Horsehead and Flame

[anthony]

Hi All,

I have not been posting much recently, (busy in too many ways), but I have been managing to read most posts. Anyway, tonight was the first decent night worth setting up the camera since the 16th December. Things went quite well. I would have liked to get some colour but trees, murk and forgetting all the technical stuff I knew back in Decmeber beat me to it. So, this is about 80 minutes in H alpha. I will add colour in due course if the weather is kind

Anthony

[CELESCOPE]

Spot on Ant , splended image mate , and i see you got that faint star just below the horses chin, well done on presenting a really lovely image

Rog

[GordonCopestake]

What setup did you use Ant? Great image

[moondog]

That's a great image Ant.

Look forward to your couloiur version !

8)

MD

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

that's outstanding Anthony. Really really good shot of horsey

Been far too windy here for ages so I know what you mean about forgetting all the stuff.

Keep 'em coming, especially if they're this quality.

Captain Chaos

[anthony]

Thanks guys! You can imagine, that after the "drought", I was really excited to get this one.

It was actually 90 minutes in total, (not 80), in 10 min subs. Starlight express SXV H9 and a WO 80mm scope that operates at F6. Diffraction spikes from some 15 years old, 6lb breaking strain fishing line.

Just going to start on a widefield image of M51 - finished this at 4:30. Must make hay while the sun shines.

Anthony

[geppetto]

Blimey but that's a fantastic image 8)

[anthony]

Well, here is the M51. 1hr 50 min in 10 min exposures. Same as the previous set up. Got a really bit gradient in this one though. I might try my lumicon deep sky filter next clear night and see what happens. I am posting two because I'd like your opinion on what is better. I always find i difficult on my cheap screen here - the image is sooo different depending on the angle you view it from.

Anthony

[anthony]

And the other

[geppetto]

Love it 8)

keep em coming

[CELESCOPE]

Ah now thats a corker Ant , prob one of the best i have seen in a long while , like the way you have captured the other fuzzies as well , i had a go at the gradient , what ya think any better

this image is a belter , well done , got me interested now in this one , not done this since my 2HS DAYS hehehehehe ,

Rog

[anthony]

That's the buisness particularly if you are working with a compressed and reduced version - What would you do with the raw data I wonder. Don't fancy a fits file email attachment?

Mind if I ask just what tinkering went on?

Anthony

[CELESCOPE]

No that ok Ant , used noels actions mainly , first off used the lp reduction , but only a small amount, so as not to wash out that lovely outer part of the Galaxy, then used the soft gradient removal , that was fine then used the hard gradient removal , then done a soft space removal along with the deep space removal , final , just a very small tweak in levels, used the lasso around the galaxy first then used the slider to darken the background a wee bit , that was it,

Fine image mate

Rog

[anthony]

Thanks for that.

[AndyM]

Fantastic images Anthony - gives us lesser mortals something to aspire to.

Andy.

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Holy flip! Excellent images, really outstanding. I think Rog. will have to go some to better your images.

Captain Chaos

[CELESCOPE]

lol certainly will CC , but i dont look at it as a competition , only two pleased to see how folk improve and really get on , NOW WHAT SHALL I GO FOR TONIGHT EHEHHEHEHE

Rog

[MartinB]

Fantastic detail in both HH and M51 Anthony. I have had a go at removing the gradient using Russel Croman's gradient exterminator which I have found really good. It has left a few background smears which could be removed by applying a little gaussian blur after creating a star layer, otherwise I think it has preserved the faint nebulosity around the target. Are you going to add some colour data to M51 - would pick out the dust lanes a treat.

[anthony]

Hi Martin,

Another nice edit. I did the trial version of russells plug in and found it pretty good. Never quite got round to getting the whole package.

Anthony

[MartinB]

sorry Anthony but the saved jpeg has lost a lot - looks very clipped now. I think the trial version is the whole package but it's restricted to 30 days.

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Just wondering, were these guided? If not, then the mount is pretty spectacular!

I need to find out about guiding I think.

Captain Chaos

[CELESCOPE]

i think Anthony does guide CC if these are unbinned then it will be a yes for sure , i,m to lazy at the moment to Guide ehheheh , mind u 2x2 binning is good enough for me , dont need no big pics for here , and i print out at 6x8 no probs , guess i rely alot of the processing skills i have picked up over the years .

[anthony]

Hi CC,

Yep all these are guided. The stalight express guide camera works pretty well with maxim. Also the scope is only 480mm FL and makes guiding so much easier. I would not have half as much joy if I did not have this kit. In fact, my previous set up was a lot less productive.

Anthony

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

So I do need to learn about guiding, and buy more stuff, and a bigger camera and loads more. Still, at least I haven't nearly finished yet.

Captain Chaos (still a looong way to go)

[MartinB]

You can use Guidedog software and use your SC3 to guide. Guidedog is free.