383L Omega Centauri (NGC5139)

[Kaidan]

Hi,

A picture of the monster globular cluster "Omega Centauri", taken from "Piton Maïdo" (2200m), Réunion Island.

L (bin1) : 28 x 60s
RGB (bin2) : 3 x 10 x 60s
Total : 0h58

Setup :
ATIK 383L with Astronomik LRGB filters
TMB Optical 130 Signature Series with 3" corrector
Losmandy G11 Gemini II guided with ATIK Titan on AT65Q using ASCOM PulseGuiding

Processing :
DeepSkyStacker
PixInsight 1.7

[Lex]

Jeremy,

wow that's a stunning picture! Really nice coloring of the different star types!!
There seem to be really nice dark sky conditions at Réunion :-) --> My smileys do not work??

While processing your image in PI, did you apply HDRMT?

Again; really nice result!!

[bwa]

Wow that's a stunning picture!
Again; really nice result!!

I'll 2nd that opinion.  Truly a nice capture!

bwa

[MikeM]

Wonderful image, terrific processing! Hope to see it one day.

[Kaidan]

Thanks for your comments.

The processing was very light. I made only histogram strech and curves on the L. The RGB processing was a bit tricky because ... there's no background in the picture, lot of stars everywhere and all reicipes i usually use didn't work so i made the white balance by hand and i got one not bad by luck only. Then i made a small convolution of the RGB before the combination with the L. I did not use HDRMT, but i usually use it on the nebulaes (like my M42, Eta Carina, Tarentula you can see on my website). I don't think big globular cluster need heavy processing : most important is the seeing, the autoguiding and the optical quality of the scope to resolve the stars.

[Lex]

"The RGB processing was a bit tricky because .."

But does the cluster fill your entire field of view? You can use the rest of it in an aggregated Preview as background reference.
Have you tried to select the whole image for White and Background Reference?

[Lex]

BTW;

Bloody hell; how does this "insert quote" work?
I needed it three times until now but it never worked for me ( same for the smileys recently ).
Is this a Safari or Mac issue?

Thanks

[Kaidan]

 

Safari and Mac ...

I didn't try with the full pictures, i didn't know it was even possible, i thought you had to use preview. Omega Centauri background (where you feel is black on the picture) is also full of very dim stars.

[Lex]

Normally there is no problem to use the entire image as background reference or white reference it depends of the different images... again trial and error; but gives good results in the end...