140 replies to this topic

[Spaceman 56]

EPinNC has recently asked me to shoot some Southern Hemisphere Clusters for him.

 

I shot Omega Centauri over the last 2 Nights, about 180 subs at 60 seconds each. total time just over 3 hours. 

 

I can of coarse process it myself and upload a result, but I thought some of you higher Bortle people might be interested to work with

some Bortle 1 data, and see what it looks like for yourself.

 

I stacked this using ASTAP, which is not normal as I generally use Siril, so unsure how well the stack has been done.

the guiding was mostly in the area of 1.0 which is good for me as I am new to guiding.

there have been no adjustments made to the Raw Data.

 

one of the raw subs showed over 3700 stars, which is a pretty good number, but I have done much better on perfect nights.

however the seeing was pretty good on both nights. maybe 6.5 out of 10 for clarity (estimate by eyes only)

 

I ran at Gain 100 on my 2600MC, and 60 seconds, hoping to not blow out or overexpose the core, and hope star colour will be maintained.

 

anyway here it is if you want to check it out. looking forward to your results.

 

thanks Spaceman 56

 

https://drive.google...?usp=share_link

Edited by Spaceman 56, 28 March 2023 - 02:12 AM.

[BQ Octantis]

Oi mate!

 

I don't know that I woulda used my Bortle 1 time for Omega Centauri. But you defo gotta shoot something in Bortle 1!

 

(Click for full size @ ~26% scale)

Siril 1.2.0-beta2, RT 5.8.0, PS CS5

 

Cheers,

 

BQ

[maxsid]

Great data! I tried briefly in PI with the MaskedStretch and got similar result to the posted above by BQ.

So much dynamic range there... There are some nice details in the background but they are not visible without dimming the cluster.

 

I normally shoot from Bortle 8 (which sucks) but travel often to Bortle 4.

Once (2019) I shot from Bortle 2.

It was great but I was just starting the hobby and my mount (AZ-GTi) which I thought was good was actually not that good for 432mm. Bad guiding... Bloated stars.

I was happy back then anyway.

[Zambiadarkskies]

Oi mate!

 

I don't know that I woulda used my Bortle 1 time for Omega Centauri. But you defo gotta shoot something in Bortle 1!

 

(Click for full size @ ~26% scale)

Siril 1.2.0-beta2, RT 5.8.0, PS CS5

 

Cheers,

 

BQ

  

[acrh2]

I got this in Siril and Gimp:

[scottinash]

Lovely!

[Spaceman 56]

Oi mate!

 

I don't know that I woulda used my Bortle 1 time for Omega Centauri. But you defo gotta shoot something in Bortle 1!

 

BQ

Ha Ha. well yes,  you have to shoot something.

 

I think your processing is great BQ.   well done. 

 

thanks Spaceman 56

Edited by Spaceman 56, 28 March 2023 - 04:56 AM.

[Spaceman 56]

I got this in Siril and Gimp:

Excellent ACRH2. 

 

I think that looks Great.   ha ha....

[imtl]

I love southern hemisphere objects 

[Spaceman 56]

I love southern hemisphere objects 

did you shoot that from Duneden lmtl ?  she gets pretty cold down there...

[imtl]

did you shoot that from Duneden lmtl ?  she gets pretty cold down there...

Yep. Cold and dry is good for AP.

[Spaceman 56]

Yep. Cold and dry is good for AP.

ok, I forgive you.   its warm up here in Northland. 

[imtl]

ok, I forgive you.   its warm up here in Northland. 

I have relatives living close to Helena Bay. B1 as well...

[MrDan]

Thank you Spaceman....you are right. It took some time and a lot of zooming in but I counted 4,376 stars. (I may have double counted a few) This was really clean data and a cluster. Both firsts for me.  I over did it but I wanted to give it a go. I stretched the whole image out then masked and de stretched the cluster. I thought it might bring out more detail but the opposite occurred. All of the shots above mine show a lot more contrast which really makes the cluster stand out. Alas, hopefully this is the first of many I do.

 

Something is curious to me. BQ, your take is lovely. It seems to be the inverse of mine as if the canvas was flipped over and you are looking thru the backside of it. Am I wrong?

 

Thanks again Spaceman for sharing your skies with us,

Dan

 

[rj144]

EPinNC has recently asked me to shoot some Southern Hemisphere Clusters for him.

 

I shot Omega Centauri over the last 2 Nights, about 180 subs at 60 seconds each. total time just over 3 hours. 

 

I can of coarse process it myself and upload a result, but I thought some of you higher Bortle people might be interested to work with

some Bortle 1 data, and see what it looks like for yourself.

 

I stacked this using ASTAP, which is not normal as I generally use Siril, so unsure how well the stack has been done.

the guiding was mostly in the area of 1.0 which is good for me as I am new to guiding.

there have been no adjustments made to the Raw Data.

 

one of the raw subs showed over 3700 stars, which is a pretty good number, but I have done much better on perfect nights.

however the seeing was pretty good on both nights. maybe 6.5 out of 10 for clarity (estimate by eyes only)

 

I ran at Gain 100 on my 2600MC, and 60 seconds, hoping to not blow out or overexpose the core, and hope star colour will be maintained.

 

anyway here it is if you want to check it out. looking forward to your results.

 

thanks Spaceman 56

 

https://drive.google...?usp=share_link

Nice... I'll have a go later.  Almost 300 mb though... wow.  How do people have such large stacks?  My stacks are 53 mb all the time.

 

Thanks though.  You want to try processing my almost Bortle 9 data with my DSLR and a reflection to see what that's like?    Seriously, you should try it sometime to get a sense of what we need to do sometimes.

[imtl]

Nice... I'll have a go later.  Almost 300 mb though... wow.  How do people have such large stacks?  My stacks are 53 mb all the time.

 

Thanks though.  You want to try processing my almost Bortle 9 data with my DSLR and a reflection to see what that's like?    Seriously, you should try it sometime to get a sense of what we need to do sometimes.

The file size will depend on the size of your sensor (# of pixels) and binning.

[rj144]

Great data!

 

 

Quick edit in Siril and Affinity.  

 

Not many stars there at all. 

 

[rj144]

The file size will depend on the size of your sensor (# of pixels) and binning.

... and drizzling.

[DanMiller]

Nice... I'll have a go later.  Almost 300 mb though... wow.  How do people have such large stacks?  My stacks are 53 mb all the time.

 

Thanks though.  You want to try processing my almost Bortle 9 data with my DSLR and a reflection to see what that's like?    Seriously, you should try it sometime to get a sense of what we need to do sometimes.

I don't know about other software, but I know that PI usually stacks around 260? meg. Shoot, my 35mm creates 35meg files for every image.  So, maybe it isn't PI. Don't know

[jonnybravo0311]

There are some interesting faint dust structures in the data. I tried to accentuate what I found in the lower right.

 

Oh to be able to image in Bortle 1 skies... exceedingly nice data

[DanMiller]

I didn't do this data justice with my edit.  I have a real hard time processing star cluster, and I am not sure why. Lol, maybe it is because I have spent SO much time trying to edit my bad data that I don’t know how to edit good data.. But here you go. My attempt at editing this.

 

[BQ Octantis]

I was unhappy with my result. Bloody unhappy. Even with BE, the stars at the periphery saturated to a greenish cyan. And the center of the cluster was practically white. No, not natural at all. So naturally, this upset me.

 

So I had a go at the colors with a calibrated Planckian hammer. I hit it hard! And I found myself much more satisfied with the result. This is the Plancktillian Omega Centauri I remember from my outback skies.

 

(Click for ridgy didge size in dinky di colors)

 

Planckfully yours,

 

BQ _h

 

P.S. Here are the Planckian CCM and respective D57.8 white balance factors I calculated from your scene (from the stars HD 116197, HD 116337, HD 116649, TYC 8252-1080-1, HD 116414, HD 117227):

 

0.54699   0.57822   -0.12521
0.05801   0.89823   0.04377
-0.66401   1.32741   0.33660

 

kR=2.242, kB=2.995

Edited by BQ Octantis, 28 March 2023 - 05:13 PM.

[Dereksc]

Very nice data. Minimal processing in Pixinsight - color calibration, GHS, minimal sharpening:

 

 

 

I'm in bortle 6 zone so it was nice to check out your data - thanks.

 

Regards

 

Derek

[Oort Cloud]

my Bortle 1 time

BQ,

He lives in Bortle 1, the lucky duck. But I agree, if it was limited time, high contrast objects like stars can be shot from anywhere. The true treat from B1 would be things like LDNs, IFN areas, etc. Things we literally can't collect from our high-Bortle zones.

That said, your rendition looks amazing, and I am absolutely going to take that data for a spin when I get home from work!

Thanks for posting, Spaceman!

[Spaceman 56]

Oh to be able to image in Bortle 1 skies... exceedingly nice data

thank you JonnyBravo. 

 

some people wrongly assume that its easy to collect data this good. I can assure you that its not.

 

Everything has to be done right. and I mean everything. 

 

Framing, Exposure gain settings, Sub exposure length, Polar Alignment, Mount tracking performance, Guiding performance, Optical focus, OTA Balance, choice of optical weaponry and system component matching. all that stuff.

 

if you get all the above right, and the Sky is clear and Kind, then from Bortle 1 you can get Data like this.

 

Thanks to everyone who has assisted me on my journey. shairing this data is my way of giving something back. 

 

Spaceman 56