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My first guided image - M45

michaelmorris

By michaelmorris
in Imaging - Deep Sky

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michaelmorris

michaelmorris

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After much mishap, error and delay I've finally got a deep sky image that I feel is worth posting it on SGL. It's not exactly good, but I feel I'm getting there.

It's M45 taken with my Canon 1000D through an Orion 80ED scope. 20 x 60 seconds, guided with a Meade DSI through an off-axis guider, with the whole shabang piggy-backed on my 8" LX200 Classic. Dark, flats and bias frames were taken and it all processed in Deepskystacker then Photoshop CS2.

I must admit that I'm still really struggling with processing deep sky images, but I hope perserverance will pay off.

post-13232-133877506157_thumb.jpg

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Beyond_Vision

Beyond_Vision

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Looks like you have got the guiding cracked Micheal with good focus and tracking. One thing to avoid is pushing the blue channel too much in an effort to bring out the nebulosity. There are some golden colour stars throughout the cluster and these should show if the colour balance is right :)

Regards

Kevin

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michaelmorris

michaelmorris

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With my light polluted skies (outskirts of Worcester) 5 minute subs are going to be problematic. I have a Baader CLS filter, so I'll try using that when going for longer subs. In the past I've had problems with colour balancing the picture taken with the CLS filter. However, several SGLers have been very helpful in telling me what I need to do get the colour balance right, so I'll try the CLS filter again.

Thanks for the positive comments. I feel that I am at last making progress, but there is a long way to go yet.

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Steve 1962

Steve 1962

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Really nice image Michael - definately making excellent progress - it looks like you've got guiding and focussing cracked.

I find one the joys of this hobby of ours is that once you've got data like that, you can practice to your heart's content at image processing.

Steve

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michaelmorris

michaelmorris

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Looking good Michael. What's the next target.

Steve..

I think I'll stick with trying to get better at imaging and processing M45 for now. From what people have been saying, next up is to try more subs (60 x 2 minutes) and to try 2 and 5 minute subs with the CLS filter.

On the processing front, I think it's more reading and maybe try using a mask to overlay correctly colour balanced stars with the existing blue-biased image.

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guyroch

guyroch

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I must admit that I'm still really struggling with processing deep sky images, but I hope perserverance will pay off.

We've all been there, and a lot of us are still there, present company included.

Tony Hallas has a column in the last 3 issues of Astronomy Magazine processing your images using Photoshop. I found the articles to be very simple yet very effective. Anyway, hope it helps.

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