m13

[alacant]

Hi everyone

Never got to grips with these targets, but am determined to get something decent this time around.

This was with a dose of StarTools' HDR 'Reveal' at around 3px. One spin-off was the control of the -usually fat- orange stars around the centre. 

Any dslr globular imagers, do share your technique.

Thanks for looking and clear skies.

700d + gso203  19x4min @ ISO800    siril 1.1.0, startools 1.8.527-2

Edited April 27, 2022 by alacant
Frames + st 1.8

[jacko61]

I'm constantly astonished at how fine you get your stars. My last M13 attempt with my Altair 150EDF the stars look quite blobby in the subs. Is this something you've achieved in Startools or are you simply better at focusing than me?  (I image with APT and use a bahtinov mask for focusing - I'll get round to using the APT focus tools one of these days). Attaching my attempt just to show how bad it can get...

Graeme 

[alacant]

5 hours ago, jacko61 said:

Altair 150EDF the stars look quite blobby

Hi

Your image does show that focus maybe a little off.

Our only recent hands on with a refractor was with a visitor's 72ed, which doesn't give best focus with a mask. His method seems to work well though; use the mask to get close, then a white star in live view. Refocus to get the tightest centre you can with minimal fringing. The mask spikes seem to register -in this case- the red and green, leaving an ugly blue halo. This can be minimised by compromise focusing. 

But focusing apart, we find that by far the biggest factor in getting decent stars is the atmospheric turbulence. Rare is it we get steady enough seeing to support 1000mm (is that around the same as your refractor?); maybe just twice a month. On other nights, either don't do globular clusters or use a smaller telescope on different targets; galaxies and milky way stuff seem far more forgiving at any focal length.

StarTools is available free to try, but I certainly don't rate my -15 minutes or I get bored- processing skills. I think that if you have good data, any processing would work the same. 

Cheers 

Edited April 27, 2022 by alacant

[ollypenrice]

I think that's exceptionally good. Globulars really are hard and I've yet to see a single rendition which was perfect in all respects, but this is a beauty. The stars are powdery small and precise, which is obviously very important. The general glow of the core also shows the propellor beautifully. I think what we have here is actually a good call: the brighter stars are very clearly defined against the less bright. The medium bright-to-faint are not so well separated but, if we're going to sacrifice something in a stretch, that's a good thing to sacrifice.

Yes, I think that's great.

Olly

[saac]

That is stunning, sharp through to the core and the colour balance is so natural and delicate.  Truly lovely image.

Jim 

[scotty38]

Easily one of the finest I've seen!

[Second Time Around]

Just one word - wow!

[Space Hopper]

Exceptional.

This is how i'd like my future images to look.......

[Penumbrella]

Absolutely beautiful!