Pacman Nebula Narrowband

[Carole]

I took this image on 31st August at my solo DSC at Cairds.

As stated on the DSC thread, this is my first image for 5 months and I made some mistakes.  One of which was to put the cameras into the wrong scopes, resulting in having to take a big crop in order to get a combined image.  So instead of matching the FOV I made them further apart.  Doh!!
Also forgot to put the cooling on and wasted the first 55 mins. (Gun to head  )

I did add some of the Ha I collected in 2014 to this image, but the Oiii and Sii is all from Cairds.

Dual rig:
HEQ5
Ha 9 x 1200 With ED120/314 in 2014 + Ha 11 x 600 WO71 and Atik 460 31.8.2016 (total 4h 10m)
Oiii 11 x 300 binned x 2 ED80 and Atik314
Sii 12 x 300 binned x 2 Ed80 & Atik 314
Mapped HOS

Total combined time is 7 hours
Total time at Cairds is 2h 50mins

[Fay]

well thats not bad at all Carole, all that trouble as well! will you consider this one finished?

[Carole]

Thanks Fay,

will you consider this one finished?

Hadn't thought about that Fay, I would have liked to have had a larger FOV, so might try to match the cameras at some point.

Carole

[Carole]

Aha, using my brain a bit, I realised that I had registered the smaller images Oiii and Sii to the Ha which were a bit rotated and needed a further crop, so I tried it the other way around and have managed to get a slightly bigger FOV and also a landscape view.

Same data different registration.  So yes Fay I think this is now finished.

[MarkS]

That's a really good result!

The different colours assigned to the narrowband really do highlight the structure.

It was well worth persevering with that image.

Mark

[Fay]

I would say it is done and dusted!

[Carole]

Thanks Mark and Fay.

Carole

[Carole]

Well some-one has told me how to deal with my star halos something I have had a problem with for some time, and it works well.  So herewith a further improvement.

[MarkS]

Wow! That's a very worthwhile improvement.  What's the secret?
Mark

[Carole]

It was a chap called Martin on SGL who saw my Pacman thread, he messaged me with this:

Go to Filter --> Noise --> Reduce Noise --> Reduce Colour Noise --> now set this to 100% and click OK

Works a treat.
Am now going back to some of my previous images and using this technique, it is making a good improvement.

Carole

[Kenny]

Very very nice indeed Carole.

[Carole]

Thank you Kenny.

[JohnP]

Hi Carole, When you are talking about Halo's are you meaning the 'darker black circles' around stars? I'm looking at bottom right hand corner of image & circles between the two look very similar (at least on my monitor). That is a very nice image btw although I am still not a fan of Hubble palette images. Must be good to get an image after such a long time although I'm now 'image free since Oct 2013'.. although have to say the urge is coming back to get the kit out again but Mark keeps depressing me with all his 30 second snaps

Keep up the good work - John

[Carole]

To be honest John, I was only repeating what the person said who sent me the tip, I am not sure what he meant by halos,
(I was hoping you guys would understand) but all I know is it made a great improvement to colour around many of the stars.   

What I need to try to do from now on is make the stars the same size on each filter before combining, I think this is where some of my problem lies as sometimes stars from different filters are peeping out from behind. 

You can't let some-one else's progress depress you John, sometimes you have to just do the best you can with the equipment you have and your location.  Either that or move house and buy better kit. 

I used to hate Hubble palette images, I am still not a fan of yellow and blue, which is why I chose orange.  the image doesn't look half so effective in other colours as I have tried it. 

PS:
ACTUALLY THIS WASN'T HUBBLE PALLETTE
Hubble pallete is SHO, this image is HOS.

Carole