M27: Dumbbell Nebula

[fatboy1271]

It's been a couple years since I posted anything other than the Moon, Jupiter, and Saturn. Definitely been a long time since I "finished" anything in PI!

I've been using Kayron's tutorials on Light Vortex Astronomy for Preprocessing and then following his M31 process. I'm pretty happy with my results on M27. Obviously not perfect and all comments, critiques, and suggestions are welcome!

As for imaging I've been getting what I consider to be round stars at 600sec exposures! I've been extremely happy with my auto-guiding. Due to the 600sec and glow of Los Angeles to the SE I've been using 400ISO. I need to make a matching set of exposures but at 300sec x 800ISO and see which I like better. I had done an on the spot test before imaging one night and liked the 600x400 more than the 300x800 but I think the real way to tell would be a full processing of data. Anyway...

2019-08-10
Lights: 11x600secx400ISO
Darks: 100 (Master from previous session)
Bias: 100 (Master from previous session)

2019-08-11
Lights: 11x600secx400ISO
Darks: 100 (Master from previous session)
Bias: 100 (Master from previous session)
Flats: 100

Preprocessed each set individually, then combined to finish.

[Juno16]

Nice images!

300 seconds at iso 400. Awesome! With my lp, I was hitting about 1/3-1/2 the last time I imaged.

That was last month. The last time I had clear skies!

Thanks,
Jim

[fatboy1271]

Nice images!

300 seconds at iso 400. Awesome! With my lp, I was hitting about 1/3-1/2 the last time I imaged.

That was last month. The last time I had clear skies!

Thanks,
Jim

Thanks Jim! I really try not to image anything E/SE at all. Luckily M27 is "close" to Zenith for me so I can get away with it being a little to the East. The 400ISO is less noisy but I just don't know if I'm losing good data with it...?

Bummer about the lack of clear skies

[BABOafrica]

Those are good images. But to be honest, I would have expected more detail with such long exposure times. Then again, you were using low iso. Anyway, pretty good.

BABO

[fatboy1271]

Those are good images. But to be honest, I would have expected more detail with such long exposure times. Then again, you were using low iso. Anyway, pretty good.

BABO

Thanks BABO! I too thought there would be more data; however, I'm sure it's a combination of the low ISO and my processing "skills."

Just brought everything in from another night of data gathering on M27; this time 180sec x 800ISO. Captured for 5 hours... Only to wake up to clouds and 3.5 hours worth of unusable data

fat

[UlteriorModem]

Heh been there done that... the clouds that is.

Nice image! The second one might be a little clipped but not bad at all.

[bradleybcraig]

Hey fatboy1271! I recall you and I working back of AF.net on a version of the dumbbell that you took 2 or so years ago. Nice to see you posting images again! I like this one!

[fatboy1271]

Heh been there done that... the clouds that is.

Nice image! The second one might be a little clipped but not bad at all.

Thanks UM! The second one is a Preview, PI, of the larger image. Yeah, processing still needs work but still a lot better than where I left off a couple years ago...

[fatboy1271]

Hey fatboy1271! I recall you and I working back of AF.net on a version of the dumbbell that you took 2 or so years ago. Nice to see you posting images again! I like this one!

Hey Brad! Yes Sir, I remember that too! It feels great to be back at it. Now that I have a daughter I need to keep with it so when she's old enough I can hopefully pass on some real skills

[helicon]

Nice one fatboy!

[jmfloater]

Looks good and a good start, guiding will improve your results a great deal. If you are using PI you might try the MaskedStretch Process, it works well at stretching without pushing the stars to much, then follow up with curves to adjust contrast.

I also suffer from the clouds. In fact it has been so bad I was thinking about adding them to my equipment section of my signature!

[SkyHiker]

Nice but I agree with Babo/Joe that you could have a better result for all that time. I think your exposure time was too long. More images of shorter duration would have been better. The stars are all blown out and have no color. Maybe it's in the processing - you may want to process the star field separately from the nebula - or maybe it can't be recovered. Not bad at all but next time try shorter exposures and see if it helps.

[fatboy1271]

Looks good and a good start, guiding will improve your results a great deal. If you are using PI you might try the MaskedStretch Process, it works well at stretching without pushing the stars to much, then follow up with curves to adjust contrast.

I also suffer from the clouds. In fact it has been so bad I was thinking about adding them to my equipment section of my signature!

Hey John,

Thanks for the info! Just curious, what about my guiding do see as being off? I know it's not perfect so I'm looking for any help I can get. Also, 600 seconds is pushing the AVX...

I'm unfamiliar with MaskedStretch so I will definitely check that out!

Very funny comment about adding clouds to you signature

fat

[fatboy1271]

Nice but I agree with Babo/Joe that you could have a better result for all that time. I think your exposure time was too long. More images of shorter duration would have been better. The stars are all blown out and have no color. Maybe it's in the processing - you may want to process the star field separately from the nebula - or maybe it can't be recovered. Not bad at all but next time try shorter exposures and see if it helps.

Hi Henk,

I'm currently processing my first batch of 180sec x 800ISO to see what the difference is. Because of the clouds last night I will need another night's session to get the same amount of total exposure time. Just from the RAW files I think a shorter exposure at a higher ISO will be beneficial.

I'm guessing a lot of the issues have to do with the person at the keyboard and his processing "skills..."

fat

[jmfloater]

Looks good and a good start, guiding will improve your results a great deal. If you are using PI you might try the MaskedStretch Process, it works well at stretching without pushing the stars to much, then follow up with curves to adjust contrast.

I also suffer from the clouds. In fact it has been so bad I was thinking about adding them to my equipment section of my signature!

Hey John,

Thanks for the info! Just curious, what about my guiding do see as being off? I know it's not perfect so I'm looking for any help I can get. Also, 600 seconds is pushing the AVX...

I'm unfamiliar with MaskedStretch so I will definitely check that out!

Very funny comment about adding clouds to you signature

fat

Your guiding looks good, less star bloat will prove that out. Definitely shorter exposures will help as M27 is a bright nebula. Use the default iterations of 100 in Maskedstretch and don't let the results fool you, it will appear faint at first but curves adjustments can improve that. Good luck, I look forward to your next image.

[MariusD69]

Very nice! Well done!