Author Topic: 4 Clear nights in a row part 1; M33 (Read 471 times)

Astrovirus · « **on:** October 04, 2011, 04:29:28 PM »

Hi Guys,

Finally we have had some Indian Summer (as you would call it, I think?) here during the past week(end), giving us 4 clear nights in a row. These were well spend on my part shooting 6 objects, although only 4 are processable as the rest suffers from distortions and halos due to severe dew and moisture in the air. First night was spend on M33.

8" Newton @F/5 with MPCC
NEQ6-pro Controlled by EQmod/CdC
Guided by QHY5/9x50 Finderguider/PHD
Peltier Cooled Canon 350Da (Peltier Cooling Inactive)
Emmen, The Netherlands, September 28/29 2011
3 hours 20 mins (20x10 min, ISO1600), 24 darks, 20 flats, and 20 bias Calibrated.
Captured with Nebulosity 2.4.4, Data Reduction by DeepSkyStacker 3.3.0 (Kappa-Sigma), Post-processing CS3 (Carboni's and Anni's Astro Actions)

Jason C · « **Reply #1 on:** October 05, 2011, 01:06:22 AM »

Detail looks nice, how do you apply white balance to your images? I always had the best results (perceived most accurate ) with using the in cam custom white balance after carefully calibrating it via a white balance plaque. I mention because it has a slight of a shift towards blue. There are nice clumps of Ha about the galaxy (I'm sure your aware of that) that you might tease out by shifting the white balance.......just a thought.

Astrovirus · « **Reply #2 on:** October 05, 2011, 03:15:12 AM »

Quote from: Jason C on October 05, 2011, 01:06:22 AM

Detail looks nice, how do you apply white balance to your images?

I haven't paid to much attention to white balance setting in the camera as I though that shooting in RAW disregards any WB settings in the camera. I normally color balance in Neb 2 or in these images with GxT. WB is then ajusted throuhg setting white point on a saturated star that appears white, although I know you should do it on a G2V star that is not saturated. I might have neglected it somewhat in my recent images as I didn't get any comments on the processing on that point. Thanks for pointing it out, Jason.

Jason C · « **Reply #3 on:** October 05, 2011, 03:52:16 AM »

Yep, np using the g2v is the best way to do it with software. You can actually tell your pre-processing sw to apply the in camera cwb. My theory had always been that the Canon is designed to know how to produce "true to eye" color based on properly setting the wb. When I did mine I used a Greta McBeth white balance card with no filter. If I shot with the cls the color would be slightly red shifted especially with the modded cam, so I would then as usual apply the in camera cwb and then use the sw to balance it off of a known white star in the field. I'm not sure how you apply it using Nebulosity, I use Maxim in which you use the convert to color on opening the individual files. I believe DSS you can check a box to use camera wb.