Ngc 3324 Made for Hubble colours (now with more HA)

[Peter.M]

Since I shot this target in hargb last year I have been facinated by the hubble palette images of it, so when it cleared last night after midnight I took the opportunity to get out and snap some images of her.

I ended up with 6 10 minute subs with each filter, but I will no doubt add to it later. This is also the first image I have taken since belt modding my heq5, so i got a chance to test Goto's and guiding. As far as pointing goes the belt mod has improved it drastically, each filter was re focused on sirius and this image has not been cropped at all which shows that the pointing has better repeatability. Guiding is harder to judge because i am using a mini guider and the image scale is not very revealing however stars look round so thats got to be good.

Link to larger image below
http://www.astrobin.com/28010/

I am still learning to process hubble images, so any criticism will be taken constructively. Thanks for looking.

[Rigel003]

Looks good to me. Love the colours and what a fantastic field, full of interest and contrast. Great result for a few hours after midnight from suburbia.

[gregbradley]

You did a really good job of that.

Greg.

[Larryp]

That's a beautiful image, Peter!

[Peter.M]

Thanks Graeme was good to get out again with all my gear. Hopefully do some imaging with you soon!



Thanks Greg, I havn't done many narrowband images and I find getting the colour right seems to be difficult. In the end I tell myself that it is subjective and decide on something that I like.


Thanks Larry, It is still very noisy but its a start.

[LAW]

That's brilliant Peter. Could you elaborate on what you mean by the 'Hubble Palette'? Those colors are amazing, really shows up the contrast.

[Peter.M]

To make this colour scheme I have taken images with 3 filters. These filters let through 6-7nm bands of light that correspond to different emissions that happen to be present in space (Hydrogen Sulfur Oxygen). The 3 filters then get assigned to different colours that create an image like this.

[Ross G]

A good looking photo Peter.

Great detail.

Ross.

[allan gould]

Great image and well done in the Hubble palette

[LAW]

Thanks Peter, I appreciate your response, I know what narrow band imaging is, I was wondering what specific palette you had applied to get the 'Hubble Look'?

H-a, S-II, and O-III as RGB? Or is not that simple?

[Peter.M]

Oh my apologies for the simplistic response, Ha is mapped to green SII to red and O3 to blue. I then tweaked the colours in photoshop until I got a result I liked. I have found so far that the image stack will be very green from the Ha so I tone that down.

[strongmanmike]

Excellent result Peter, a lovely field and the colours look good, nice job :thumbsup:

Mike

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Very nice Peter!

Certainly a different perspective from RGB.

Cheers,

Justin.

[alpal]

Great result Peter.
I take it that they are Baader filters?

[Peter.M]

Thanks guys :)


Thanks Mike, I appreciate the colour feedback.


I did this with ha as luminance and rgb colours last year but I really like the narrowband colouring of the whole eta region.


Thanks, yes this is taken with the baader 6nm Ha 8.5nm o3 and 8nm s2

[LAW]

No worries, thanks for both replies, I do appreciate you taking the time to explain your technique to beginners like me. The different approaches to processing are fascinating, I'm just starting to use my own narrowband filters so I'm in the process of soaking up as much knowledge as I can.

[Paul Haese]

Nice work Peter. I like the colours and the data looks pretty good. Now for some RGB stars.

[Fabiomax]

Good with an excellent choice of colors!
Cheers,
Fabiomax

[Peter.M]

Thanks Paul. As for RGB stars, I am seeing the downside of having a 5 position filter wheel in now! I will get some next time i have the RGB filters in.



Thanks Fabiomax, I am glad that everyone seems to like the colour choice :)

[stevous67]

Well done Peter, an excellent result. Lots of depth in your image.

Steve

[Peter.M]

Thankyou everyone for your responses. Last night I got out and took some more hydrogen alpha images and I combined them all to make this image. The noise in the previous attempt is vastly reduced, I think this is now my best image. Again I could test the pointing of my new belt driven mount and I was not disappointed, it will make creating these long images that much easyer.


This is 280 minutes ha with 60 o3 and 60 s2

Link to larger image : http://www.astrobin.com/full/28455/?mod=none

[LewisM]

I have to try this one one day...if only the sky will cooperate!

[Peter.M]

It is one of my favorite objects in the summer skies

[strongmanmike]

I agree Pete, probably your best image to date, lovely :thumbsup: makes me want to shoot it now :)...might wait till next month now though :question:

Your persistence with your imaging platform has paid off, nice work :)

Mike

[Peter.M]

Thanks mike, it is still quite a late target at the moment, I think the problem with you shooting this will be keeping that pesky attention hogging eta out of the frame with your big sensor.

[Martin Pugh]

Nice one Peter. You have the NB blend just right in my opinion.

You have to go long with these filters and their use during nights when the moon is present is just great (or if you are light polluted).

I have been shooting 1 hour subs with 3nm filters under a full moon and getting great data.

well done again.

Martin

[Peter.M]

Thankyou for your feedback Martin, I noticed the adu of the nebulosity vs the background in this image was only a few thousand and tryed a 30 minute sub but my current guiding is not up to it (flex). I plan to kit out the camera with a short oag to solve this. Then I can get into some serious subs!