Hi Dave, This effort is truly amazing. I like the fact that you have made the faint spirals more obvious when the image is enlarged. Also more tiny fuzzies around then i thought. Also nice star colour, I really do need to get myself Pixinsight and do the tutorials. 

Cheers

Dean 

[Laurin Dave]

Thanks Dean, I'd recommend giving the trial period a go, Lightvortex astronomy and Harry Page videos very good as is  Warren Keller's book Inside Pixinsight.  That said, I really like Photoshop for finishing off and want to learn how to do more on it.

 

Dave 

[gonzostar]

Okay will look into this

Cheers

Dean

[lux eterna]

On 30/09/2018 at 20:45, gonzostar said:

Hello 

This is my version of NGC 7331 the very faint Stephans quintet and some other faint fuzzies.  This image is cropped. managed  16 hours  worth of Data over a few nights 

Telescope - 102mm APO ES refractor on a AVX mount

Camera- Canon 70d unmoded iso800 with a IDAS-D2 filter.  

Duration  16 hours - 300s lights., Darks, flats and bias frames also taken

Guided with PHD2 and processed in PS

Of course improvement advice much appreciated  I have also attached the Tiff file if anyone would like ago to see if you can extract more info

16hrs.tif

 

 

Cheers

Dean

Hi Dean,

I like your serious efforts, that is the best way to push the limits. I gave the image a try in PS (CS5) and also used GradientXterminator and Topaz Bundle. You have very little noise, thanks to the 16 hours of data.

/Ragnar

[JohnSadlerAstro]

Hi,

That's a really nice photo. I love the "semi widefield" feel to photos of this area of the sky, so many stars but also so many galaxies! Its a lot busier overall than the plough galaxies.  

I was going for this one as well, but then the mount autoguiding packed up! Hopefully I will be able to revisit next year with a new HEQ5, if I find one.  

John

P.S. I might have a play around with your tif and see whats hiding there, if thats ok with you!  

EDIT: After a quick stretch I am absolutely stunned at the detail you've got there. Did you take flats, by the way? There appears to be a nasty dust doughnut near the middle, and quite a bit of gradient.  

[wornish]

Have to eat humble pie and apologise for my earlier post.  I have  just downloaded your 16hrs tif file and when I have a look in PI with a super stretch you certainly have caught some interesting galaxies so your perseverance worked.\

 

Sorry for rushing to judgement.

 

[tooth_dr]

I zoomed in on the reprocessed data, and it's clear there are a LOT of galaxies lurking everywhere!  Super image!

[Stub Mandrel]

I don't think you need to invest in Pixinsight to get better results with such good data.

Just crank up the gamma and readjust the black point:

[gonzostar]

10 hours ago, lux eterna said:

Hi Dean,

I like your serious efforts, that is the best way to push the limits. I gave the image a try in PS (CS5) and also used GradientXterminator and Topaz Bundle. You have very little noise, thanks to the 16 hours of data.

/Ragnar

Thanks Ragner for your effort. I was told many times the more hours the better. Although the 70d seema "less" noisy then the 450d

[gonzostar]

7 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

I don't think you need to invest in Pixinsight to get better results with such good data.

Just crank up the gamma and readjust the black point:

Thanks Neil for your effort, completely forgot about the gamma. Like how you have improved star colours and made the galaxies more conspicuous. 

[gonzostar]

10 hours ago, JohnSadlerAstro said:

Hi,

That's a really nice photo. I love the "semi widefield" feel to photos of this area of the sky, so many stars but also so many galaxies! Its a lot busier overall than the plough galaxies.  

I was going for this one as well, but then the mount autoguiding packed up! Hopefully I will be able to revisit next year with a new HEQ5, if I find one.  

John

P.S. I might have a play around with your tif and see whats hiding there, if thats ok with you!  

EDIT: After a quick stretch I am absolutely stunned at the detail you've got there. Did you take flats, by the way? There appears to be a nasty dust doughnut near the middle, and quite a bit of gradient.  

Yes please go for it John. I am also amazed how others have managed to extract more information from this data.  I have to be honest i have fallen flat with the flats in past couple of weeks...Ooops this image was done over 6 weeks. 

The only mount i have used is the Celestron AVX. Which seems to be doing the trick so far. I have had it for 2.5 years now

[gonzostar]

7 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

I zoomed in on the reprocessed data, and it's clear there are a LOT of galaxies lurking everywhere!  Super image!

Thanks, I am glad i did persevere with this image. One for the eyesight spot the galaxies. One of the reasons i did so much to try and enhance the quintet.

[gonzostar]

8 hours ago, wornish said:

Have to eat humble pie and apologise for my earlier post.  I have  just downloaded your 16hrs tif file and when I have a look in PI with a super stretch you certainly have caught some interesting galaxies so your perseverance worked.\

 

Sorry for rushing to judgement.

 

Thanks. i new there was a method to my madness  

[gonzostar]

Thanks everyone who have made time to make  vast improvements on my initial image. This is one of the many things i like about SGL is peoples willingness to help out  

[JohnSadlerAstro]

Hi,

I haven't been able to spend as much time as id have liked on this one, Im a bit unfamiliar with the colour balance as my camera is modified so I can correct for LP colours and at the same time naturalise galaxy colours. The red was an issue, I want to spend a little more time correcting it all. With my setup out of action atm its fun to do some indoor astronomy!

I think its worked out reasonable well overall though--you've got some really nice data. There are unwound galaxy tails in Stephans which show really clearly.

John

[gonzostar]

Thanks John for spending time with this image. I think its worked our very reasonable. My initial thought when i first started on this project was to get a larger image of the quintet to see the spirling arms. You have manage to catch that well. I was using a IDAS-D2  LP filter would that have made processing more of a challenge?

 

Cheers

Dean