Inside the Small Magellanic Cloud

[marco]

Finally after long time spent collecting light I am able to post an image a medium resolution of the Small Magellanic Cloud, or better of its core.
It is incredible the abundance of Ha OIII in this galaxy, impressive to imagine that these are not nebulae of our milky way :)

SMC (http://www.glitteringlights.com/Images/Galaxies/i-h4PggtC)

It is a HaOIII LRGB composition collecting 24 hours of light, half of it in narrow band. I recommend to view the full resolution version.
It is a process a bit extreme, sharper than my usual one and it is possible I will go for a softer version eventually, however I wanted to see how much I could push the contrasts in this target. Suggestions and opinions are welcome :)

Clear skies
Marco

[strongmanmike]

Wow Marco, that's a sight and a half! It looks great at the small - medium sizes and I like everything about the image, bold, vibrant and unique with an incredible amount of HII showing...however :scared3: when I look at it at original size all the faint stars seem to be connected by filaments rather than being individual dots :shrug: looks like a filter of some sort may have done this..? What do you think?

Still looks amazing

Mike
not picking on you :love:

[marco]

Hi Mike, thanks for the quick feedback, check the image now. I had couple of versions, one ultrasharp and quite sharp, by mistake I uploaded the "ultrasharpened" :) What you are referring to I believe it is due to the sharpening (still excessive?) that makes the starts in this very crowded field looking fancy. Is the current one better? still excessive?

Ciao
Marco

[strongmanmike]

Yes I think that is a bit better, the crowded star regions look less stringy now :thumbsup:

MIke

[gregbradley]

The link goes to a blank page in your website that you have to go to galaxies and find the image. The loaded larger images are cut off top and bottom and I could not move the image. So something is difficult there.

Another fabulous Marco image which is why you are one of my favourite astrophotographers!:thanx:

Greg.

[multiweb]

That looks great Marco. :thumbsup: One of the deepest shot I've seen. The Oiii nebula is pretty cool too. Your direct link didn't work for me either . I had to navigate back through the main menu > Galaxies>etc...

[Larryp]

That's fantastic, Marco!

[marco]

Ok, so I understand that it is still not totally OK than ;) Will reduce a bit furtehr the contrast too. Also found on a differente monitor (much brighter) that background is not totally flat, need to give this picture a redo..



Hi Greg, thanks for the appreciation! I have fixed the link, thanks, about the problem you mention it is due to smugmug, my provider. It happens to me too time to time and it depends (I believe) on how the page is loaded into the cache of the browser. Usually if you clean the cache and reload the page you can scroll the image without problems. I hope they will fix this issue soon.. In case you can download the image at full size or get a link to any direct jpg using the two icons at bottom right..




Thanks Marc, link fixed..



Thanks Larry :thumbsup:

Clear skies
Marco

[marc4darkskies]

Outstanding Marco! :thumbsup:. Wonderfully deep! Some lovely objects in the smc.

Cheers Marcus

[rogerg]

Stunning image, very nice indeed. Must have taken a bit of time, processing.

[astronobob]

Faaantastic :2thumbs: :cool2:

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Great work Marco!

It's interesting to see how much HA there is in the SMC.

Cheers,

Justin.

[RickS]

Lovely image, Marco!

[marco]

I have uploaded another last version, corrected a little defect on the upper right corner (not perfectly flat fielded in the blue channel) and limited the overall sharpening, in fact I got back on my usual standard on that aspect and let the image a bit softer ;)



Thanks Marcus! Indeed this galaxy is rich in Ha and OIII areas when the exposures go deep enough :)



A bit ;) Thanks for the appreciation Roger



Thanks Bob :thumbsup:



Thanks Justin, indeed, all these gasses belonging to another galaxy :eyepop:



Thanks Rick!

Clear skies
Marco

[jjjnettie]

That's gorgeous!

[jase]

Lovely rendition Marco. So much to see with such a busy fov. The quantity of clusters is impressive. Fantastic image. Thanks for sharing.

[CoolhandJo]

Very nice colours and detail

[Stevec35]

Very nice Marco - like it a lot. Unlike many SMC images all the nebula colours look exactly right.

Cheers

Steve

[Shiraz]

beautiful vista Marco - as you point out, it's in another galaxy!

Bit of a difficult compromise getting sharpness right for such a dense starfield, looks nice.

regards ray

[Ross G]

A great looking photo Marro.

Beautiful colour and detail.

So sharp.

Ross.

[marco]

Thanks JJJ



Thanks Jason!



Thanks to you too Paul :)



Thanks Steve! Had t mask a bit NGC 346 from the exxess of Ha to keep the balance right as it was in the RGB but I am happy with the result :)



Thanks Ray, indeed this field is very crowded of stars and nebulae but very interesting all the same:)



Thanks Ross!

Clear skies
Marco

[LewisM]

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! !

[marco]

Thanks Lewis, I am working now to a 2 panels mosaic of the area, let's hope it will turn out good :)

Clear skies
Marco

[Leonardo70]

Deep image and great Ha catch ... congrats Marco.

All the best,
Leo

[naskies]

Whoa, very nice Marco! I especially like the colour contrast between the blue and red in the top-left corner.

[astronobob]

Astounding Capturing Marco & very cool to see our Irregular satilite neighbour in such wonderment, Speshly in this NB Signal :thumbsup:

[marco]

Thanks Bob, glad you liked it!



Thanks Dave, the color contrast of NGC346 is quite striking indeed, it emits a lot in OIII :)



Thanks Leo!

Regards
Marco