Hey folks,
Long post ahead...
We had an unusually decent run of clear nights here in Melbourne last week, so I've managed to collect about 18 hrs data on this imaging favourite, good old M20, to take on the Triffid wars!
It's also been exactly six years to the day that
I first imaged this thing - in fact it was my very first dark site experience and I remember well shooting at 3:30am in freezing cold & barely knowing what I was doing!
We all started somewhere, but I remember being so very happy with this at the time
I've produced three new images of the subject.
Straight RGB paying homage to
David Malin's Benchmark AAO image.
Came out pretty well considering it's from my light polluted suburban location. Had to use a seperate blue LUM layer - which is a technique I made up on the spot that seems to have worked ok!
Can't compare my 10" to the AAO 3.9m telescope - but advances in digital imaging have certainly come a long way since Dr. Malin took his version - which helps us little guys out a bit now.
4 hrs RGB - 40x120 sec ea.
The second is a
Ha RGB blend - inspired by
Steven Mohr's wonderful image.
Steven's was taken from a remote dark site, and has at least twice the data - so his version seems to have retained a lot more of the blue reflection nebulosity.
Interesting though to see the detail present that the Ha filter reveals, at the cost of the reflection nebulosity present. Really challenging to balance the two and I think Steven has done a remarkable job on his version.
Same data set as above but with an additional
4hrs Ha - 26x600 secs 3nm
Finally, I present for your consideration this hybrid -
HaO3S2+RGB NB version referencing
Martin Pugh's APOD image.
The gauntlet was thrown down by big Mike and Suavi to produce an aesthetically pleasing hybrid image. One that balances all three NB lines with the traditional RGB.
Hopefully this has gone some way to measuring up to the standards set by the aforementioned illustrious imaging predecessors. - Anyway, I've given it my best shot
Same data set as the HaRGB above but with an additional
4hrs ea of O3 & S2 - 24 x 600secs 3nm
Big thanks to Suavi & Mike for inspiration and Greg, Peter and others for their feedback when I took on this daunting project.
It's certainly pushed me to use everything I have learned about astro image making from all contributors here on IIS.
Feedback welcome