Heart Nebula, a Takumar, and a (nearly) full moon

[Ratlet]

I probably should have checked the CCD suitability calculator before buying it, but my Hypercam 533c is massively undersampled for the focal length I want to use it at: 200mm Takumar SMC.  Still, nothing ventured, nothing gained.  So with a camera that is going to massively undersample, a lens which was made in the early 1970's and a darn near full moon I decided to find out just how badly I messed up.

Turns out, not that much.  Lens was stopped down to F5.6 using a step down ring because I'm not a huge fan of the diffraction pattern).  With 2 hours of 90s captures (hand picked because I had darks for 90s) the image came out pretty clean (I'll post it below).   Edited in Pixinsight for colour calibration, EZ Denoise, EZ Soft Stretch, star reduction, star removal for drawing out some more nebulosity then mashed it back together.

[Ratlet]

jpg of the stacked image prior to editing.

[Elp]

A great result. You've also got rid of the red/green star halos which is the main issue with these lenses. Considering how old these lenses are they're quite fantastic.

[Ratlet]

50 minutes ago, Elp said:

A great result. You've also got rid of the red/green star halos which is the main issue with these lenses. Considering how old these lenses are they're quite fantastic.

I think that with the usb3.0 connection improving transfer speeds it made getting a good focus a lot easier.  I suspect it might also help that the 533 sensor is quite small.  However paired with a 200mm focal length it is a very nice size for framing a wide variety of objects.

There is a slight light blue halo around some of the stars, but it is so close to white that I think it sorted itself out in pixinsight.

I'm going to have to learn how to do this in Photoshop though.  I've been riding the free trial and it can't have long to go and I'm not quite ready to drop the bank for the full version.

To quote Important Joe "Do not, my friends, become addicted to Pixinsight. It will take hold of you, and you will resent its absence!"

The lens is fantastic.  I did consider getting an evoguide 50, but I don't think it's services will be required.

I would highly recommend them to other people just starting out as they can provide easily manageable images and can save you a LOT of money Vs an alternative (redcat, evoguide) allowing you to put more money towards a mount.

[Elp]

Star processing is (mostly) straightforward unless if you're dealing with the likes of Alnitak type stars , I refuse to use PI when manual processing can achieve similar or close, I'm starting to migrate to GIMP too as it can process in 32 bit (unlike my old PS).

I usually do all processing as is with the stars in, then address them at the end.

[KevinPSJ]

Really impressed with the image above - I bought identical lens about 3 weeks ago but have been distracted with imaging Jupiter until recently. I assumed I'd need to wait a few weeks more but your results have inspired me to just give it a go. Will be pairing Takumar 200mm SMC with modded Canon 600D - fingers crossed I get anywhere close to your image.

[Ratlet]

2 hours ago, Elp said:

Star processing is (mostly) straightforward unless if you're dealing with the likes of Alnitak type stars , I refuse to use PI when manual processing can achieve similar or close, I'm starting to migrate to GIMP too as it can process in 32 bit (unlike my old PS).

I usually do all processing as is with the stars in, then address them at the end.

I'm quite impressed with PI.  It does its job very well.  I'm just not sure if it does £300 worth of well for my level.

I very much feel that I don't understand what it is doing it's just doing it for me, which isn't really what I set out to do.  I want to understand what's going on and when/why to do certain things.  It does give me a good idea of what I can achieve though, even though I my processing isn't great.