Gamma Cygni Rother Valley DSC 2 July 2011

[The Thing]

HEQ5 Pro, EQMOD, CdC, LX90 8" UHTC Baader Alan Gee II Telecompressor at correct spacing, Canon 350Da, Astronomik CLS-CCD clip filter, Lakeside ASCOM Focuser, Bahtinov Mask, Dunc's Collimation Mask, Meade 8x50 FinderGuidescope & QHY5, PHD Guiding, APT Astro Photography Tool.

Processed in DSS and tweaked in PS. 10x600s Lights, 10 darks, master bias and master flat from a previous image.

Full frame resampled to 1024 X 665  with sharpening. Full Size here (6Mb).

[Fay]

10x600 eh? You are well and truly on your way Duncan, great!



Fay

[JohnP]

Hi Dunc,

I reckon you forgot a few things on your equipment list there 

As Fay said image looking very nice - still looks like you have a few issues with odd shaped stars on the full size but focus, processing looks spot on.

Very good,  John.

[Fay]

Yes, I thought there was a lot of equipment!!!!!

[The Thing]

There is always a lot of equipment! Most of you just don't list all of it. That's why we spend the first few hours at a DSC drinking setting up.

[Carole]

Some very nice data there Duncan.
Hope you don't mind a did a few tweaks to your Jpeg.
I got rid of most of the gradient, and lifted the colour of the nebulosity slightly
A very nice image



Carole

[JohnP]

I got rid of the gradient, reduced the sky background and lifted the colour of the nebulosity

... and added some noise 

[Carole]

You can't add noise, only reveal it.  I think you picked up my post between revising the image John as I didn't like it myself when I had posted it the first time.   

Carole

[JohnP]

You can't add noise

I think you'll find you can - Photoshop has a filter especially for doing this   I always add noise to my images I dont like them if they are too smooth.... I prefer to add Gaussian noise but ocassionally use the uniform noise filter as well depending on what I am imaging...

Your reprocess does look a bit better now compared to the original - it's always tough reprocessing when you only have a jpeg to work from.

John.

[mickw]

Prefer Duncan's original

[The Thing]

Thanks Mick. I like my images pretty much as they come. I would like to know how to remove a gradient though, must look it up on the web.

[JohnP]

Prefer Duncan's original

moi aussi !

[Fay]

Et moi!

[RobertM]

You're flying now Duncan 

There are bits I like about both you've posted.  Lots more nebulosity in the second but the stars have suffered, the artifact has brightened and there's more noise.

Regarding gradient removal - if you have maximdl then 'auto remove gradient' works a treat also the Gradient Xterminator PS plugin works wonders.

Robert

[MarkS]

Very nice Duncan!!

You've done a good job of processing - but there is still a gradient to be removed.
The stars look round - so your guiding was fine.
Towards the corners they are dagger shaped - it's about the best you will get with the Alan Gee.  But it looks pretty symmetrical so I think you've got the collimation and the seating of the Alan Gee just about right.

By the way - there's a very interesting artifact below the bright star.

Well done - they'll be no stopping you now.

Mark