The Squid and Bat after 6 hours with RASA8 - data revisited and revised

[gorann]

This was one of my first images using the RASA 8 and ASI2600MC combo, with an IDAS NBX (dual band Ha+Oiii) filter back in November 2020. It gave me a lot of encourageing feed-back including from Olly @ollypenrice who liked it so much that he used it as an example in Astronomy Now on how the new colour CMOS cameras (and RASA) could could be game changers astrophotography. Nevertheless, I now realized that I was a bit shy on bringing out what was in the data, especially in the Ha signal of the Bat nebula. So now when clouded in, I had another go at it, bringing out more of everything, especially Ha from this modest 6 hours of data, on something that has been regarded as a very very faint and challenging object.

Cheers, Göran

 

Edited April 9, 2022 by gorann

[clarkpm4242]

Inspiration for me to do similar!

Thank you.

Paul

[teoria_del_big_bang]

Wow, I never thought I would be grateful for clouds but they have played a part in a beautiful image there Göran 🙂 
I love this target and that is a great rendition of the squid in all its glory.

Steve

[gorann]

34 minutes ago, clarkpm4242 said:

Inspiration for me to do similar!

Thank you.

Paul

Thanks a lot Paul and go for it!

[gorann]

32 minutes ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

Wow, I never thought I would be grateful for clouds but they have played a part in a beautiful image there Göran 🙂 
I love this target and that is a great rendition of the squid in all its glory.

Steve

Thanks Steve, much appreciated! It may clear up here tomorrow night so I may temporarily stop recycling old stuff....

[teoria_del_big_bang]

1 minute ago, gorann said:

Thanks Steve, much appreciated! It may clear up here tomorrow night so I may temporarily stop recycling old stuff....

I am glad for you, wish it was the same story here, no good outlook for at least a week 😞 

Steve

[symmetal]

Most impressive gorann.  

I've taken over 14 hours worth of data on this subject since you last posted it, and my result looks fairly pitiful. My f6.3 FLT98 just isn't fast enough. . Most were taken with a partial moon around which wouldn't have helped, so I'll wait for moonless nights before adding any more. Can't give up now after spending so much time on it. 🙂

Alan 

[Sunshine]

It is a wonderful image!

[ollypenrice]

Well, wow! 😁

I like the little reflection nebula as well.

The only downside to the very hard stretch, in imaging, is that it can come at the expense of local contrast. In this case the Bat has a more 'filled in middle' than your softer stretch, as I remember it.  Always a balancing act, of course.

Olly

 

[gorann]

9 hours ago, symmetal said:

Most impressive gorann.  

I've taken over 14 hours worth of data on this subject since you last posted it, and my result looks fairly pitiful. My f6.3 FLT98 just isn't fast enough. . Most were taken with a partial moon around which wouldn't have helped, so I'll wait for moonless nights before adding any more. Can't give up now after spending so much time on it. 🙂

Alan 

Thanks a lot Alan! As you say, you just have to keep going and avoid any moonlight.

Good luck!, Göran

[gorann]

9 hours ago, Sunshine said:

It is a wonderful image!

Thanks Sunshine, much appreciated!

[gorann]

3 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

Well, wow! 😁

I like the little reflection nebula as well.

The only downside to the very hard stretch, in imaging, is that it can come at the expense of local contrast. In this case the Bat has a more 'filled in middle' than your softer stretch, as I remember it.  Always a balancing act, of course.

Olly

 

Thanks a lot Olly! I think I see what you mean so I now did some slight adjustments to the curves, including the red one. Better?

Cheers, Göran