I had about an hour and a half before moonrise last night, so I checked the charts and discovered a neat star cluster in Auriga. I used the same setup as my M34 shot earlier that night. Again, my apologies for the sub-par tracking.
Details:
William Optics ZenithStar 71mm f/5.9
Atik 314E Mono CCD Bin 1
"The Flatinator" with Newtonian Mask
Wratten #12 filter (minus blue)
50x 85s lights
30x 85s darks
50 flats
50 bias
Please refer to my post on M34 using the Newtonian Mask:
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=3365
Please refer to my post on my Newtonian Mask for further information:
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=3364
You can read more about my use of the Wratten #12 in a future post.
Brian
Open Star Cluster NGC 1664 using a Newtonian Mask
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Please upload large images to photo sharing sites (flickr, etc) rather than trying to upload them as forum attachments.
Please share the equipment used and if possible camera settings to help others.
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Re: Open Star Cluster NGC 1664 using a Newtonian Mask
Agree- beautiful open cluster, Brian. I think I am on the fence with the diffraction pattern (twinkle stars) just like the star vs. starless-type images. I think my hesitation is that I really like one or two large stars in an image with the diffraction pattern as a nice touch but not the majority of them. Just an artistic preference for me but that is the fun part- to each his/her own. That is also why the NGC 1664 seems to be a good example of a nice touch with your "Flatinator" (LOL) with the Newtonina mask. Very clever on your part to do this and yes- sounds and looks much better than dental floss!
Need to see more images!!
Bruce
Need to see more images!!
Bruce
Re: Open Star Cluster NGC 1664 using a Newtonian Mask
Hi Bruce,
I do have control over it. I can lower the exposure and increase the frame count to maintain SNR. The bright stars in my M34 were heavily saturated so the spikes were more pronounced.
I was introduced to dental floss by Chuck Ayoub of "Chuck's Astrophotography" a couple years ago. By the end of the video, if I remember correctly, he wasn't too thrilled with it. He was partially to blame, though. He chose the Pleiades using a long exposure to pick up the nebulosity. The spikes on the stars nearly spanned the entire frame! Now, with what I know about SNR, I will choose a shorter exposure, and then make up for it in integration time.
Now, I just need to figure how to get color. I've got an idea. Something I will borrow from narrowband.
Thanks for your reply,
Brian
I do have control over it. I can lower the exposure and increase the frame count to maintain SNR. The bright stars in my M34 were heavily saturated so the spikes were more pronounced.
I was introduced to dental floss by Chuck Ayoub of "Chuck's Astrophotography" a couple years ago. By the end of the video, if I remember correctly, he wasn't too thrilled with it. He was partially to blame, though. He chose the Pleiades using a long exposure to pick up the nebulosity. The spikes on the stars nearly spanned the entire frame! Now, with what I know about SNR, I will choose a shorter exposure, and then make up for it in integration time.
Now, I just need to figure how to get color. I've got an idea. Something I will borrow from narrowband.
Thanks for your reply,
Brian
Re: Open Star Cluster NGC 1664 using a Newtonian Mask
Thanks for reminding me of NEAT, Dave.
Here is the same image of NGC 1664 as posted earlier, but now employing NEAT for noise reduction:
Brian
Here is the same image of NGC 1664 as posted earlier, but now employing NEAT for noise reduction:
Brian
Re: Open Star Cluster NGC 1664 using a Newtonian Mask
Cool tweak!
But question: why? Is this for aesthetic reasons or something else?
Of course depends on personal taste, for me it's like making it some kind of fairytale image.
Menno
But question: why? Is this for aesthetic reasons or something else?
Of course depends on personal taste, for me it's like making it some kind of fairytale image.
Menno