9Hrs 30Mins Exposure Of the Pacman Nebula

phoenix wrote:

Another fine image Carl.

You could have saved yourself some sleep though. I was doing a few calcs on your signal to noise gain for this extended imaging run and from frame 60 to 112 you increased the signal to noise by just under 4%. Have a look here to see what I mean starizona.com/acb/ccd/advtheoryexp.aspx

9 1/2 hours exposure - WOW! to the tracking and the dedication. Beautiful image.

I'm guessing from my very limited knowledge that Phoenix's comment is tongue-in-cheek but there's no doubt Phoenix is a genuine solid-gold nerd.

(No offence intended to anybody - the "preview" feature doesn't seem to be working)

Actually the comment to Carl was genuine. The whole point of stacking images is to reduce noise and improve signal. The amount of noise reduction is defined by the square root of the number of images taken. The percentage improvement over signal to noise decreases hugely after a certain amount of images so the time spent in capturing extra images could be placed elswhere.

As to being as solid gold nerd, I am insulted since many would consider me to be a genuine solid-platinum nerd.:lol:

Keenan wrote:

9 1/2 hours exposure

9 1/2 hours exposure Carl? Looks more like an outtake of 9 1/2 weeks:P

Is your camera faulty? Or maybe its just your eyesight. Please stop clogging up these boards with horrific images like that. Looks like something a 3 year old might do with a paint pot and a freshly painted wall. Maybe your scope got wet from all that slobbering over it you do?
I'd be looking for a refund if I were you:P

Waaaaaahhhhhhh only kidding, top class work mate that scope is really doing the biz.

Saying that Kieran is spot on, about the signal/noise improvement. I do know however that due to the Moon, you had to keep imaging in HAlpha.. Since RGB was out of the question.

BTW I did a plate solution of this image and the faintest star visible is magnitude +18.5. Not bad for a 4" scope eh?

Anyway keep up the great work mate.

Carl, a superb shot there, and gold medal for that marathon run : cheer:

Keith..

Another super image Carl, well done Mate.

9 1/2 hours exposure Carl? Looks more like an outtake of 9 1/2 weeks

Is your camera faulty? Or maybe its just your eyesight. Please stop clogging up these boards with horrific images like that. Looks like something a 3 year old might do with a paint pot and a freshly painted wall. Maybe your scope got wet from all that slobbering over it you do?
I'd be looking for a refund if I were you

Mr Grennan...thats not tounge in cheek but more foot in mouth :silly: .

When it comes to the RGB side of imaging Starizona also does a piece of software to allow you to calculate the RGB weights for your set up starizona.com/acb/RGB-Weight-Calculator-...graphy-P1138C97.aspx

BUT if you ask around on the ccd forums then somebody will actually run it through the software for you if they have it. Getting the weights does save a lot of trial and error.