IC1318 Butterfly Nebula Cygnus

[Fay]

6x600secs, cls filter, modded Canon 350D via ED80. 1x600 was dropped by DSS

Had a few problems, as usual, last night. As sky was light & I was not familiar with this nebula, I had trouble imaging the correct area. It took me ages moving it around etc, but it was the image screen in DSLR Focus that finally made it easy, although I think I could have gone further left.
I popped indoors for 10 minutes & came out to see the shutter was not operating, it was either have a breakdown or commit suicide!!!!!!

Everthing had to be shut down & restarted, new com port, new battery in camera.
Anyway, there is noise as I need more subs, but it is obvious that there is great potential with a modded DSLR, when the sky gets dark.

Fay

[RobertM]

Brilliant image Fay.  You were fortunate with your problems - I couldn't get Maxim to guide at all and gave up at 3am

[JohnP]

Fay - that does look nice - good job especially after all the problems you had etc... Looks nicely processed as well. Any ideas why stars top right distorted?

John

[MarkS]

Fay,

That is a brilliant image and very well processed.  What more can I say - well done.

Is that the full frame (but scaled down) or is it a crop?

Mark

[Mike]

Excellent Fay. I have to say for uncooled cameras these modded Canon's do an excellent job. Will be even better in the winter on a crisp cold night.

[Carole]

You always do really smashing images Fay, but when did this change over to a DSLR happen?  (Might have been while I was on one of my several holidays this year and I missed the announcement).

Have you ditched the other apparatus, or is this an extra?

Carole

[Fay]

Thanks everyone. No, Carole, it is an as well as, camera.

It is full size image, Mark.

John, I used the 0.8 FR, to try & avoid any distortion. I did not use it on M27 but knew I would probably crop a bit as the subject is central. This one is not cropped. Can you suggest what it is or how I could avoid it?

Fay 

[Fay]

Robert, I was having a lot of trouble trying to get the LX to work on the camera, it would not fire. This was before the bit where I went inside for 10 minutes to come out to nice it had not fired again!

I had the dread that I would have to turn to Maxim, I have not used it for guiding, only set it up to see if all connects ok.  If there were a lot of good nights, I would just like to practice with it, not start imaging cold.
I think plan B's are needed as these programs are all so erratic!

[Rocket Pooch]

Can I come home now?

[Fay]

NO! You stay up there for another week!

[MarkS]

Can you suggest what it is or how I could avoid it?

Fay,

Take a look at each sub and see if the same effect appears in them.

Mark

[Fay]

I have reprocessed this. Do you think it is better?

Thanks Fay

[Daniel]

lovely image Fay, very strange those stars only distorting in the one corner, guess it cant be field rotation or it would be all over the outside edges and it'd be the same with coma too, very weird.

I personally like the first one the most as even though it's a little grainy it preserves more of the depth of the nebulosity.

which ISO are you using on those by the way?

[Mike]

Something is not right with that version. The stars look more like dust and almost look like they are floating in front of the rest of the image. Some of them are weird shapes. The nebula looks more out of focus too. I prefer the original it is much sharper.

[Fay]

Daniel, I used ISO 800.

Mike, yes, I thought it did not look so busy & a bit softer. I did a median filter & 2 point curve. I will think about it