Hello All,
I've been busy gathering data with my "new" (almost two years old now!) PlaneWave 12.5 CDK over the last few months. I've also been processing the data in fits and stars. I can safely say that long-focal length imaging definitely has a different workflow than widefield imaging.
These two targets were shot late last year, and I'm pretty certain that I didn't have enough V-curves in FocusMax for the scope at the time, as focus was not as tight as I would have liked. I also wanted to try deconvolution on these images, and that has also proven to be a bit of a challenge.
Granted, there are other challenges on top of wanting/needing deconvolution: the main one is haloes around bright stars that are plaguing me. What's interesting is that the haloes only show up in the color data and not in the luminance. Still, they do detract from the overall color fidelity of the areas affected. Which is not so bad against a background, not good against extended nebulosity!
That said, here are two images taken with the PlaneWave that are (for all intents and purposes) good enough to be labeled "Done". Until I decide to refine them again
First is NGC 2403 in Camelopardalis:
http://www.skiesbyafrica.com/Galaxies/NGC2403.html
75% sized image:
http://www.skiesbyafrica.com/Galaxies/Images/NGC2403/NGC2403_2014.jpg
Next is NGC 1491 in Perseus:
http://www.skiesbyafrica.com/Nebulae/NGC1491.html
75% sized image
http://www.skiesbyafrica.com/Nebulae/Images/NGC1491/NGC1491_2014.jpg
Enjoy,
Eric
I've been busy gathering data with my "new" (almost two years old now!) PlaneWave 12.5 CDK over the last few months. I've also been processing the data in fits and stars. I can safely say that long-focal length imaging definitely has a different workflow than widefield imaging.
These two targets were shot late last year, and I'm pretty certain that I didn't have enough V-curves in FocusMax for the scope at the time, as focus was not as tight as I would have liked. I also wanted to try deconvolution on these images, and that has also proven to be a bit of a challenge.
Granted, there are other challenges on top of wanting/needing deconvolution: the main one is haloes around bright stars that are plaguing me. What's interesting is that the haloes only show up in the color data and not in the luminance. Still, they do detract from the overall color fidelity of the areas affected. Which is not so bad against a background, not good against extended nebulosity!
That said, here are two images taken with the PlaneWave that are (for all intents and purposes) good enough to be labeled "Done". Until I decide to refine them again
First is NGC 2403 in Camelopardalis:
http://www.skiesbyafrica.com/Galaxies/NGC2403.html
75% sized image:
http://www.skiesbyafrica.com/Galaxies/Images/NGC2403/NGC2403_2014.jpg
Next is NGC 1491 in Perseus:
http://www.skiesbyafrica.com/Nebulae/NGC1491.html
75% sized image
http://www.skiesbyafrica.com/Nebulae/Images/NGC1491/NGC1491_2014.jpg
Enjoy,
Eric
Attached Image:
