Leo Triplet

[juno16]

Hi Everyone,

I just mounted my older Explore Scientific ED102 FDC1 on my newish Skywatcher HEQ5 mount. This is my first acquisition using the older ED102 on the HEQ5. 

I recently Rowan belt modded the mount and tweaked the worm gear backlash and was hopeful that I would get the same increase performance with the heavier ED102 (I had previously only used the modded mount with my Sharpstar 61).

Guiding was actually a tad better with the heavier (~7kg)scope. My target was the Leo Triplet.

Explore Scientific ED102/HEQ5/ASI533 MC-P@104 gain

265 X 120" (8 hours 50 minutes) from my Bortle 7 backyard.

Acquired with N.I.N.A. and PHD2. Processed with Pixinsight, Photoshop, and Topaz Denoise AI.

Thanks for looking! C&C welcome.

 

Jim

 

 

[tooth_dr]

Brilliant Jim. Lovely colour and detail in all three galaxies. 

[tooth_dr]

And the tidal tail showing too 👍🏼

[mackiedlm]

Lovely image Jim. Nice detail and colour.

[Padraic M]

Fantastic! Love the level of detail.

[juno16]

4 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

And the tidal tail showing too 👍🏼

Thank you tooth_dr! 

It was a completely trouble free imaging session(s). Two evenings of about 4 hours (trees).

1 hour ago, mackiedlm said:

Lovely image Jim. Nice detail and colour.

Thank you David! I didn't have to struggle with this one!

 

45 minutes ago, Padraic M said:

Fantastic! Love the level of detail.

Thanks Padraic M! 

 

 

[Mr Spock]

Lovely images. I like the colour and detail 👍

[jjosefsen]

Wow .. It looks really good! 👌 Fantastic blue colors..

I do have to wonder about the level of fine details in the galaxies when using Topaz AI Denoise... I have seen it invent the most insane "details" out of nowhere.

I am not saying it did that here, it always just makes me wonder about how much it was applied.

[juno16]

Thank you Michael @Mr Spock and jjosefsen @jjosefsen for your nice words. 

Yes, I have seen the created "details" that you are referring to, but only when the "Clear" or more intense settings are used. I stick with the "Standard" setting. Standard works well to smooth the noise in the low level signal areas while leaving the high signal areas clean, but not "created".  To me, when settings more intense than "Standard" are used, the imagined detail is very unrealistic. Thanks for your comments!

 

[MarsG76]

Another awesome Leo triplet image...

 

[fwm891]

That's a really good bit of imaging - well done.

[MalcolmM]

Fabulous image!

Malcolm

[OK Apricot]

One of the best I've seen, that - very sharp and lively colours - it's excellent 😁 

[ollypenrice]

Pin sharp and the galaxy details agree with other good renditions. Plus the tail. This really is crisp.

I felt the colour balance to be slightly out. The background was looking a touch blue-magenta on my calibrated screen and the galaxies seemed just a bit cold. Measurement confirmed this: Photoshop gives the background about 13 in red and green and 20 in blue over most regions. That's a big disparity.

Olly

[juno16]

1 hour ago, ollypenrice said:

Pin sharp and the galaxy details agree with other good renditions. Plus the tail. This really is crisp.

I felt the colour balance to be slightly out. The background was looking a touch blue-magenta on my calibrated screen and the galaxies seemed just a bit cold. Measurement confirmed this: Photoshop gives the background about 13 in red and green and 20 in blue over most regions. That's a big disparity.

Olly

Hi Olly and thank you for your comments on the colour balance. 

You are absolutely correct. I must admit, I did not check that and usually do not. Something to definitely do in the future!

I do not have a calibrated monitor (I know, it shows). My ipad is my standard, so I use the crude method of emailing my finished product for review on the ipad and if it looks good to me, I call it done.

I am very glad that you brought it up. I opened the image in Photoshop and selected several background points using the Color Sampler Tool. The blue was higher than red and green as you pointed out. I dropped the blue level to match red and green. 

Most definitely need to add this step to my processing workflow. Thank you for pointing this out to me. Levels adjusted image below.

 

 

[Ouroboros]

That really is a super image. 

[juno16]

@Padraic M

@MarsG76

@fwm891

@MalcolmM

@OK Apricot

@Ouroboros

Wow, what nice comments! Thank you all so much! Very appreciated!