NGC2403

This is not a very good representation of this object. But this is the best I could given the data I collected. I was struggling with Maxim DL and it’s settings when I was trying to image this. This is a 55 minute exposure (5 min * 11) with equal number of dark frames but no flats. I need to revisit this object sometime soon. This is a fairly bright and big galaxy in the local group that Charles Messier missed!

Eskimo Nebula

I just don’t have the right FOV for this object with the telescope/camera combination I have right now. This is a 3 hour exposure (5 min * 36) with an equal number of dark frames. No flats. This is a beautiful planetery, but you can’t see any detail in this image. Maybe I should use a barlow or something.

Horsehead Sequel

I gathered data from scratch. This time there was no moon, and I did this in an attempt to participate in the december challenge for tac-imaging mailing list. I think it worked out well. The processing worked good too. 20x3 min exposures totaling 2 hours. Equal number of darks. Flats were collected the next morning. Alignment and calibration in Maxim DL and final RGB composition in PS CS2. Another thing I realized while processing this is that the three AA plugins I had to split the exposures into LRGB were not all doing it the same way. One produced better RGB frames and one produced better L frames. I used both plugins. Deconvolution scripts used in Maxim DL to make the stars sharper. The color balance is probably also closer to reality although this is still a learning process for me.

M1 Reprocessed

Since I could not manage to do any imaging for almost two weeks now, I decided to reprocess the M1 data I had with the IR filter. Same data as the one posted on December 11th, but this time, I used better black and white point setting and also deconvolution scripts on the L master frame using the scripts developed by Robert. This did wonders. I used to cycles. The first cycle was gaussian kernel with 5 iterations and 4 pixels. The second cycle was again a gaussian kernel with 3 iterations with 2.5 pixels. In both cases the Standard deviation on the background was 6 (derived from the information panel of Maxim DL in aperture mode). This gave me a much sharper L master. The LLRGB was combined in PS CS2. Using some basic curves on R,G and B frames (from Ron Wodaski’s tutorial) and also black and white point settings. I also used DDP script for photoshop. Layer 1 was 40% opaque. You also notice that with the deconvolution all the doubles are also split nicely. There is some halo around the big stars and that’s probably because I pushed the deconvolution too far. I think the color balance is also better on this one. Although I still have no clue on how to do the color balance right.

M1 with IR Filter

Got me an Astronomik IR cut-off filter. And I think it improved things a lot! As a first try, M1 was targetted. This is a 20x150 sec exposure with equal darks. Flats were taken the next morning at dawn (this is one area I don’t know if I am doing the right thing yet) 130 x 15 sec flats corrected for Bias calculated from a median of 10x0 sec bias frames. Again I had some field rotation. I need to do a Drift alignment one of these days and at least nail the altitude bolts. Lateral adjustment should then be ok. Anyways, the subs were aligned with Maxim DL after calibrating in Astroart 2.0. I like Maxim DL, I may end up buying it after the trial period. Need to investigate if Maxim DL will work as my image acquisition software too.
Notice that even though focus is off just by a little bit (I think I am getting better though) the stars are are nice little circles :) This is a big improvement over my previous images. You do notice a lot of noise in this image, partly because of poor seeing conditions and also because there was an 80% moon out when I did this. With dark skies, better seeing conditions and better focus this will get better.

M57 Once More

With a slightly better understanding of the techniques involved. I attempted M57 again. This is by far my favorite object. Biggest bang for the buck so to speak :) As you can see it’s a much better capture composed of 20x2 min exposures and an equal numberof darks. 150x10 sec darks and dark flats.

But notice the stars. They are not focussed properly and also are a smudge with a lot of bloom. Two things: Robofocus and IR Filter :)

Horsehead

On the same night that I was experimenting with my new Astronomik IR Filter, I tried the Horsehead nebula (IC434) after shooting the M1. This is a 25x150 sec exposure with equal darks. Flats were taken next morning and consisted of 130 x 15 sec flats corrected for Bias calculated from a median of 10x0 sec bias frames. Again the stars look good. There is even natural diffraction spikes :) There is a lot of noise and graininess here, because the moon was very close to the Orion Constellation when I shot this and seeing and transparency was not great either. And I KNOW that my flats are not good at this point. You can see some dust leftovers on the left of the image. One thing that I would like to change is the FOV. My current setup has a very limited FOV.

IC342 - Better Alignment

The same data. Alignment is done using CCDStack instead of Registax and combined using Sigma as opposed to Sigma. As you can see, the details are better defined. Again, this is a 20x10 min light and 20x10 min darks stack. 150x10 sec darks and dark flats.

IC342

This is a hard object for me. A galaxy in the local group. It’s fairly big, but very low surface brightness. And the light pollution in backyard is high enough that I cannot get a decent data set to build a good image. This exposure consists of 20x10 min light and 20x10 min darks. 150x10 sec darks and dark flats (although they may not be that good). In this exposure run I was plagued by field rotation and it was hard to align the images and retain the information. Hence you see the left is lighter than the right. In fact I did another exposure set with 4x30 mins and it turned out to have too much noise.

NGC2024 - Take 2

Got it centered this time around. It is really a bright object and beautiful to image. 20 x 3 min shots with equal dark frames. 150x10s flats with equal flat-darks. All sub were combined in Ray Gralak’s Sigma and LRGB composition in PS CS2. This is in fact an LLRGB image where Luminance frame was used twice to improve details. Although it might be a little dark because of incorrect S curves. Sharpening and Guassian blur was used with some success to improve details. The color contrast adjustments also seem to be getting better.

NGC2024

I was actually shooting for Horsehead and ended up on the flame nebula :) Also the pointing was bad, because you can only see a part of the flame. The coloration might be un-true too. This is 20x10 min exposures with a 20x10 min darks. 150x10 sec flats and flat darks. I processed three different times and this one is with Sigma, Astroart and PS

Ray Gralak's Sigma

Same data, except I used Ray Gralak’s sigma to process the subexposures. The earlier image was with astroart processing the subs. The improvement I believe is primarily because I handled photoshop better when adding the RGB frames to the luminance and not because of Sigma, although, the data I have has enough flaws in it for Sigma to make any significant difference. I feel Sigma is a surgeons instrument, while my skill level at this point in collecting the raw data is akin to that of a butcher :)

M42 in Color!!

Picture of M42. After significant processing here’s what I have. My processing skills are improving but still have a long way to go. You can still see a lot of blooming stars and also the fuzziness is probably because my R&P focuser does not do a good job. And maybe my collimation was off too :(
This is a composite of 20x10 min exposures. 10x10 min darks were taken for noise and 150x10 sec flats and flat-darks were used. Didn’t use bias. But maybe next time I will use them and see if it makes things any better. Bias information, though should be contained in the darks itself and should be sufficient since the darks are of the same duration as the light images.

Second light - Take 4

Another failed attempt to locate an object. I was looking for M33. Couldn’t find it. It may have been too big to fit into the FOV of my camera. This looks like one of the spiral arms of it though, doesn’t it? 3x10 min exposures with 1 10 min dark. No flats.

Second light - Take 3

Can you see the small galaxy there? I was actually searching for Helix nebula. Didn’t find it, but somewhere along the way I found this :) I have no idea what this is or if it is even cataloged. I think though, that this might be NGC7184. This was 3x10 min exposures with 1 10 min dark. No flats again.

Second light - Take 2

What should follow M1? M2, of course :) This is a 3x10 min exposure with 1 10 min dark frame. I think I should take as many dark frames as exposures and for just as long. Color balance is again off. I have to learn how to do that right...

Second light - Slightly Better :)

Read up a little and I think it paid off :) Found M1 after some hopping and slewing. 2x20 min exposures, 1 30 min exposure and 1 40 min exposure. 1 10 min dark frame and no flats. I should start taking flats. I think they will help. I have been using the artificial flat plugin for astroart from www.astrochris.com. I should probably keep the exposures lower too. The stars bloat up because of the long exposure. Then again that might be an artifact of poor focussing and improper collimation. The more I do this, the more I realize that everything has to be perfect. When I combined this in PS, I think I screwed up the color balance. Oh!! BTW, this is the first time I saw M1 ;)