M13 - First for a while

[RobertM]

Been a bit of a labour of love this, horrendous LP gradients but hopefully I got nearish in the end.  Approx 10hrs (58 x 10mins) of dithered unguided subs from my 'dark sky' Bortle 6 site in Orpington.  All images taken with an Esprit 150 with flattener and ASI2600MC Pro camera.  Captured with Starkeeper Voyager and processed in Pixinsight (WBPP, Colour calibration, DBE, Repaired HSV separation, Asinh Stretch (thanks Mark)/Histogram Transformation) and noise reduction in Affinity Photo.  Calibrated with Darks, Flats and Flat Darks but Bias frames work fine as well.



Link to larger: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49992045701_118d5c93dc_k.jpg

Link to 4k: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49992045701_d6acc500e5_4k.jpg

Link to 6k (full size): https://www.flickr.com/photos/29673723@N04/49992045701/sizes/6k/

Hope you enjoy spotting all the galaxies, I'm looking to do another version with more faint detail if I can get the noise reduction to leave the stars alone.

Robert

[Carole]

Looking really good Robert, core of M13 shows individual stars and the propeller is evident, very nicely processed too.  You've kept the noise down to an acceptable level despite Bortle 6. 

Carole

[Roberto]

Great shot Robert!  Processing is spot on as well.    Your equipment is working really well for you; no more tinkering!

Roberto

[julian]

Hi Robert
Unfortunately that is a really nice image with the ASI2600 and an expensive image. Now, where did I put my credit card  ????
Julian

[The Thing]

Lovely pointy stars from your light hoover, it's about the size of one of Musks rockets!. The galaxies seem more numerous than the stars in many parts of your image. Wonderful stuff Robert.

[MarkS]

That is excellent!  The star colours are spot on and the sharpness of the small background stars is incredible.  A great first outing for your new camera.  It puts my recent attempt at M13 to shame 

Mark

[RobertM]

Thanks all very much for your kind comments.

Great shot Robert!  Processing is spot on as well.    Your equipment is working really well for you; no more tinkering!

Roberto

I should never have got rid of the NJP - it's taken me ages to get a working setup again !  The Esprit is a bit of a beast of a scope, the original owner offered me the box sarcophagus the scope came in but I would have needed a Transit.

That is excellent!  The star colours are spot on and the sharpness of the small background stars is incredible.  A great first outing for your new camera.  It puts my recent attempt at M13 to shame 

Mark

I thank Pixinsight and Arcsinh stretch for the colours... I put the pointy stars down to the number of subs and the lack of guiding (not chasing seeing).

Your images always set the bar Mark, often too high for us mere mortals 
 
Robert