Carina in 3nm SII NII OIII Hubble Palette

[avandonk]

I have finally tweaked the ITS (Image Train Stabiliser) to give me almost perfect orthogonal alignment of the camera with the optic axis of the RH200. This will be a thread on its own.

Collected 10 X8 minutes each of SII, NII and OIII. These were mapped to RGB, SII to red, NII to green and OIII to blue. The Moon was at about 90%.

Here is a full resolution image 8 MB

http://d1355990.i49.quadrahosting.com.au/2012_12/CAR_SNO_L.jpg

I am sure I could do better but it is my first attempt at colour NB.

If enough people are interested I can put up the 16 bit data in fit or tiff to have a play with.

Best Christmas present in years. Got the image train aligned and two clear nights in a row!

Bert

[TheAstroChannel]

Hey Bert, That is an amazing image!

[Larryp]

Fantastic, Bert-so much detail!

[Peter.M]

Looking good bert, I was looking forward to you doing a full narrowband image. I had a go with the jpg you put up and came up with this. I am just learning narrowband processing so it was nice to get my hands on someone elses work.

[avandonk]

That is so different to my version. It has just hit me that I could be getting conservative in my old age. This is most disconcerting to an old atheist radical, or is that a former radical? I will try to put up a zipped tiff Peter for you to play with.

Here you go Peter zipped tiff 86MB

http://d1355990.i49.quadrahosting.com.au/2012_12/CAR_SNO_L.zip

Look foward to see what you can do with the data.

Bert

[LewisM]

Yes, have to admit, Peter's is the go. Bert's is a touch green IMHO, and we all know green and space don't go well :)

[alpal]

Hi Bert - it's a great photo but I would have mapped any combination
of colours to stop the outcome being mostly green.

[Regulus]

I have no problems with a green nebula. It reminds me of the first time I saw the Neb in Orion with a cheap 60mm refractor I had for my 12th Bday. It looked very green to me and was very exciting.
Thanks for posting the photo the detail is fantastic.
Trevor

[avandonk]

The Hubble palette was invented to take advantage of human vision being most sensitive in green. This showed faint nebular detail more clearly only because human vision is more acute and sensitive in green.

Here is the same data with the NB assigned to their 'natural' colours.

NII and SII to Red, OIII to Green and OIII to Blue.

Large image 7MB

http://d1355990.i49.quadrahosting.com.au/2012_12/CAR_NS_O_O.jpg

My aim is to enhance RGB data with NB data in their 'natural' colours.

Bert

[alpal]

Hi Bert,
I like the new version much better.
It does look natural.

cheers
Allan

[avandonk]

Allan we can argue all we like about colour but it is pointless, as it does not exist as a property of the light. It is purely a sensation our brains construct from sensory inputs.

Like you I prefer 'natural' colours. We just cannot see HA or NII or SII as our eyes sensitivity is very low at these wavelengths. Same goes for violet and UV.

The professional astronomers can now image into the far IR and far UV/Xrays/Gamma Rays. What colours should we assign to them?

A simple rule would be a system that conveys visually the most information in the data. It is all arbitrary.

Bert

[alpal]

Hi Bert,
I quite agree with you - I know exactly what you mean.
My opinions are purely from a subjective point of view
as to what would look more pleasing to the eye.

My personal taste is for images that would represent as
close as possible to what the human eye would see -
if our eyes were as sensitive to colour as a camera's,
and what I am after with my own images is "eye candy".

AS for " IR and far UV/Xrays/Gamma Rays" -
these are more scientific pictures so nearly any colour will do
as what is of interest is the structure & not a pretty picture.

merry Xmas & a happy New Year.

Allan

[Ross G]

Hi Bert,

Amazing detail in both versions, however I also prefer the more "natural" looking colour palette.

Ross.

[Peter.M]

I like the "real" colours might have to have a go at an image like that. Here is my go at your tiff. Again I went for the high impact colours with more contrast and sharpening. I quite like it.