Thor's Helmet

[rcj]

can do with a bit more exposures, but have captured the essence of the nebula totally!

[cataclysm]

Kelvin, may i ask, all your shots taken with Newtonian never suffer any contrast, mirror obstruction seems never a problem & result is always rich & balanced color look as good or even better than some of the FSQ shots, is it because Mersing sky is really that super duper or there are some secret technique used ? (can pm me if it is secret ? lol ) in short, will large reflector be as good or better in contrast as APO refractor of smaller aperture or both will converge in a very dark sky - Thanks.

Hi Peter, no secrets here, lol, both the refractor or the newtonian will function just as well for imaging, it just depends on what you are aftering. Just that the newtonian will have more quirks to sort out for proper imaging. No magic bullet to get nice contrasty images, still boil down to all the fundamentals. Chiefly among them is to get as good a signal to noise ratio as possible. That simply means take as long the exposure as possible that your instruments and more importantly the sky conditions allow. Proper dark & flat calibration is just as important. Below is the single 10min sub of the Thor's Helmet as shot before any calibration & post processing, it's not as contrasty as the final image.

[PETER LOO]

Hi Kelvin,

Wow, single shot = N number of shots here in not so dark sky ..., i guess no way to " siam " any of the fundamental, eg. a good dark sky .., good polar alignment; good deployment of MPCC ; Flattener etc. & good processing skills
Many Thanks for sharing the methods with us. Best regards. - LKH