Ballard Loc: Grass Valley, California

The 3 images below show M57 (The ring nebula) in 3 different ways. The first was taken with a Luminance, Red, Green and blue filter combined into a full color image. The second adds 5 hours of imaging with Hydrogen alpha added to the red channel. The last image is very stretched version of the image with Hydrogen alpha added to the first image. The main part of the nebula was masked off while adding the additional image stretch to prevent burning it out. Note: The stretched image is noisier but does bring out the deep red extension to the nebula captured with the hydrogen alpha lines. The blot around the brighter stars in the very stretched image was do to some high thin clouds at the time that defused some of the star light around the star. Note the barred spiral galaxy below and to the right of the nebula that is visible in the very stretched image. This is IC 1296 and is estimated to be 221 million light years way.

LRGB image

(Download)

HA added to the Red Channel

(Download)

Very stretched version of the ring to bring out the Halo around the nebula

(Download)

Ballard Loc: Grass Valley, California

Oops
that should have been M57 Not M51. Looks like I was able to edit the tile and description.

Tomfl101 Loc: Mount Airy, MD

Very cool. What camera/telescope did you use?

Ballard Loc: Grass Valley, California

Hi
Tomfl101
Thanks for checking out the images of the Ring Nebula and for the comment.
The camera is a second hand Sbig STXL 11002 (monochrome CCD camera with filter wheel) and the telescope is a 16" Meade LX200 Schmidt Cassegrain.

stepping beyond Loc: usa eastcoast

That's it Ballard , that's what I've been trying to get accomplished . Your Santa Barbra equipment is the real deal . I'm taking as much advice from the forums until I can understand and learn how to do certain things in processing. The workflow that I was using with my Asi 174mm cooled , I have to get a flow that'll work with the 1600m pro . Awesome color and detail pulled on this Ring.

Ballard Loc: Grass Valley, California

Hi stepping beyond
I'm still learning how to do this stuff myself. I just got one of the new ASI monochrome cameras and so far am more impressed with it than my second hand SBig camera, but it is far new technology.

stepping beyond Loc: usa eastcoast

My buddy that got into this PIT has 2 SBIG cameras , he has helped me all along this journey. I just haven't got the calibrations right for being able to use in my imaging yet with CCDStacks and Photoshop cs2 . I just don't get it . I get frustrated and I have all these calibration frames in my PC and don't even use them , urggh! , I do over think things in this astrophotography that makes it even harder for me besides my handicaps hindering. I've had others APer's help me with what I need but, they don't use the same stacking software and the videos are vague.

Ballard Loc: Grass Valley, California

I started having more success when I bit the bullet and went for Pixinsight. It costs a bit ~$250 when I got it just over a year ago and does have a step learning curve. I find that I have to make small adjustments to keep from screwing up the image. I still am learning new things each time I play with an image. For the ring I found that making a rangemask was necessary to bring out the outer layers with out blowing out the ring itself.

stepping beyond Loc: usa eastcoast

I usually play with my data after acquiring that enough to actually see what I need to collect more of but, on the other hand "You never have enough data" living in a tree city . The forums really help a lot but, watching it done would probably get me passed my roadblock , I'm still trying to find the right video. . I'm going to give it a go today and hopefully , I'll make a stride in the right direction. Thanks Buddy for your help