Camera Labs

Well, on Friday night I manages to get out again and do some more imaging.

I decided, due to the long focal length of my scope, to try getting the running man (NGC 1977) to add to my M42.

I had great difficulty in adding the mosaic together. First I chucked it all into DSS, which seemed to do the job but the results were not that good. There was a distinct dark band where the frames overlapped and the stars to the bottom of M42 went a bit funny.

So I decided to stack M42 and tweak in DSS. Then stack the Running Man and tweak in DSS using the same settings as for M42.

In photoshop I then combined the two and masked out the dark band.

M42 - 6 x 600s Subs, 4 x 600s Darks, Bias, no flats
Running Man - 6 x 600s Subs, 8 x 600s Darks, Bias, no flats
Guided with Atik Titan and finderguider
Stacked in DSS
Finished in CS4



Im not entirely happy with the core of M42, it seems a bit grubby, if you know what I mean. I think I need some better subs for the core. Still its one to work on.

As always comments and critique welcome.

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Lee Diggle
My Astronomy Blog | My Photography Gallery

Nice running man. Is it me or does M42 in general look less vibrant than your previous post? I think you can "turn it up" a bit in processing there. Edit: had a quick poke at this in photoshop, I think it helps a lot if you just shift the black point in levels a bit.

Can't wait to see you having a go around the horsehead.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Hi Popo,

I think you are right.

Hows about this:



Im looking forward to trying the Horse Head and Flame too....

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Lee Diggle
My Astronomy Blog | My Photography Gallery

Fantastic, especially the second version.

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