Mike B.
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 10/24/05
Posts: 2113
Loc: Louisiana
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While testing some new guiding software, I came up with this image of M71, a globular cluster in Sagitta and it's immediate vicinity of colorful stars. The bright star in the center is 9 Sge, at mag 6.2. I was guiding on it with my Toucam Pro and the PHD Guiding software that I was testing. Notice the neat arrowhead shape of the globular. 
M71 Globular Cluster and 9 Sge. C-8 at F/6.3, MPCC, Lumicon Deep Sky Filter, Hutech Canon 350XT, 11x150 @ ISO 1600.
Clicking the image will display an enlargement. Click here for the full size image. (891KB, 3451x2280)
Processed and stacked in IRIS with bias, flat and dark calibration frames. Distortion correction in IRIS. Full frame image, no cropping. Post-processing in PS, Gradient XTerminator, Neat Image and Noel Carboni's Astronomy Tools.
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Clear skies!
Mike B.
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LookatRigel
member
Reged: 02/28/05
Posts: 77
Loc: Spain
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It's a great image, even using ISO 1600.
Spanish fellows are convinced that low ISO values are better to avoid stars quick saturation. Processing the image you'll reach the same signal/noise ratio that using high ISO values, but this time you can use inverted luminance masks to mantain stars bright and size. Always with 350 D, nor 300 D. This one has noise problems with low ISOs.
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ASA astrograph N10 f:3.8; WO Megrez 80 Superapo, SW 200/1000
Losmandy G11 Gemini
Canon EOS 350D mod
http://astrosurf.com/astrocaza/Index.html
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Andrew Masur
professor emeritus
Reged: 06/24/05
Posts: 506
Loc: Ashburn, Ontario
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That is an object you don't see very often. I hope you don't mind, but I did a bit of additional processing on it to bring out more of the data that was there. You should stretch the original a bit more, it will take it.
(Stupid GIF really killed the colours  )
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Andrew
Telescope: LXD75 SN-8 w/UHTC
Guidescope: Skywatcher 80mm Short-Tube Achromat
Camera: Meade DSI-C; Canon EOS 300D
Guide Camera: Meade LPI; Meade DSI-C
Edited by Andrew Masur (08/04/06 03:51 PM)
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Mike B.
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 10/24/05
Posts: 2113
Loc: Louisiana
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Thanks, Andrew. No, I don't mind. Play with the image all you want. You did manage to bring out more of the dimmer stars. Nice edit.
I was testing a guiding software package and a coma corrector, so I picked this area because of the high density of stars and the globular near the edge was a good test of the coma corrector. I wasn't planning on going too deep, but it seems like I could have pulled a lot more out of the image.
I still had to do some distortion correction, but not as much as in previous tests. The CA is not as bad as without the corrector, too. There's a little bit of distortion that I could not correct, but I'm close, at least. Oh, and the guiding software test passed, even with my poor polar alignment! lol
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Clear skies!
Mike B.
My Astrophotos
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My New Blog Page
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Mike B.
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 10/24/05
Posts: 2113
Loc: Louisiana
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Quote:
It's a great image, even using ISO 1600.
Spanish fellows are convinced that low ISO values are better to avoid stars quick saturation.
Thanks! I think the test came out well. Better than I expected it would.
I guess since I only used 150 second exposures, I didn't over saturate the stars too bad. IRIS is good about preserving star colors, too. That's one of the reasons I use it.
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Clear skies!
Mike B.
My Astrophotos
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stefsaber
Post Laureate
Reged: 06/24/06
Posts: 4941
Loc: Rainy Florida
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Very Nice picture! I'll have to find that Messier next time I'm out, that looks so cool
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-Stefan
"A common mistake people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools." -Douglas Adams
Current Equip: Zhummel 10" Dob
Past Scopes: ETX 90---Vixen ED80Sf---WO 66SD--WO Megrez 80II Triplet
Fort Myers, FL
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s58y
Postmaster
Reged: 12/12/04
Posts: 6505
Loc: Eastern NY
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Nice M71 + starfield picture. The star images look great in this photo, and the (triangular!) GC is nicely resolved.
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Hutech 500D/T1i, 550D/T2i, DMK21AU618, SBIG ST-402 autoguider
SV80S, TV102iis, EdgeHD 800
Lenses: 800mm, 180mm, 135mm, 105mm, 85mm
AP900, Barndoor tracker
http://www.flickr.com/photos/s58y/
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Mike B.
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 10/24/05
Posts: 2113
Loc: Louisiana
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Quote:
Nice M71 + starfield picture. The star images look great in this photo, and the (triangular!) GC is nicely resolved.
Thank you!
The stars came out nicer than most of my previous images, I believe. I did not have to fuss with the image too much to make it look right, either. I love it when that happens. lol
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Clear skies!
Mike B.
My Astrophotos
My Astrobin Page
My New Blog Page
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