Orpington Astronomical Society

Astronomy => Astrophotography => Topic started by: Ivor on Jul 22, 2015, 12:57:27

Title: M27 - Dumbell Nebula
Post by: Ivor on Jul 22, 2015, 12:57:27
This is my first attempt at processing with PixInsight and I'm already a convert, really impressed in the functions available and I've probably only used about 10% of what's there. I did a fair bit of the process on the nebula in PS CS5 as I was struggling to learn the right PI functions, I might revisit this when I've watched more tutorials.

Telescope: WO FLT110
Guiding via OAG Lodestar
Camera: QHY8L
Captured in AstroArt5: 14 x 600s @ -20c, Bias, Darks & Flats applied
Processing in AA5, PixInsight, PS CS5

It's very easy to over cook this target so I've tried to go for softer colours, which created it's own problems while trying to pull the inner detail out.

Tempted to do a half crop but not sure the detail is there.

(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/418/19724690548_324dc7a7ec_h.jpg)

Title: Re: M27 - Dumbell Nebula
Post by: Carole on Jul 22, 2015, 13:53:24
Nice to see you imaging again Ivor, your guiding problems seem to have been sorted out.

Carole
Title: Re: M27 - Dumbell Nebula
Post by: ApophisAstros on Jul 23, 2015, 07:34:34
"My God, it's full of stars!" :o :o :o

Roger
Title: Re: M27 - Dumbell Nebula
Post by: Kenny on Jul 25, 2015, 13:38:30
Quote from: Apophis on Jul 23, 2015, 07:34:34
"My God, it's full of stars!" :o :o :o

Ditto. Amazing starfield to then find that lovely deep sky object in the middle of. Glad to see you've got your imaging rig up and running again. Well done.
Title: Re: M27 - Dumbell Nebula
Post by: Ivor on Jan 05, 2016, 22:26:49
With no new data to play with I have been trying to hone my PixInsight skills having taken the plunge. This cropped reprocess is solely done in PI and personally I think it is improvement especially in the Star colours, what do you think?

(https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1498/23571903423_d8a0309fad_k.jpg)
Title: Re: M27 - Dumbell Nebula
Post by: Carole on Jan 05, 2016, 23:21:07
I think it is definitely an improvement on your first process.

Carole
Title: Re: M27 - Dumbell Nebula
Post by: julian on Jan 07, 2016, 12:07:14
Nice  image Ivor.
Title: Re: M27 - Dumbell Nebula
Post by: The Thing on Jan 07, 2016, 16:38:34
Nice gloss on The Dumbell, looks almost shiny. Very nice.
Title: Re: M27 - Dumbell Nebula
Post by: RobertM on Jan 07, 2016, 21:51:24
The reprocess looks good, it's brought the colours out better and there is a faint skirt showing around it in the background.  It also looks like pretty good focus as well - was that with a focus mask ?

Robert
Title: Re: M27 - Dumbell Nebula
Post by: Ivor on Jan 08, 2016, 06:48:53
Thanks for the feedback, I'm now definitely a PI convert.

Quote from: RobertM on Jan 07, 2016, 21:51:24
The reprocess looks good, it's brought the colours out better and there is a faint skirt showing around it in the background.  It also looks like pretty good focus as well - was that with a focus mask ?

Robert

I now have a Sharpcam autofocuser which I focused once at the start of the session. I'm considering changing my script to refocus between filter changes.