Still haven’t had a chance to really process this but found a direction to go in I think (how on earth to follow on from Andy and Mike I don’t know...). Have worked on the luminance but not really the stars as yet. Going for a more moody crustation. 9 hours in total (60x180s of Ha, O3 and S2, ASI1600MM-Pro, 8” Quattro). Thoughts welcome as I move on to some serious faffing about in PI. https://www.astrobin.com/410120/G/?nc=user
Looking good & rich but it seems that you've clipped the blacks a bit.
There's "dark & moody" & then there's also "too dark & muddy", if it was me I'd aim for the former, and try and retain some detail in the blacks.
it's a beast to process this thing
Thanks so much for the comments Andy. Agree completely. I’ve gone a step further now with getting the beastly crustacean out of the mud, but until I deal with the stars (have RGB waiting on the desktop!) then pushing it further will make these blow out even more I think. Last version for the day:https://www.astrobin.com/full/410120/I/?nc=user
Looks good Ben this nebula has been described as boring ...couldn't disagree more, it has a fabulously detailed and interesting structure, like few other Milky Way nebulae really Only the LMC Tarantula comes close really
Cheers Mike. I’ve seen lots of flat looking version of this nebula (especially in LRGB) where detail gets lost in detail, so maybe that’s why it’s less interesting to some? I like the way you and Andy have framed it so that you get either a more 3D effect or its relationship to the Cats Paw. I aimed to bring out things like the central bridge, the bright central pillar, highlights in the clouds, and of course the blackbird!
Great effort, Ben. Love the composition and colours.
I agree with Mike, this is far from a boring target. Looks like a tough one too... I saw a sensational RGB one a while back which inspired me to have a crack at it... I invested a mere couple of hours on it, didn't like the composition and moved on, but I was surprised at how little I got out of it on those couple of hours... again, looks like a tough one.
Thanks Lee. So many options with this thing (colour), and then when you limit the FoV (because it is so busy) you run up against processing artifacts or the features lose some of their impact from noise reduction.
I think this is looking pretty good now Ben.
The balance between detail & softness seems about right.
You're lifted the lobster out the mud nicely & the image has a strong moody presence.
You probably saw that there's something amiss with those big blue stars though, so maybe in the next iteration you can address that?
Have you tried separating out the stars with Starnet++ yet?
I’ve yet to try starnet++ (does it work on a Mac?) but have (just today) made tone maps of each channel the more traditional way in PI and it seems to be going okay. Might work in some greenish hues that way to lighten the mood and then try to add some RGB stars using the narrowband luminance to keep star sizes in check. Well, that’s the plan anyway. Will definitely be aiming to keep Wheelybird :-)
