Cocoon - less is more...

[ncjunk]

I am still finding this a pain to process but have added some Dark and Flat calibration and deleted some of the old subs.

This means it is less washed out than before and the subs all have the same orientation.

It looks better! This photography lark is a right laugh when you end up changing the camera angle and dust on the sensor between nights observing.

L 10 x 300s, 15 x 600s

RGB 10 x 300s binned

[cardconvict]

nice image keep them coming

[the rev]

Nice detail in the image

[shaunster]

Nice detail, and the blue halo is clear to see

[ollypenrice]

I know what you mean about changing angles in mid project. I avoid it like the plague.

This has great resolution but could do with more time, really just because of noise. It would probably benefit hugely from a dose of Neat Image or similar. You colour balance looks good, too.

Olly

[ncjunk]

Thanks for the comments,

Olly:- yep I hope I can get more time but the moon is getting in the way a bit at the moment. I used to have problems with elongated stars but now it is HFD with the autofocus. I find if there are high clouds in the way the autofocus is slightly out and ruins the subs...now trying maxim with a limit on HFD for quality.

Looking forward to the winter season as everything seems to be working. The great thing about the summer is lots of clear nights (but short) the winter brings great clear, long nights but not many as we get a lot of cloud...shame I can´t swap a few of these summer nights for some cloudy winter ones!

[steppenwolf]

This is a tricky old object to image as it is not particularly distinct with regard to 'edge detail' which is why it is often imaged in a wide field context with the dark lane leading to it taking part of the glory! You've done a nice job though with some lovely star colours too.

[Earl]

There is a Red Green and Blue Splodge near the Upper left corner what is that?

[ncjunk]

It is a bit of dust, I have the flats for the luminance filter (so it is removed from these) but not for the RGB filters so the spec of dust got added as a colour splodge on the combine!

[Earl]

ah, i see thanks i was curious

[Steve_Max127]

Lovely image Neil lots of detail and colour. I'm hoping to start imaging this year so I guess I'll learn about darks, flats, subs and the joys of changing camera angles and dust :-)

BTW "now it is HFD with the autofocus" what is HFD ?

[Deneb]

Neil, maybe the re - edit is better or maybe not, hope you don't mind..

Cheers

Nadeem.

[ncjunk]

Focus max gives an HFD (Half Flux Diameter) value for the star it is focusing on. The lower the number the more in focus it is. You get focusmax to map all the HFD values either side of focus and it gives you a curve that looks like a V.

My curve has a maximum value of 60 (very out of focus) and at the point of the V I can get an HFD value of around 2, (i.e. it maps a value of HFD against a focus absolute position).

So when I say I need to sort out the HFD I mean I want to be more selective with the subs I use and throw away the ones which are even slightly out of focus keeping all of the "sharp" ones. Before I wasn´t bothered as any sub was better than nothing.

Hope that helps!

[ncjunk]

Nice rework Nadeem,

I want more subs as it isn't totally black around this. I think that it should be somewhere between your rework and my overly bright/noisy original..but i do like your rework much sharper.