First light - 200/1200 Newt (Melotte 15 Ha)

[CraigT82]

I have assembled this deep sky set up mostly over the last few cloudy weeks and have been testing it over the last couple of nights. This is actually my first DSO image, well...apart form a few pics I got with a 700D on a star adventurer and wide field lenses on my hols in Tasmania a few years ago. Let's say its my first DSO using a scope! 

SW 200/1200 dob OTA, EQ6, Atik 383L+ mono, ZWO efw 8x1.25", ZWO OAG.

Melotte 15 - 24x600s Ha bin2x2 (Baader 7nm).

Captured using Nina, calibrated registered and integrated in APP then a bit of noise reduction in gimp and thats it. Capturing some Oiii and Sii to go with it tonight.

C&C most welcome thanks.

Edited February 28, 2021 by CraigT82

[AbsolutelyN]

Fantastic image Craig. You certainly got the guiding sorted. Makes me want to turn the 250PDS to something other than planets. Good luck with O3 and S2 ... I don't even attempt those if moon is up - especially O3. 

[CraigT82]

Thanks! I let the rig capture a whole load of O3 and S2 last night but checking the subs this morning they are pretty bland and featureless even fully stretched...  Guess that'll be the full moon then! Never mind. 

You should definitely try out the 250pds on DSO 😈 

[geeklee]

What a "first"!  Great image Craig. It's always enjoyable seeing this close up as it's not common given the FL needed.  You've captured a lot of detail in there too. 

At least this area stays in good sky positions for a long time (if you have the views) so you can always add OIII and SII another time.

 

[CraigT82]

2 hours ago, geeklee said:

What a "first"!  Great image Craig. It's always enjoyable seeing this close up as it's not common given the FL needed.  You've captured a lot of detail in there too. 

At least this area stays in good sky positions for a long time (if you have the views) so you can always add OIII and SII another time.

 

Thanks, yes it is pretty much always visible for me and so something to aim for all year round. I will most definitely keep coming back to this target.

[AbsolutelyN]

On 28/02/2021 at 09:40, CraigT82 said:

Thanks! I let the rig capture a whole load of O3 and S2 last night but checking the subs this morning they are pretty bland and featureless even fully stretched...  Guess that'll be the full moon then! Never mind. 

You should definitely try out the 250pds on DSO 😈 

Look forward to the final image with OIII and SII. Going to have a crack with the 250pds, need a few accessories to make it work and might have to be with the 6D for now. 

[CraigT82]

Seeing is really nice again tonight, managed to get the PA under 10" on sharpcap and guiding is currently running at around 0.45" total RMS so shooting 1200s Ha subs bin 1x1 to try to add some finer detail to the bin 2x2 data I've already got, no idea of that will work or not! 

[AbsolutelyN]

52 minutes ago, CraigT82 said:

Seeing is really nice again tonight, managed to get the PA under 10" on sharpcap and guiding is currently running at around 0.45" total RMS so shooting 1200s Ha subs bin 1x1 to try to add some finer detail to the bin 2x2 data I've already got, no idea of that will work or not! 

Good luck ... not a single gap in the clouds here!

[CraigT82]

Results from last two nights, this is 6.6 hours (20 x 1200s) Ha with the Baader 7nm, captured at bin1x1 (0.93"pp).  Used Pixinsight this time instead of APP. Followed the light vortex tutorial which took ages but definitely worth it... I guess there's no point in me doing everything I can to capture the photons - rebuilding mount, reinforcing tube etc etc, if I'm not gonna invest the time and effort on the processing side!

(large file - 52mb)

[CraigT82]

Have now combined the Ha (Bin1x1) with the S2 and O3 data I captured on the 28th (at bin2x2) to produce HOO and SHO images. There wasn't much data in the O3 and S2 and they had to be severely stretched.  Will try again for more data when it's clear and without a full moon.

I have no idea how to do these combinations properly, I believe you don't just assign one channel to a colour but rather you blend them in together for each channel in various proportions? These are just strap swaps - one NB channel to one RGB channel, and with a lot of tweaking of the colour balance to get it to resemble other SHO images online!