The Horsehead and Alnitak region (Arrghh, another!)

[marco]

Hello everyone, I have been away from this forum for a little while with little if not access at all but I see the level of images posted is always very high!

I finally managed to process the light I collected on one of the most classics targets of the winter sky, apologies in advance so for posting again another picture of the horsehead :scared3: but I didn't have a decent portrait of it in my gallery :D

I started to collect the luminance of this image at the beginning of 2013, over a year ago, then the long stop I had in my observatory due to the Warrumbungle fire last year prevented me to collect the RGB and Ha light until the end of last year / beginning of this year.
However, finally I managed to complete the missing data and here is the result:

The Horsehead and Alnitak region (http://www.glitteringlights.com/Images/Nebulae/i-drNZv2T/A)

In total almost 14 hours of light for this fantastic area. I am very pleased with the result, you can see many details in the horsehead (at least for what the resolution of my telescope allows) and I love the detail of the dust in general. It is also a very colorful region of sky, IMO one of the most beautiful areas of sky ! Recommended the full resolution view (click the last icon in the lower right corner to select the "original" resolution, about 15 megapixel JPG)

I hope you like it too :)

Clear skies
Marco

[RickS]

It is a lovely area of the sky, Marco, and you've done a fantastic job on it as usual...

[multiweb]

The high-res version is truly awesome. Amazing to see so many background galaxies in this area as well. :thumbsup:

[marco]

Thanks Guys! Yes Marc, the background is very rich, I wander what if I could have gone deeper on the luminance :question:
Perhaps next year :D

Clear skies
Marco

[Rod771]

Yes its definitely a "must see". Fantastic effort despite the set back with fires.

Another inspiring image, well done Marco :thumbsup:

[Shiraz]

all is forgiven - that is not just "another" M42. It is a real gem of an image showing lots of stuff that I hadn't noticed before - very well done. Regards Ray

[alpal]

Hi Marco,
that's a fantastic image.
I love the brown areas of dust that are showing through in even the darkest areas.

cheers
Allan

[gregbradley]

Superb Marco. Love it.

Greg.

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Fabulous Marco!:thumbsup:

Please don't apologise for posting another horse head, it's stunning !!:eyepop:.
Detail and colour balance a master piece.:painting:

Cheers,

Justin.

[strongmanmike]

Only 14 hrs...? Maaaaate, get serious :eyepop:, you will be laughed at by some for that little amount of time :shrug: :lol:...kinda shows that mega data is perhaps not n-e-c-e-s-s-a-r-i-l-y the panacea for spectacular images that some believe it to be :whistle: :thumbsup:

Once again it shows that collecting Luminance is best for a well rounded HH though, shows the dust well :thumbsup:.

Excellent work Marco :clap:

Mike

[atalas]

Very nice work Marco.

[marco]

Thanks Rod, fortunately the fire spared my observatory leaving some minor damages only, it took time to replace some cables but the final big loss was only of time :)



I suppose you mean IC 434 Ray :P;) Thanks for the appreciation!



Thanks Allan, it is what I like too of this area, lots of dust here and there that gives "dept" to the field!



Thanks Greg!



Thanks Justin, so I will post now M42, Eta etc without fear :D Kidding, luckily for you I posted them already last year, but perhaps I will redo them in the future :rolleyes::screwy::D



Hehe, thanks Mike, it seems I missed some discussions on other topics here, did I? :P Need to spend some time to catch up with forum.. ;)



Thanks Louie!

Clear skies
Marco

[Paul Haese]

Nice image of a much favoured area Marco. Nice colouring and detail. Well done. I like that little knot you captured in the upper left. Such an interesting region. Martin suggested I go deeper still with the lum data that I did. I am sort of inclined to agree with him based on what I have been seeing in images I am preparing at present. Its incredible how strong the signal gets after a while. One just has to be patient to receive the results. Certainly a good example of that is Rolfs very deep Centaurus A.

Nothing wrong with mega data Mike; you seem to be on some crusade about all this.;) Oh well if you have to image the entire heavens in 12 months so be it.:P I will stick to going deep. :thumbsup:

[Peter Ward]

Simply sublime. Gets the Oscar from me :)

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Shiraz]

Arrgh! sorry Marco - :P - I clearly need more sleep. no disrespect intended, it really is a cracker of an image :thumbsup:

[Marios]

Someone call NASA we found a stolen Hubble pic.! AMAZING!!!!

[John Hothersall]

Littered with gems, you could keep adding every year creating a Magnum Opus of depth.

John.

[LewisM]

I am sending Marco my dental bills.

My jaw hit the desk, shattered all 3 teeth I had left. Now I can't be chewin' me baccy! ;)

Peter said it already - S U B L I M E!

[strongmanmike]

Oh I wasn't necessarily refering to you :whistle: but hey, nothing wrong with it at all, nock ya sox off :) It's cost benifit in the end and automated setups bring the effort cost (not $ :scared2:) down, so you (and Marco)are lucky :).

You often mention talking with Martin these days - good source of info there, good luck...I don't think I am the one on the crusade ;)

Oh and nice is not really a fair term to describe Marcos image IMO either...more like amazing, beautiful, fantastic, exceptional, splendid...ok, that'll do :lol:

Lazy snap shot Mike :P

[LewisM]

Duelling pistols, 50 paces... get it over and done with you two please :)

14 hours... some of us can DREAM of that. That's like 2 years worth around here.

[strongmanmike]

:lol: no duel here all light-hearted banter :thumbsup: and besides, I am happy for Paul to suck up all the photons that ever existed :eyepop:



Yeah, even more than I have done with the AG12 so far :P...I have done 20hr and 29hr images before through with the Starfire but it was only 6" and slow at around F8 and fully portable too...I used to have the will...getting old :P

Mike

[astronobob]

Totally WOW Marco, a magical view in this piece of work :cool2:
Im amaized by all the areas objects & detail, spent 15 mins peering in through the full file, extraordinary job :thumbsup:

[Stevec35]

An incredibly impressive view of this area Marco!

Cheers

Steve

[marco]

Thanks Paul, indeed having lots of s/n helps revealing deeper and finer details, as you said Rolf's image was a great demonstration of this. Sure this can be achieved with larger apertures and/or longer exposure, since I cannot change the former I have to work on the latter :D



Thanks Peter, appreciate your nomination :lol:



No problem, you are welcome!



Hehe, thanks Mario :)



Thanks John!



Oblige! :):thanx:



Yep, this is one of the biggest advantage of automation: every single useful night is used!



Thanks Bob!



Thanks Steve, appreciate :thumbsup:

Clear skies
Marco

[dvj]

It's sooo good Marco, I don't need to comment.