Some astro shots from Qld astrofest taken in 2006

[h0ughy]

here are a series of shots I took at last years 2006 Queensland astrofest. Enjoy. taken mainly with ed80 on eq6, and a few with a c8 on the eq6, unguided except for the andromeda ones (manual guiding) staked and processed with images plus. Canon 300D modfied

[h0ughy]

more shots to view

[h0ughy]

and the veil

[Robert TG]

WOW! Those picture are GREAT! WOW! Well Done.

You have a talent and will make good use of your new 16" scope.

[h0ughy]

thanks, but I will not be imaging through the 16", I now have a lx200R meade OTA to place upon my EQ6 mount, and a Lumicon Giant Easy Guider, and a ST4 to learn how to use and develop into a astro imaging platform.

[Radar]

Nice work mate.

How big is your lx200?

[CanisMajorTom]

Great work there Houghy. You captured some good colours in the ring. :thumbsupmate:

[h0ughy]

Nice work mate.

How big is your lx200?

It was 12", I no longer own it, sold week ago:crying23:

[Radar]

Houghy how long did you expose the Veil for please? I found that object quite hard to reveal on film. I'm currently doing comparisons of DSLR's to film.

[h0ughy]

Houghy how long did you expose the Veil for please? I found that object quite hard to reveal on film. I'm currently doing comparisons of DSLR's to film. two 600 second manually guided exposures

[beren]

Top collection mate :welldone:

[phoenix]

Hi Houghy
great photos, they are works of art:welldone:

[CanisMajorTom]

Hi Houhgy, if you do 2 600 second exposures, they would both have the same amount of nebulosity, so doesn't stacking them just cancel the other out? Or is this simply to reduce noise? I'm probably way off. :duh:

[h0ughy]

Hi Houhgy, if you do 2 600 second exposures, they would both have the same amount of nebulosity, so doesn't stacking them just cancel the other out? Or is this simply to reduce noise? I'm probably way off. :duh:
,
no you double your signal to noise ratio and brings out even more details, of course you take same time darks, some flats and a few bias shots then process in images plus.

[CloudMagnet]

Dontcha just love those clear, clean Duckadang skies h0ughy. Once you get polar aligned that is.:Chessy_Smile:


CMT, the amount of nebulosity depends on how the images are combined (and the processing techniques as well). If the images are added then the nebulosity will increase, but the stars will become clipped and burnt out (sigma clipped). Images are normally combined by average or median combining. The advantage is as h0ughy says, a decrease in noise compared to signal. If you combine two images there is a square root of two decrease in noise, so;

4 frames; noise reduction factor 2
9 frames; noise reduction factor 3
100 frames; noise reduction factor 10

With corresponding more signal you can "push" processing harder.

The other way to increase signal to noise ration is to use longer exposures. So while h0ughy has only used two images, his exposure it 10 minutes.