Starwaves

[dvj]

3rd Light with the remarkable RHA 305 f/3.8


Image inspired by the Oblivion OST, Track #7


And......... a bottle of Piper-Heidsieck helped a little too! Maybe 2 bottles :eyepop:


http://img849.imageshack.us/img849/6049/ko8a.jpg

You gotta love the clone and stamp tool! No hard stars here, in fact hardly any stars at all.

Hey, it's ART.

Enjoy!

j

[alpal]

Excellent detail - well done.

[jase]

Excellent John. Image is too clean and polished for my tastes but still enjoyable none the less. Any more contrast to be had from the Ha curtain?

[dvj]

Hi Jase,

This is a relatively short exposure set. I'm adding more to clean up the signal and to push the contrast up a bit. It will only get better from here.

j

[LewisM]

Beautiful... but not natural without the stars.

The fidelity of scale and detail is amazing!

[LightningNZ]

That's dreamy and surreal, perhaps even more so because we all know what we should expect. What a system, to get those stars _so_ sharp is incredible.

Cheers,
Cam

[gregbradley]

Love it John, exactly as-is. Jaw droppinh actually. Look how real the Flame Neb looks. You can reach out and touch practically.

Boy, are you going to have some fun with that scope!

Greg.

[dvj]

Glad you folks liked the image. The intention of a starless field is to reveal the structure of the ionization front.


I've updated the original set with 3 more hours of data and a few adjustments to the processing. A little more boost to the signal, and allowed for some additional processing while retaining the beauty of the original.

- 15 x 1800s
- 3nm HA AD filter (works just fine at f/3.8)
- STL 11000M (first gen camera, still going strong) the onboard guider was used.
- AP RHA 305 f/3.8. The "All Reflecting Refractor"


Star removal technique (clone and stamp), converted to RGB mode to add a faint blue cold hue to the image, + star spike generator + a bit of an HDR stretch. No sharpening, or smoothing.


Enjoy the ride.
http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/2306/doyb.jpg (http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/2306/doyb.jpg)

[LewisM]

*&(((**^%%$%&*

Yeah, I swore when I saw that image.

There is a canal a LOG WAY AWAY. It's a FAR CANAL. :) :ROFL:

[RickS]

Very nice, but a bit weird :)

[marco]

A horsehead through the mist :) Strange look, however I am impressed by the clean removal of all the stars, it was a good idea to leave only the brightest ones to maintain a little dept on the image and avoid artifacts..

Clear skies
Marco

[Paul Haese]

Nice John. I compared it to my 17.5 hours and there is quite similar looking detail. Clearly the aperture is winning for you, over my littel 4 inch TSA. I like the low noise.

[Peter Ward]

Sublime.

A corrected Newt it ain't..... ;)

[leinad]

I love it! Resolution in the flame is awesome, I must say I'm a fan of this in general, without the stars the depth of everything is stunning.

What band pass Ha filter did you use for this ?

[dvj]

3nm. AstroDon. Probably at its limit at f/3.8. It did not work well at F/3 on my little RH200.




I had a Newt once. All that weight loaded at a right angle on the tube was special.




Yeah, aperature wins on signal every time.




I am already seeing some intresting features I've not seen before by removing the stars. Note the split of the ion cloud curtain around the bright star to the right of the HH. Is this following a magnetic field? It seems to also flow away from the bend of the shock front. Time to do some reading on this feature. Astronomer's subtract a red continum filiter from their Ha images to see faint structures. This is the poor man's approach, although with the speed of this instrument, I should get one of the filters and try it out.




Takes a bit getting used to just seeing the nebula. All those star dots play tricks on the eyes.



:rofl:

[strongmanmike]

All the flagrant boys club boasting aside :rolleyes: :lol:...That really is a unique looking portrayal of the Horsey John, not everyone's cup of tea I guess but I really like it :thumbsup:

...Colour?...one day? maybe? :sadeyes:

Mike :thumbsup:

[Andy01]

Congratulations John!

In my opinion, this is far and away the most inspiring interpretation of this DSO that I've ever seen. Big call maybe but what you have done is to create an art piece from an often seen, somewhat cliche subject. (Hey, I just posted my first, somewhat traditional version in the beginners section yesterday).

Seems that we're all trying our hardest to photograph the same subject and get more detail, more sharpness etc, but you have transcended all that by re-interpreting the subject in a completely unique and artistic way that rises above mere technical purity. Your technique is very, very good and the concept and execution is just brilliant (In my opinion).

Watch out, you may have started something! You've certainly inspired me anyway :)

Many thanks for sharing!

Andy

[FlashDrive]

I like it .....:thumbsup:
A lot of ' depth ' in that nebula ...very dense looking

Col.

[multiweb]

Great starless shot. Beautiful details. :thumbsup:

[dvj]

Hi Andy,

You don't know how much I appreciate your thoughts and message. We all have access to the same objects year after year. One of the reasons that I have stuck with grayscale all these years is that I like the tonality that astronomical objects present in black and white and the challenge of the wide dynamic range within the grayscale narrowband results.

- JG

[alistairsam]

Hi John,

That's a truly remarkable image. I love the starless concept, some of Fred (Bassnut)'s work is also similar and gives it a very puristic and artistic feel.
NB Starless images look smooth.
you must have a lot of patience if you did all that with the clone tool. why not do it with processing software like PI or other? just a few clicks.
the sharpness is amazing. how dark is this site and what were the conditions that night? the flame is the sharpest I've seen.

Cheers
Alistair

[Ross G]

A photograph of amazing quality John.

Unique and beautiful.

Ross.

[SkyViking]

That is so beautiful John, very artistic and unique, and with impressive resolution. A great take on this old favourite :)
Although it would surely look impressive in colour too I really like this B/W version.
I found the same when I did my deep CenA, a B/W image has 'something' that colour just doesn't, very serene and pure - and vice versa! I think colour and B/W versions of a target compliment each other.

[dvj]

Hi Alistair,

The image was taken from my urban back yard. Visual deep sky here is M13. The3nm bandpassis key to blocking broadband with high contrast. The 2 nights this series of subs was shot, seeing was quite excellent. Sub frame measurements - best measure was 1.2 FWHM - Manual focused too!

Great optics in the RHA helped.

jg