Bubble Nebula with DSI II Pro and Meade 5000 80mm APO

[wsuriano]

Here's a recent narrow band image of the Bubble Nebula taken over a couple nights with a Meade DSI II Pro through a Meade 5000 80mm APO guided with a Meade DSI Pro on an Orion ST80.

Bill

[DSOMAN]

Very well done!

Brent

[firemouth]

That is awesome!
For a beginner like me could you walk me through some of your steps.
Thanks
~Rich

[wsuriano]

Rich:

Well, that's a tall order.  It's more like a process where you climb a learning curve.  I'm only part way there myself, but have learned a lot in the last couple years.  I'll try to be brief, because I don't know where you're having problems.

1.  A good polar alignment is very helpful because nearly everything you image is going to require fairly long exposure times.  Even with a good polar alighnment, I unbalance my scope just a bit so that it is consistently pushing in the same direction.

2.  I autoguide with a guide scope mounted on top of my imager.  You can use Envisage to autoguide.  I use PHD, a free guiding program that works with Meade DSI cameras.

3.

[wsuriano]

Rich:

Sorry the last post posted before I was done.  In any event, let me know where you have issues.  I'm happy to help.

Bill

[firemouth]

I like to know the work flow of the post processing. I understand how to capture an image, either with a camera or a webcam, but getting the image to look good afterwards with little noise seems to be the trick for really good imager guys out there.

[wsuriano]

Got it.  After stacking each channel, I adjust the levels and curves in Photoshop CS3.  I'll apply curves and then levels a few times until I get a good dynamic range and a nice histogram.  My first curve adjustments draw out the whole image.  Later curve adjustments are made to only parts of the dynamic range.  A slight "S" curve increases the contract.  If needed, I'll sharpen each channel and do some noise reduction.  Sometimes, depending on the image, I may do a layer mask to sharpen areas of the image or a high pass sharpen in a layer.  Then, I'll combine my 3 channels in Photoshop.  Before doing that, I make sure they each have basically the same dynamic range by looking at each image's information.  After combining the RGB or 3 narrowband colors I adjust the histogram to even things out and may adjust the color balance.  Then, I'll saturate the image up to around 30% and apply the luminance image or the Ha image (usually) as a luminance layer.  I may play a little after that, but basically, I'm done.

[caseyhd]

 I'm just curious. Did you guide through envisage or PHD?

[wsuriano]

I guided using PHD through a Shoestring GPUSB adapter.

Bill

[corniche]

Outstanding image Bill. 


Mike

[caseyhd]

 Thanks for the speedy response. Sorry to keep asking but did you also use nebulosity or envisage for the capture. I've just started messing around with PHD and it seems to work better than envisage when guiding. I'm just not sure if it is worth getting nebulosity over envisage for the capture.

[wsuriano]

No problem.  Asking questions is why we have forums like this.  I used Nebulosity for capturing the image.  It's a matter of personal preference.  I find it easier to use for me.  If you want to try Nebulosity, you can download the current release from http://www.stark-labs.com/nebulosity.html and see what you think.  Any images taken will be degraded during the evaluation period, but you can get a feel for whether the interface and approach to imaging work for you.

Bill

[caseyhd]

 Thanks Bill. I will try it unfortunately we are under an eternal cloud cover around here but I will give it a shot next time out. Great pics and hope you have better skies than here.

[wsuriano]

We've been socked in too. I haven't imaged in over two weeks.