NGC7000 - first go with Astrotech 66 ED

[jarbi]

Hi Everyone,

Yesterday evening I had finally all pieces together to test my widefield scope. This is a result of guided 10x8 min exposures with a modded Canon 350D + clip-on LPS filter. I have used my Atlas EQ6 mount with EQMOD. Captured with Nebulosity ( darks, flats ), I have done final processing in Photoshop.

I was advised to get a William Optics type II field flattener for this scope, and it was indeed the best choice. I got nice pinpoint stars almost until the edge . My original plan was to take 20 frames, but clouds started to roll in, I could just finish the 10th frame before.

I live 3km-s from the Brussels Airport, and I am always surprised how deep can I go in such circumstances. Any critics/comments are welcome !

clear skies,

Janos

[skye at night]

good stuff...

Looks like a bit of a performer that scope...

Steve

[NickH]

That's a corker!

[brendant]

An excellent field of view and the NA + Pelican Nebula nicely framed, would expect a lot more colour considering the camera is modded though. Nice flat field with good star shape - Well done.

Brendan

[jarbi]

All,

Thanks for your encouraging reactions, I really appreciate it . Brendan, I think the missing colours are caused by the short exposure time - probably 2h would be the minimum for this target.

One more reason to try it next time !

Cheers,

Janos

[brendant]

Hi Janos,

Attached is a recent imaged I captured with my modded 400D through an ED80 Pro, it is only 8x 6 Min's exposure (it's not a very good image though), this is why I was surprised by the lack of colour. This is one of the best targets for a modded Canon and one which really shows off the increased Ha sensitivity. I live just outside Glasgow and also have quite bad Light Pollution for which I use a Skywatcher 2" Light pollution filter - which seems to give me quite good results despite its low cost. Is your clip in filter a CLS one ? and what ISO have you used for your exposures. Your detail and field of view are fantastic, just need to capture some colour.

Brendan

[jarbi]

Hi Janos,

Attached is a recent imaged I captured with my modded 400D through an ED80 Pro, it is only 8x 6 Min's exposure (it's not a very good image though), this is why I was surprised by the lack of colour. This is one of the best targets for a modded Canon and one which really shows off the increased Ha sensitivity. I live just outside Glasgow and also have quite bad Light Pollution for which I use a Skywatcher 2" Light pollution filter - which seems to give me quite good results despite its low cost. Is your clip in filter a CLS one ? and what ISO have you used for your exposures. Your detail and field of view are fantastic, just need to capture some colour.

Brendan

Brendan, your image is sooo colourful . I use a clip-on CLS filter indeed, which shouldn't cut out red I suppose. The frames were taken @ISO 1600. One possible reason of missing red could be that I gather much less light with the 66mm scope than your ED80. Can you think of other possible reasons ?

Anyway, this week I will redo it with 2.5-3 hours of exposure when weather allows.

cheers,

Janos

[brendant]

An interesting problem Janos, your 8 minute subs @ ISO1600 should definitely have more colour, is it possible to post a single frame that is straight out of the camera to have a look. It may be a problem of the stacking and stretching of the image, the CLS filter is unlikely to be the problem.

Brendan

[jarbi]

An interesting problem Janos, your 8 minute subs @ ISO1600 should definitely have more colour, is it possible to post a single frame that is straight out of the camera to have a look. It may be a problem of the stacking and stretching of the image, the CLS filter is unlikely to be the problem.

Brendan

Thanks Brendan, I will post or PM a raw frame this evening, I think it will be small enough when zipped.

[beamish]

I find this image quite intriguing and really like the colours, very nice indeed.

Karlo

[Taff]

Hi Janos' that's a great WF capture of the area.Mark

[jarbi]

Thanks Brendan, I will post or PM a raw frame this evening, I think it will be small enough when zipped.

Breandan,

The file is still too big, I will try to upload a raw frame to Rapidshare, or can I mail it to you ? I don't see an other way at this moment.

cheers,

janos

[jarbi]

An interesting problem Janos, your 8 minute subs @ ISO1600 should definitely have more colour, is it possible to post a single frame that is straight out of the camera to have a look. It may be a problem of the stacking and stretching of the image, the CLS filter is unlikely to be the problem.

Brendan

Brandan,

Now I have it on Rapidshare:

RapidShare: 1-CLICK Web hosting - Easy Filehosting

Please take a look at it, I am very curious to know the reason of my missing red colors.

cheers,

Janos

[blinky]

Well I downloaded it but as I dont generally use FIT's I see it as greyscale! I open it as a picture file in DSS and save to Photoshop as 16bit TIFF but Phoeoshop sees it as greyscale.

[blinky]

Ok FIgured it out!!!

You have got nebulosity it in, must be the processing:icon_scratch:

[brendant]

Well done Craig, I downloaded the FITS file but could not do anything with it.

Brendan

[brendant]

Have never tried to process a FITS file before Janos but you have certainly captured loads of nebulosity, definitely you are loosing the colour through processing, have no idea of how Nebulosity works either, I normally use Deep Sky Stacker for my DSLR images to combine and stack then Photoshop to post process.

Attached a quick play with your single sub, there is loads of data in there, good luck with the reprocess.

Brendan

[MartinB]

I like the top one. What ever has gone wrong I like that mono with a bit of a red wash effect.

[jarbi]

Have never tried to process a FITS file before Janos but you have certainly captured loads of nebulosity, definitely you are loosing the colour through processing, have no idea of how Nebulosity works either, I normally use Deep Sky Stacker for my DSLR images to combine and stack then Photoshop to post process.

Attached a quick play with your single sub, there is loads of data in there, good luck with the reprocess.

Brendan

Brendan,

Thank you for this, amazing how much you could pull out from a single frame . I will certainly reprocess it to discover where did I loose colours.

cheers,

Janos

[adamsp123]

I like the top one. What ever has gone wrong I like that mono with a bit of a red wash effect.

Absolutely agree, that top image has a real subtle quality about it, the whispyness is very nice and that IMO can get lost with too much processing. Maybe a bit more red but I wouldn't try to over do it

[johnh]

Just caught this thread and agree it is an excellent image even without rhe dominance of red, all part of learning about processing. Thanks for posting Janos you must be proud of this one.

John.

[jarbi]

Thanks all for your nice comments, you are really inspiring me to get further on this imaging path !

Brendan, this evening I finally had some time to reprocess this image. Apparently I have clipped out a serious amount of red information during my previous processing, so here is a newer version. I like this one better .

cheers,

Janos

[brendant]

A superb result Janos , your initial image even though it was deficient in red was a lovely image in its own right, it's great to see the potential that was in your subs released. You have a great setup and look forward to seeing more images over the coming months.

That's the thing aboout this hobby, you are always learning, there is just so much to take in from the equipment to the capture and subsequent processing.

Well done.

Brendan

[jarbi]

A superb result Janos , your initial image even though it was deficient in red was a lovely image in its own right, it's great to see the potential that was in your subs released. You have a great setup and look forward to seeing more images over the coming months.

That's the thing aboout this hobby, you are always learning, there is just so much to take in from the equipment to the capture and subsequent processing.

Well done.

Brendan

Thanks Brendan,

Hopefully clears up soon to take other shots, there is som much in the pipeline .

cheers,

Janos