Bunyip catches a Seahorse

[David Fitz-Henr]

Actually this is commonly called the Horsehead Nebula but it reminds me more of a seahorse than the land variety, so I've decided that it should be renamed! :P

It was difficult to process due to the brightness of the star Alnitak in the field (different colour halos, vanes, ghost reflections), but it seems to have turned out OK in the end. All data collected with the Bunyip 12.5".

Large Image: http://www.pbase.com/image/148432292

[ourkind]

Beautiful anyway I look at it, colours and the level detail are excellent!

[MrB]

Very, very nice!

[Harel_Boren]

I like it!
Can you share some details about scope, mount used, etc.?
Cheers,
Harel

[dvj]

Excellent image processing! Smooth and detailed.

jg

[Larryp]

Superb, David!

[FlashDrive]

That is so clean...clear and show's such detail ...excellent :thumbsup:

[multiweb]

As good as it gets. :bowdown:

[Stevec35]

Nicely done indeed

Steve

[alpal]

Excellent shot David - 10/10.

[marc4darkskies]

Very nice David! :thumbsup: Excellent composition as well!

Cheers, Marcus

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Just superb David !!

I've been looking at your large image and the detail is just phenomenal!
The blue reflection nebula has so much depth, it looks like you could jump in and swim around.

Cheers,

Justin.

[lacad01]

Crisp and clear, top shot! :thumbsup:

[EagleEyes]

Wow! Superb! Very crisp! Beautiful Colours! The best pic of the Horsehead region I have ever seen!

[dvj]

Read about the construction of your carbon scope on your web site. Beautiful work! Really shows in your image.

[David Fitz-Henr]

Thanks for all the nice comments Carlos, Simon, John, Laurie, Col, Marc, Steve, Allan, Marcus, Justin, Adam and Andy !!!





Hello Harel and John, thanks for the comments.
Harel, I use an STL-11000M CCD and have a Paramount ME and constructed my own scope as per John's comments above. It is a 12.5" Newtonian and you can read about it here if you are interested: http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=64882&page=4&highlight=bunyip

There is also a section in my pbase site that has many images of the construction (see my signature below for the url).

[gregbradley]

Beautiful work David. I like the nice bluish stars and a few nice yellow ones. Lots of detail. A few comments. The Horsehead itself to my view is a bit oversharpened and so a tad unnatural. The yellow stars to the top left area have a shade of green in the yellow and so colour is off. A few have red rings around them from the Ha blending. Perhaps selecting those stars and using selective colour and adjust the yellows/reds would help. I am used to seeing the flame neb a more yellowish colour so perhaps a slight colour bias there as well.

All minor points on a superb image.

Greg.

[RickS]

A really great horsie, David. That scope is working wonderfully well.

[David Fitz-Henr]

Thanks for the comments and feedback Greg!
Just taking these points in increasing order of agreement :) :

I also noticed that the stars in the top left had a slight greenish shade, but decided that this may be a real effect as the nebula in this region has a greenish hue in this and other horsehead images, so I left it alone rather than try to process it out. There does not seem to be a gradient and stars in other regions look properly balanced.
I'm not sure about the horsehead being oversharpened, but that may be my taste as the image shows a fair bit of detail and I used a bit of Soft Light to bring it out. I'd be interested in the general opinion here though ...
I'll have a look at some other images of the Flame nebula regarding the colour, but I do recall looking across the web and there does seem to be a lot of variation here.
Yes I noticed that some of the yellow stars had red rings after posting the image - I'll fix them in the next day or so.


Thanks Rick; yes I must say I am quite pleased with the performance of the scope. It will be my processing that lets me down if anything :lol::P

[swannies1983]

That's an absolute ripper! Only comment would be the coloured halos around some of the stars (but hey, I'm no expert lol).

[David Fitz-Henr]

Thanks Dan! Yeah, I need to fix a few red halos around some of the yellow stars in the next couple of days. I'm thinking that I've possibly gone for a tad much contrast as per Greg's comments too, but I'll leave that for a future repro as I'm all processed out at the moment! ;)

[strongmanmike]

Great looking Horsey David, not sure about the criticisms that have been made above really :shrug: they sound trivial to me. We all have processing styles too and after a while it is easy to tell the work of various imagers apart without knowing their identity (easy for me anyway :D)...you are fast becoming identifiable :thumbsup:

Mike

[swannies1983]

I wasn't criticising the image at all. It's brilliant and much better than what I could ever produce. However, I was merely pointing out a few minor star halos. Maybe trivial but we are all here to help are we not? If I was out of place because I'm not an expert, than I take my comment back :shrug:

[John Hothersall]

That is an inspirational image, colours are rich and Alnitak expertly controlled, a feast for the eyes.

John.

[Peter.M]

This is seriously good.

[Ross G]

Hi David,

That is one amazingly beautiful photo!

So sharp, so much detail and I love the colour.

Ross.

[David Fitz-Henr]

Me, identifiable !?! I'll hopefully take that as a compliment - thanks Mike!


No, don't take it back Dan, I'm no expert either and I need all the comments I can get!! ;) I noticed those red halos around the yellow stars as well the next morning (when my eyes weren't so bleary...). I'm interested in some of Greg's comments as well and whether my responses are valid (eg. are the slightly green stars in the upper left OK due to the green nebula there, or should they be processed out?). Mike's opinion is that it may come down to style; others may be slightly different, but by getting this feedback I can make a more informed decision as to whether I should do something differently or not.


Thanks John! Yeah, Alnitak was a beast to control! Apart from the glare there were off-centred circular reflections in different places for each colour, the spikes were too bright, there was even a blue reflection on the opposite side of the frame! One technique I used was curves in PS to darken each colour and hide each with a layer mask, then used the brush tool at 15% opacity & flow to carefully brush in the mask to neutralise the reflections - very time consuming!


Thanks Peter!


Thanks Ross!

[strongmanmike]

Hey sorry Dan, didn't mean to offend, don't take it personally it was just me musing really. Some people see a good image, sometimes of a seldom imaged and interesting object even, but only say what they think the author should do to improve it, as if the sole purpose of posting an image is to have people say what's wrong with it (in their eyes of course :rolleyes:), they really think this...it's a little bit of delusion and hubris at times I think and I shake my head :lol: . You didn't do this however, so don't fret mate :thumbsup:

Mike

[DJT]

Love it...Colours are amazing.

Good job!

[CoolhandJo]

Bravo. Mike is right, everyone has a unique brand. Yours is great in this image. Well done.

[astronobob]

The Clarity of the water is stunningly clear David, Thats a remarkable photo, one of the bests ive seen. Beauty ! !

[ReaPerMan]

The detailed horsey and the wonderful processing of the blue reflection neb are truely inspired. A fantasic feast for the eyes and one of the best I've seen. The fact that it came from a scope you made yourself must be incredibly satisfying

well done :2thumbs:

[swannies1983]

Sure thing David :). Your imaging and current processing skills are excellent and I look forward to seeing what else you come up with.



No worries Mike :thumbsup:. I probably slightly over-reacted. I'm generally very reluctant to give any suggestions on here as it can be intimidating at times and I feel like I don't have the experience to critique high quality pictures. I always welcome feedback for my images (both positive and negative). I have to thank people on here for their constructive feedback as my processing skills have improved greatly because of them.

[stevous67]

Hello David,

Your rendition of this region is well above standard, very nice to review.

Cheers,

Steve

[Forgey]

Beautiful work David !

[David Fitz-Henr]

Thanks Steve!


Thanks Paula!

[David Fitz-Henr]

Thanks Dan!


Thanks Paul; yes very pleased with the performance of the scope!


Thanks Bob; I'll take that as a vote to rename it the "Seahorse Nebula" :lol:


Thanks Paul!


... and thanks David!

[David Fitz-Henr]

Just an update for some final tweaks I have applied (as per Greg's suggestion - fixed red halos around some stars and a slight change to the colour balance of the Flame nebula).

Full size: http://upload.pbase.com/david_fitz_henry/image/148432292/original

[petershah]

a fabulous image, crisp deep and colourful......a real pleasure to look at

[gregbradley]

That's very nice.

I reckon a crop of that blue reflection neb and delicate pink ribbon type nebula would be nice. It could probably be enhanced slightly with some contrast/sharpening and be very nice all by itself. Your setup has captured detail in that area usually only seen with large RCOS scopes.
It must be a very sharp mirror.

Greg.

[David Fitz-Henr]

Thanks Peter!


Thanks Greg, I may add a couple of crops to my pbase site. .. and yes, the main mirror was figurerd by Marc Suchting, the secondary mirror is by Antares Optics (~1/25 wave p-p) and there has been a lot of thought put into the rest of the design as well (baffling, tube / structure, air flow, etc).

[Osirisra]

Absolute stunner pic!

Awesome scope build too, gotta be chuffed to take nice pics with a scope ya made ya self.

[David Fitz-Henr]

Thanks Ken - yes, it is a rewarding experience and was worth all the effort!

[SkyViking]

A truly magnificent image you've got there David. The image scale is perfect, there is so much to see everywhere. The horsehead is just stunning and the blue reflection nebula looks great, a worthy target even on its own.
I haven't tried the horsehead with my truss scope yet but I think I'd be getting a similar image scale, it's great to see these targets up close like that :D
Congratulations on such a wonderful image.

[David Fitz-Henr]

Thanks Rolf! It will be great to see images from your new truss scope as a fellow ATM'er - you are referring to the 12.5" that you are building (waiting for Royce mirror)?