Just another face in the crowd ... Finished my Eta

marc4darkskies (Marcus) · #1 24-03-2012, 11:03 PM

It sure is a crowded Eta field this year!

Some lovely renditions floating around though!

I managed to grab some colour last night and did the first pass at processing today. Pretty happy with it at this stage ... but can't promise I won't tweak

.

And let's not forget the trusty TOA-150 with a 645 reducer! A 2.5 deg FOV @ 2.21 arcsec/pixel = oodles of detail!

Small:
http://www.pbase.com/gailmarc/image/142259284/large

Large (Use Cntrl + and - to zoom in or out in your browser) Be patient- 4.0M download! :
http://www.pbase.com/gailmarc/image/142259284/original

Hope you like it!

Cheers, Marcus

h0ughy (David) · #2 24-03-2012, 11:15 PM

lovely, nicely done

Mighty_oz (Marcus) · #3 25-03-2012, 12:00 AM

Very sharp, those 11k ccd's sure work well with a wide range of stuff. Love the colours and the details are amazing.

strongmanmike (Michael) · #4 25-03-2012, 06:51 AM

Tweak! Tweak! Tweak!

Nice result Marcus and a refreshingly different framing too, juuust a bit more FOV at the top of the frame would have been even better but it still looks good. Lot of different interpretations of the colour with this baby huh?

Sometimes I find your 100% full frame posts a little unnecessary as it can show up any pushed processing until you shrink it in the browser but this work lends itself to the 100% full frame quite well and I imagine this is due to the large amount of signal you collected and because there are plenty of little details everywhere so it is cool to pan around, then when you shrink it in the browser and take in the whole image it looks good too.

Good job mate...now what else did you start on?...Just so I don't do the same thing when I eventually get back out there

I was unable to utilise either reasonable night here in Newcastle due to a slight family crisis...always the way

Mike

marc4darkskies (Marcus) · #5 25-03-2012, 08:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by h0ughy

lovely, nicely done

Cheers Houghy! Going to SPSP this year?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mighty_oz

Very sharp, those 11k ccd's sure work well with a wide range of stuff. Love the colours and the details are amazing.

Thanks Marcus. The with 4 hours of Ha and Lum on such a bright object it's easy to get detail & nuance out of this object !

Quote:

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Tweak! Tweak! Tweak!

Nice result Marcus and a refreshingly different framing too, juuust a bit more FOV at the top of the frame would have been even better but it still looks good. Lot of different interpretations of the colour with this baby huh?

Sometimes I find your 100% full frame posts a little unnecessary as it can show up any pushed processing until you shrink it in the browser but this work lends itself to the 100% full frame quite well and I imagine this is due to the large amount of signal you collected and because there are plenty of little details everywhere so it is cool to pan around, then when you shrink it in the browser and take in the whole image it looks good too.

Good job mate...now what else did you start on?...Just so I don't do the same thing when I eventually get back out there

I was unable to utilise either reasonable night here in Newcastle due to a slight family crisis...always the way

Mike

Thanks mate - glad you liked it! It turned out very well and after looking at it this morning I'm still happy

I'm not 100% happy with the framing but it will do.

Not sure what you mean about "push" processing though

I had a large amount of signal so rendering the detail was trivial and very little stretching was done. It has almost no noise reduction either (other than a small amount to the dimmer areas around the periphery). I.e. Nothing was "pushed"

I post at 100% because I want people to see the detail. Why hide it when it's there and it's real? Moreover detail doesn't detract from an image so presenting this image at 50% would be a total waste of solid detail!

gregbradley · #6 25-03-2012, 08:58 AM

That turned out great Marcus. Can't fault it, it looks fabulous.

Greg.

strongmanmike (Michael) · #7 25-03-2012, 09:04 AM

Quote:

Not sure what you mean about "push" processing though

I had a large amount of signal so rendering the detail was trivial and very little stretching was done. It has almost no noise reduction either (other than a small amount to the dimmer areas around the periphery). I.e. Nothing was "pushed"

I post at 100% because I want people to see the detail. Why hide it when it's there and it's real? Moreover detail doesn't detract from an image so presenting this image at 50% would be a total waste of solid detail!

You miss understood me I think? I said this image looks good at 100%

It's not about hiding the detail, sometimes the processing doesn't lend itself to 100% IMO and it kinda looks better presented as a smaller image, that's all.

Mike

Rigel003 (Graeme) · #8 25-03-2012, 10:20 AM

I must admit that eta carinae, despite its brightness and size, isn't one of my favourite deepsky photographic objects. Just a bit too bland and monotonal compared with M42 eg, it can come across like an enormous flat pink clover leaf. Having said that, this photo is a revelation, Marcus. Fantastic amount of tonal and textural variety. The lighter purple swathes against the pink background give a real 3D look. Interesting detail everywhere and I love the contrasting star colours. A major achievement.

marc4darkskies (Marcus) · #9 25-03-2012, 10:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gregbradley

That turned out great Marcus. Can't fault it, it looks fabulous.

Greg.

Thanks Greg!. Nice to get a bit of clear sky in these parts isn't it!! Can't wait for the next drought (in Sydney only of course)!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

You miss understood me I think? I said this image looks good at 100%

It's not about hiding the detail, sometimes the processing doesn't lend itself to 100% IMO and it kinda looks better presented as a smaller image, that's all.

Mike

No worries Mike - appreciate that. I understand what you're saying. In fact my M78 image falls into that category (and I recall you mentioned it then) because it's quite faint (it needed twice the exposure) and I had to work hard to render the small amount of signal present. For Eta though, I almost had too much signal!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rigel003

I must admit that eta carinae, despite its brightness and size, isn't one of my favourite deepsky photographic objects. Just a bit too bland and monotonal compared with M42 eg, it can come across like an enormous flat pink clover leaf. Having said that, this photo is a revelation, Marcus. Fantastic amount of tonal and textural variety. The lighter purple swathes against the pink background give a real 3D look. Interesting detail everywhere and I love the contrasting star colours. A major achievement.

Thanks very much Graeme - high praise indeed! It was a revelation to me too - and it really shouldn't have been! I've been saying for a long time that there are no boring objects out there! Every object, when treated with enough data and effort will yield beautiful nuance. I proved that again to myself with Eta which, until now, I've tended to dismiss as a worthy target!!

h0ughy (David) · #10 25-03-2012, 11:04 AM

Marcus - as for SPSP its a waiting game - weather and brownie points. so far i have had no luck in either department

Peter Ward · #11 25-03-2012, 12:35 PM

Been away for a bit ....so missed this.

Top shelf as usual Marcus. Splendid rendition. As for the real colour of Eta...I frankly haven't a clue anymore, but DO like your treatment of the blue curve very much....thinking I may have to go back to the drawing board

Most excellent

marc4darkskies (Marcus) · #12 25-03-2012, 05:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peter Ward

Been away for a bit ....so missed this.

Top shelf as usual Marcus. Splendid rendition. As for the real colour of Eta...I frankly haven't a clue anymore, but DO like your treatment of the blue curve very much....thinking I may have to go back to the drawing board

Most excellent

Thanks Peter - high praise - much appreciated!

Stevec35 (Steve) · #13 25-03-2012, 05:44 PM

Really stands out as a great Eta Marcus. You are certainly one of the top Eta imagers in this forum.

Cheers

Steve

Paul Haese · #14 26-03-2012, 01:12 AM

It's got everything I like. Great contrast too.

RobF (Rob) · #15 26-03-2012, 10:34 AM

Wonderful image Marcus. There are clouds of material in there I've never really noticed before - quite thought provoking.

Thanks for sharing

marc4darkskies (Marcus) · #16 26-03-2012, 01:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

It's got everything I like. Great contrast too.

Thanks Paul - glad it struck a chord!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stevec35

Really stands out as a great Eta Marcus. You are certainly one of the top Eta imagers in this forum.

Cheers

Steve

You're too kind Steve - thanks!

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobF

Wonderful image Marcus. There are clouds of material in there I've never really noticed before - quite thought provoking.

Thanks for sharing

Thanks Rob! Yes, this seems to be a common theme in the responses so far and is the same as the feeling I got when I processed it! It was like finding hidden treasure!!

DJT (David) · #17 26-03-2012, 01:43 PM

Hi Marcus

I am pretty new to this stuff and shot some ETA which I am quite proud of but I had no idea just how much detail was in there. I'm off back to get more data. A fantastic image. Thanks for sharing

strongmanmike (Michael) · #18 26-03-2012, 01:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by marc4darkskies

It was like finding hidden treasure!!

Tortally agree, along with M42 and a couple of other bright regularly imaged nebs, it's not until you have your own raw full scale data in front of you for a few days (or weeks

) that you really notice all the little things that you perhaps glossed over or dind't notice in other well worn and web reduced data

Mike

RobF (Rob) · #19 26-03-2012, 03:08 PM

Hmmm. Does this mean where losing sight of our objective to do nothing but make pretty pictures. Sounds like we're crossing back over to observing if where taking notice of fine features in our data....

(where's the emoticon with the devil face?!)

marc4darkskies (Marcus) · #20 26-03-2012, 09:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobF

Hmmm. Does this mean where losing sight of our objective to do nothing but make pretty pictures. Sounds like we're crossing back over to observing if where taking notice of fine features in our data....

(where's the emoticon with the devil face?!)

You draw an interesting conclusion there Rob!

IMO, without detail you don't actually have a pretty picture!

. Also BTW, when I'm imaging, I AM observing