Stephan and Deer 17 hour final

[DaveS]

Well, 17 1/2 hour but who's quibbling about that.

I know it's dangerous to say "Final" about anything but I think I've taken this as far as I want to since I'm now into diminishing returns. This is 3 hours each Red, Green and Blue plus 8 1/2 hour Luminance. Anything more from here will be in the processing.

TS 130mm f/7 Apo Triplet, TS 2 1/2" flattener, Baader LRGB filters and SX Trius 694 on an ASA DDM60 mount. Capture in Maxim DL6 with mount control and encoder guiding in ASA software, in a 21.66 location.

Processing in AstroArt 7. Sigma Stacking with Bias only (Due to multiple filter changes and cleaning making Flats problematic) followed by alignment of the unstretched stacks, then Luminance given DDP and a light Deconvolution, Maximum Entropy with Gaus PSF. Unstretched R, G, B stacks into Trichromy followed by DDP and a moderate Saturation Boost then LRGB synthesis.

Finally cropped to get rid of alignment edges and a Gradient Removal, Adaptive Subtract to get rid of a Green / Magenta gradient (Only visible with huge screen stretch).

Phew!

C&C welcome as always.

It's not going to challenge either @ollypenrice or @kirkster501 for the title of best Stephan and Deer, but I'm not unhappy with it.

[geoflewis]

Cracking image Dave, great to see the very successful result of your recent efforts

Cheers, Geof

[souls33k3r]

An absolute belter mate

Edited October 28, 2019 by souls33k3r

[DaveS]

Thanks guys.

Moving from SQI 18.5 or so in Ruislip to 21.66 (est) has made a huge difference to my imaging, galaxies are now worth imaging, though I think I've never captured this much data on any target before.

The tools now available in AstroArt 7 make me reluctant to purchase a PI license, as I think I can do pretty much everything I want to in one package. PI might have *more* tools, but I'm asking myself if I *need* them.

[DaveS]

And to save anyone having to work it out, the plate scale is 1.03"pp, which is probably as fine (If not finer) as the local conditions can bare. The mount can guide to *much* finer than this BTW.

[Allinthehead]

That's a mighty fine image.

[kirkster501]

Very nice mate, some lovely details in the galaxy. 

[tooth_dr]

Very nice Dave. Super detail in the galaxies. The better skies are paying dividends 

[DaveS]

Thanks guys.

Yes, I tried this in Ruislip, and even worked the data up into an image but the whole lot was so embarrassingly bad that I dumped it.

Now tentatively looking forward to "Galaxy Season" Hopefully by then I'll have added the ODK12 / G3 16200 to my armorey.

[don4l]

Lovely detail in the Quintet!  That was well worth the effort.

[DaveS]

Many thanks, this has felt like a marathon. I haven't worked this hard on an image before, just been content to "Bodgit and Scarper", partly due to living in a dispiritingly light polluted location. Now I have dark skies I feel it's worth making the effort, which is starting to pay off.

Onward and upward.

[ApophisAstros]

Reminds me of the Hubble Wide Field, great job,

Roger

[JamesF]

Every time I look at a new section of that image, I spot another galaxy

James

[DaveS]

Thanks, yes there are loads of faint fuzzies lurking in the background. At some point I may try to plate-solve this and see what turns up.

[ollypenrice]

Good result, Dave. I don't recall an image processed entirely in AstroArt but it's certainly worked.

What strikes me, though, is that I'd be lost without Layers. They allow you, in an image like this, to have one layer stretched for the galaxies and faint fuzzies and another stretched (much less forcefully) for the stars. Provided the backgrounds are identical it is than a relatively straightforward matter to retain small stars and deep fuzzies.

Anyway it's a very good 'un of a demanding target!

BTW, no truer word was ever spoken than, 'I know it's dangerous to say "Final" about anything...'  My 'Final' folder has things in it like, Stephan's Final along with things like, Stephan's Final V7c smaller stars BGdown NR reds LS haloes LM twice Dink Op 7 check G.

When I read this lot the following day I rarely have a clue what any of it means! 

lly

[DaveS]

Thanks for the vote of confidence Olly, I think I'm starting to get there.

I agree about separate processing of the stars and fuzzies. I think AA7 can't do layers though this version can do masking. Not having PS, I may re-install the latest GIMP which can do layers, or possibly use Stratton to produce a starless version then by subtraction a fuzzies only version and process separately.

More to investigate and learn about. Onwards and Upwards!

[MartinB]

Beautiful image Dave.