NGC281 Pacman Nebula over 3 Nights Sept '13

At last- first couple of clear(ish) nights for me since mid July!! Operation "Convince wife to move to the Chilean Andes" unsurprisingly has not been met with much enthusiasm.

Lost ALOT of subs due to cloud but at least it's already noticeably darker for longer. Salvaged 9hrs over 3 Nights (54x600sec) H694C, TV-NP101, NEQ6

Thanks for looking,

Gareth

NGC281 -Pacman Nebula from Dundrum, Dublin



Crop

Nice work Gareth.
Love the colour in the stars too.

Hi Gareth,
There is just no faulting this image what so ever. Great detail, stars are pin point with great colour. Your processing has really come on leaps and bounds over the last few months. This is the sort of results you get when you get everything right out in the field from polar alignment, focusing, framing the image, and getting lots of data, here are the results from all that hard work for everyone to see. This is without doubt one of the best Pacman images I’ve seen from Ireland. Well done! You should be very proud of yourself.
Clear Skies,
Carl.

Hi Gareth,

I was looking at your image again on a different PC. I can see a gradient running from the bottom of the image to the top. Note the bottom of the image is black, and then half way up the image is going greener right to the top. (You have to love light pollution) Here are a few links you should try a few different approaches from these links and see which one works best for you.

ccdastro.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/gradient_removal.htm

Here is a whole load of YouTube links. (Have fun)
www.youtube.com/resultssearch_query=how+....youtube.dxjgdvmu4lU

Clear Skies,
Carl.

Michael and Carl- many thanks for the positive comments- it means huge amount to hear from you guys that I'm heading in the right direction!

I see what you mean about the gradient now Carl, hadn't noticed it before I posted. I actually just moved all my processing and capture software to a desktop computer a couple of weeks ago and I probably need to calibrate the monitor a bit better.

Gave it a quick blast with Gradient Xterminator which didn't work in this instance and actually destroyed a lot of the nebulosity. Will have a play around with your links over the weekend and will post back with the results.

thanks again,

Gareth

Thats a great short, very natural processing and colours there.