M106 - 90 mins LRGB 180εd

[tooth_dr]

M106, I took the data last night using my Epsilon 180ed, 500mm focal length at F2.8.

I started imaging this at 5am, and continued until the sun rose.

I attained 20 minutes red, 20 minutes green, 20 minutes blue and 30 minutes luminance - total of 1 hour and 30 minutes.

I didnt have darks to match the 60s subs, so I went without.  I can see that darks would have improved it as there are black flecks that disappear using darks.

 

I'm still learning the ropes on LRGB imaging, and tend to finish with a yellow cast on my images.  I've tried to address this by shifting the blue balance.  Red stars should have be reduced in size first, as there is a discrepancy compared to green and blue.

 

Comments welcome.

Adam

 

Edited January 19, 2020 by tooth_dr
Added edited image

[paul mc c]

Nice one mate....as always.

[Rodd]

Very nice Doc.  I love this Fov

Rodd

[alan potts]

Another very nice shot from you, must try more galaxies. Need the cloud to clear off first though.

Alan

[Adam1234]

Very nice

[tooth_dr]

Thanks guys, I admit that galaxies and the structure of especially edge on ones really floats my boat.  I just need a longer FL scope, and then of course a better mount to hold it all.  The list goes on...

[Xiga]

Very nice Adam. Amazing what can be done with so little exposure when you have aperture to burn!

About the yellow colour cast. Are you doing Colour Calibration at all? After you do gradient reduction, it should be the very next step. I personally am not a fan of APP's 'star color calibration' routine, I find it a bit too fiddly and hard to get similarly reproducible results each time, so I don't use it. Instead, I use Siril's 'Photometric Colour Calibration' instead. It only takes a minute, and gives the same outcome every time, as there's no settings to mess with.

ps - As luck would have it, I actually managed to get out on Sat night and do some imaging myself. Got a shed-load of 60s subs of the Iris, so hopefully it amounts to something! Only took me 9 months to get a proper First Light for the Qhy163c 🤣