M13 and Leo Triplet

[Johnnyaardvark]

Revisited a couple of old targets to see if I could improve on them, try out guiding again and to see how imaging works from our new house with light pollution etc. 

 

[Nicely] the neighbours security light was out. In recent weeks the local street lamps have been replaced with LED lamps. The seem quite directional and mostly pointing the light away from my so I tried imaging to an area above them... a little lower than I would have like to have been imaging but it was a bit of a test. AS you will see from the Leo Triplet image (uncropped version)  there are some effects due to the lighting this was especially noticeable on stretching the image. 

 

Anyhow, good to get out and try out imaging from my "new" (lived here for nearly 6 months now!) home.

 

Skywatcher ED80, 0.85x FD, HEQ5. QHY5L-II Finder Guider and Nikon D5000

 

All light frames were 3 minutes 30 seconds @ ISO 800. Both stacks used the same set of Flats (x11), Darks (x16) and Bias frames (x16). 

 

Leo Triplet 12 x 3.5 minute subs

M13 5 x 3.5 minute subs

 

Stacked in DSS and post processing in PS CS

 

Some focus and processing issues... comments and feedback welcome as ever....

 

Leo Triplet by Steve Athey, on Flickr

 

Leo Triplet Crop by Steve Athey, on Flickr

 

M13 Hercules Globular Cluster by Steve Athey, on Flickr

 

M13 Hercules cluster crop by Steve Athey, on Flickr

 

Edited April 2, 2016 by Johnnyaardvark

[Tweedledee]

Love those, they all look very crisp and clear with very sharp stars to the edge

[BAZ]

Some nice images there Steve, the triplet has come out well and here's even a hint of the "propeller" on the cropped M13. 

[Johnnyaardvark]

Thanks Pete/Baz. The focal reducer certainly helps flatten the field.

I wonder if my focus could have been a little tighter and if I could get much more out of this data with processing... the m13 is a little bit of an improvement on my first attempt but that was called very early image of mine.

Followed an online tutorial for this m13 but my data was just nowhere near as good as their raw files...

Tried to pull some colour out and sharpen the stars but was limited what I could achieve.

Practice practice practice...

[Smithysteve]

I am a visual monkey Steve, so when I see pics like these they remind me of my viewing sessions...  I cannot get the wide FOV that these pics get though!

 

I love the Leo Triplet pics. This is one of my favourite targets. 

M65 and M66 look great, but NGC 3628 showing the central dust band and the extended wispy breadth looks brilliantl! 

It's amazing that Messier did not spot this +9.5 mag beauty. Of course through the scope NGC 3628 is just a faint smeary patch, if seeing conditions even allow it! Photos bring out the detail, but it still gives me a buzz to see it.

 

M13 looks amazing too, Globs look so unnatural against the sparsely populated background. ?

 

Great pics thanks for sharing!

 

[Johnnyaardvark]

Thanks for the kind comments and info Steve.

From my poor skies I don't get to see much of the triplet visually. Just a hint of M65 and M66.

Still finding out what I can see and image from my location. Much of it depending on how muggy the seeing is... visually most things were washed out on the morning of the 1st and difficult to get any kind of dark adaption with so much ambient light around.

Anyhow was great to get out and have a play.

Away from Internet mostly for the next few days now...

Best wishes.

Steve

[Stephen]

They are very nice images Steve