11 replies to this topic

[Bradicus]

I'm not super happy with this image, but I think that is mostly a reflection of how much my standards have changed since starting to work with the QSI camera and HA data.

 

This is 9 x 1200s HA and 36 x 300s RGB subs.  I wish I had used 10 minute RGB subs, as there simply is not enough blue data to create the image I wanted.  There are halos around the bigger stars.  Again, this is a result of the weak RGB data and my attempts to create color from nothing.  With only 3 hours of HA data, I had to use more noise reduction than I wanted.  And last but not least, my stars aren't round.  I think I found the source of my star issues though.  I pulled apart my AT65EDQ tonight and found that the retaining ring on the corrector lens was so loose the glass could actually move.  I'm hoping that by tightening that ring down, the uneven distortion I am getting across the field will be resolved.  If not, I will be shopping for a new scope.

 

Anyway ... despite the technical issues, I still think it's a nice looking picture.  It's still far better than anything I was creating 6 months ago.  It's funny how we critical we are of our own work.

 

 

 

[terry59]

I think this is quite respectable Brad. You are making great progress

 

You say 36x300 sec subs....is that each channel or was it 12x300 per? Perhaps try stretching the blue channel only to match the red and green in size.

[rflinn68]

Nice go of this Brad.  This is one of my favorite nebula. I messed around with some saturation tools in PS and PI using your jpeg image and seemed to get quite a bit of nice color. I can post the results here or send it to you in a PM if you'd like. What software do you use for processing? 

 

EDIT: Be careful and not tighten that ring down too much. Just enough so it doesnt rattle should be plenty good.

[anismo]

It looks great Brad and the processing is very good as well. I think your NR is spot on. The stars look good IMO. I totally understand being overcritical about our own images.. but this is a pretty solid one all things considered.

[shawnhar]

I think it looks great Brad, 36x300 should be plenty for the star color, if you're talking about the blue area and highlights in the nebula, I thought that was O3 and you wouldn't get much of that with rgb anyway?

[Goofi]

Looks pretty good ... stars are tight and the nebula has a lot of detail.

 

If you're just shooting RGB for star color, you don't have to go 5 minutes. If you're trying to pull color out of the nebula, narrowband filters will work better.

[josh smith]

Brad, I think this looks really great in spite of your issues.  Nice framing, smooth but with details, and the stars aren't bad at all.  I was able to get a little bit of the blue out of the flame with your data as well.  It is in there  I actually believe that is reflection nebula that is blue with only a little bit of OIII, Shawn.  It is coming from AE Aurigae http://www.noao.edu/...tml/im0686.html

[Bradicus]

Thanks everybody for the encouragement.

 

@Terry -- I had 36 total RGB subs..  12 per filter.

 

@Shawnhar -- The blue I had in mind is the reflection nebula.

 

@rflinn68 -- By all means, post your results here.  I would like to see what you were able to do with it.  Just be prepared for some questions from me.  I use both PI and PS, but all the processing on this was in PI.

[rflinn68]

This is what I got with your jpeg. Just a quick saturation with curves transformation in PI and Carboni's Increase Star Color in PS. The color data is certainly there. You can saturate to taste.

 

 

 

[Madratter]

Looks pretty good.

[David Ault]

Looks good to me Brad.  I understand wanting to get some of the blue nebulosity to show up better, but as it is the image is great.

 

Regards,

David

[Footbag]

The blue stuff is very elusive.  Great image though!