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Old 19-06-2015, 07:02 AM
jase (Jason)
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M42 in Ha

Hi All,

Tim's recent posts of a couple of images around Orion brought to memory a data set that I had not published. I produced this in collaboration with an fine arts student in the US who later went on to display his rendition of the image along with other photographs in a few exhibitions. Due to this I was not able to release the image for a period of time, in fact the data was acquired back in 2010. I think this is the first or second time I've posted what I call a 'half baked' image. It has no colour so in my mind its not finish, that however was the intent of the project - to show M42 a completely different way. I have considered following this up with colour data but lacking inspiration for doing so. There are plenty of great M42 colour images out there yet very few show the immense structure and beauty at 4.8m of focal length. Given this is a nine panel mosaic, we were able to capture significant detail with an adequately sized field of view. For your viewing pleasure, the largest resolution is nearly 3k x 3k.

M42 in Ha

Processed in CCDStack, MaximDL and Photoshop. I was tasked come up with the mosaic plan (attached for reference) and acquire the data. Guidestar selection wasn't too much of an issue as can be seen in the plan. Working with monochrome data made panel stitching a breeze compared to chroma. I did not perform any selective masking to darken the core. In hindsight, that may have been a good idea to bring out even more detail but I wanted to keep core brightness relative to the surrounds and lets face it, its a freaking bright nebula to be seen with the unaided eye. Optical reflection and star flares all add to the raw nature of the data. Chasing them for correction I felt wasn't worth the effort. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this out of season image.

Cheers
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  #2  
Old 19-06-2015, 09:44 AM
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multiweb (Marc)
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Cool shot Jase. Loads of intricate details in the high res. Well done.
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Old 19-06-2015, 12:01 PM
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Rod771 (Rod)
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I Like it, Jase! Certainly captured the intensity.

Nothing like M42 to warm us up on a cold winters day!
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Old 19-06-2015, 12:31 PM
SpaceNoob (Chris)
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Very cool Jase, bit of a double take on the Ha image, for a second there it looked like something else, at least until I clicked on the larger version. Lots of detail squeezed in there
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Old 19-06-2015, 12:46 PM
topheart
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Hi Jase,

To me I get a very violent feel - explosive....just like M42 really is !!

Awesome stuff!
Tim
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Old 19-06-2015, 12:56 PM
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strongmanmike (Michael)
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Yeah, looks really good Jase, nice to swim around...even looks a bit photograph like too, nice

Mike
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Old 19-06-2015, 01:05 PM
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Fabulous Jase. A ton of detail. I like the core area the best.

Greg.
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Old 19-06-2015, 04:01 PM
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Shiraz (Ray)
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very impressive Jase - huge amount of detail.
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Old 19-06-2015, 08:35 PM
Placidus (Mike and Trish)
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A long time since I've seen M42 looking fresh new different. It's a giant cavity, like a ruptured jellyfish perhaps, on the hunt, on the prowl. Very three-dimensional. Wonderful.
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Old 19-06-2015, 10:44 PM
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Beautiful detail Jase. That is one of the best black and white images I have seen of this object. There are so many interesting pockets to look at and the contrast is near perfect. Reminds me a lot of Tech Pan 2415. Lovely work.
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Old 20-06-2015, 02:00 PM
jase (Jason)
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Thanks all.

This composition reminds me of a Protea flower, others see a skull like structure or face.

For those that have performed long focal length mosaic work before, in planning, matching position angles for rotated flats and FWHM values per panel, I'm sure there is greater appreciation for the work involved. Take the total exposure time and quadruple it, that's a good indication how much time was spent on processing this image. Its a labour of love of course. Mosaics remain the pinnacle of DSO imaging. Uber resolution with moderate to wide fields are hard to beat and offer new ways to present familiar objects.

Thanks again for taking the time to check the image out.
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Old 28-06-2015, 07:18 PM
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RickS (Rick)
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That's a very impressive mosaic, Jase.
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