Another M57 query

[blinkity-blonk]

Seeing a few M57 queries floating around, thought I'd submit mine.

You'll have to forgive my incompetence - I have no idea what magnification or orientation this was taken at, and the tracking is the way it is because the power supply to the motors blew up a few minutes before so I had to track by hand. All I know is that the scope was pointed in the right place when I started, and its not a smudge as no other pictures from that night have it.

Personally I don't think it's the ring nebula as it cant possibly be that easy to find it first time! but there's nothing else in that area that I'm aware of.

[roundycat]

It is the Ring although I couldn't sort out the orientation. It seems you have a major vignette with your camera/scope combination.

Dennis

[blinkity-blonk]

Thank you for identifying it

it was taken using my compact camera afocally mounted up to the eyepiece. Is there a way of getting rid of the vignetting? That's the best I can get with my set up.

It was only one 1 minute exposure which I've duplicated about 8 times then bumped up the brightness and contrast, hence all the blue spots of noise.

How have you achieved both those versions of my picture? The left one actually has colour to the ring

[roundycat]

I didn't realise it was afocal, you almost always get that sort of vignette, just crop out the bits you don't want.

I gave your pic a couple of mild tweaks in PS, Levels to brighten the mid range a bit, Curves to drop the blue and add a bit of contrast. The colour is there because you (or more correctly your camera) put it there. The rh pic was simply a very severe stretch to expose the vignette.

Dennis

[blinkity-blonk]

Ah right, thanks for the help and tips. I'll have a play around in PS, see if I can the same results