M106 after M3

[BlueAstra]

After M3 (described below) I went on to M106. With the equipment now humming along quite nicely, I did 8x6m with the same setup. Close to midnight so it all had to come down now and be trolleyed back to the garage.

Seem to be having better luck with the processing by changing the default optons on DSS. Tried a few different selections at random (no idea what they mean). Lights-entropy weighted, debloom selected, Darks-meadian, Flats-average. Before got large scale circular contouring with or without flats. These seem have gone now with the new reciepe.

[mdstuart]

So amazing....lovely picture.

Mark

[MartinB]

Shame you had to stop at midnight because M106 is coming on a treat. The outer stuff is very faint. Will you back to get some more data?

[BlueAstra]

I've never been back to a target to get more data before. My setup is 'new' every session in that I've not really bothered about camera orientation (rotation). I could try again with some test shots to try and get the orientation close. Each night is a new adventure!

I originally took 8 x 6m. If I took more 6m exposures, am I right in thinking that all I am really doing is reducing the noise content when stacked in DSS with the original exposures. This allows a bit more 'curve boosting' to take place without noise effects. Is taking additional 6m shots and adding to the original stack the thing to do, or should I try longer exposures (to get the fainter stuff) and add those to the original stack?

[MartinB]

The faint stuff will still be there in the 6 minute subs. If you have any light pollution it's likely that 6 mins will be plenty long enough for the individual subs. Adding more will bring out more detail and smooth things out. It depends what your goals are, probably more fun at the moment to go hunting new targets than spend hours on one subject and getting too precious about it all!

[ncjunk]

Nice picture, some nice detail in there.

[BlueAstra]

I might try to get more data to see what the effects are. Just for interest I've enclosed one of the 6m subs. I use the Hutech LPF. The LP doesn't seem to be too bad for high altitude targets, but lower down, 4m will give me an almost complete 'pink' washout from the Manchester LP.

I've thought about getting Pixinsight for its DBE feature. Do you apply that to the subs or the DSS processed image?