Soul Nebula / IC 1848 in Ha

[TakMan]

Been a long time... first image since October 2014

Plenty to re-learn, I'm still (and always will be), Photoshop based - it appears many have moved on to PixInsight in the intervening years...

Redundancy last year put paid to a four hour commute, now I work just 5 minutes down the road doing a job I actually enjoy. It's given me the time (a life!) to try and sort my guiding issues that always plagued my previous attempts at imaging.

Turns out, it was probably never the mount... possibly the powered USB hub, an OS X glitch or hardware USB port issue, perhaps a mix of things..?

A big thanks to Andy Galasso over on the PHD2 forum for his help. Whilst testing everything, I've managed to grab data for this subject, more 10 minute subs on the N.A. Nebula and even pushed to 20 minutes to grab some last minute OIII on the Rosette so I can try adding that to my old Ha data.

I'm not sure if my set up suits the next coming months, but I hope to have a play when the weather gods allow and be ready for the bigger autumn targets later in the year!

so:

18x 600sec subs.

Takahashi FSQ106-ED + dedicated F/R @f/3.6

SBIG STF8300M + Baader 7nm Ha filter - controlled via the defunct MicroProjects Equinox Image.

Guided with an SBIG ST-i / SkyWatcher ST-80 via PHD2

'Scopebuggied' Takahashi EM400 mount - controlled via the defunct MicroProjects Equinox Pro (all on a 2007 17" MacBook Pro)

Preprocessed (Darks and Flat frames + Dark flats), aligned and stacked in Nebulosity 3 (attempted a drizzle stack and a light DDP stretch before exporting out). Processed 'to oblivion and beyond' in Adobe Photoshop CC2017 with 'Noel's Actions' on a 2016 Touch Bar MacBook Pro, calibrated Apple Cinema 30", A4 Wacom Intuos Pro.

Thanks for looking...

Damian

Never understood why the image (above .png file) always comes out dark and contrasty when uploaded here (perhaps some things never change)? My machine is set up for commercial printing - what I see on screen is what I get in print.

So underneath is a screen grab, how it looks to me!

And to finish, two 100% screen grabs to show 'warts and all'.

[carastro]

Very nice

[Hughsie]

Out of adversity comes opportunity. Great image and welcome back.

[Demonperformer]

Welcome back, Damian.

I know what you mean about things looking different when uploaded. Not sure why either. Still, I would be happy with either.