IC2944 Narrow Band complete, 23.5 hours

[Paul Haese]

I finally got around to processing this data after completing the collection about 3 weeks ago. The camera is now at SBIG getting some repairs done after a clocking issue developed.

I am reasonably happy with this image, but there are a few minor irritations present. There is a reflection in the OIII data (top left) which is painful and there is still some magenta in the blue stars. I would welcome ideas on handling the magenta. I would prefer they were blue.

This area is really interesting and well suited for NB imaging. I really like the way three dimensionality can be presented in NB imaging.

Click here (http://paulhaese.net/IC2944narrowband.html)for higher resolution image.

Click here (http://phaese.smugmug.com/Other/Astroimaging/42506577_WVjfxk#!i=3347547648&k=3mBv3vS)for alternate site - my normal site is having some trouble with an outage.

[Peter.M]

yep, thats the one! Nice work Paul

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Stunning Paul!

The detail is something to behold.:)

Cheers,

Justin.

[jsmoraes]

Wow ! :eyepop:

I will delete my prior post with it ! :ashamed:

[RB]

I love it !!
Stunning colours and detail.
The hi-res is very smooth.

Well done Paul.

:thumbsup:

[mbaddah]

Beautiful image Paul, I'm sharing this around :)

[Stevec35]

Love the detail and the overall smoothness Paul. An image well worth the time spent.

Cheers

Steve

[RickS]

Great result, Paul! Lovely colours and great detail.

Cheers,
Rick.

[LewisM]

Immersive. New desktop image, finally ousting one of Martin Pugh's galaxy images after 3 years.

[alocky]

Absolutely magnificent Paul! The fine structure in the dust clouds, particularly in the lower left quarter are so beautifully defined. Apart from the excellent processing, it looks like there's not a lot wrong with the 12" RC either, assuming that's the full frame of a 11002 chip, the stars in the corners are pretty damn tight.
Cheers,
Andrew

[Andy01]

WOW, that's raised the bar hasn't it! Standing ovation methinks :)

[mithrandir]

I guess it will get fixed soon, but both nameservers for paulhaese.net. (ns190.ausweb.com.au. ns191.ausweb.com.au.) are not respondng.

[Paul Haese]

Thanks all for the comments. I am happy that the image is pleasing to the eyes viewing it.



Actually this is a crop Andrew but there is a flattener sitting on my side table waiting for an adapter to be installed. The RC12" optics are very nice and in time I will be using full uncropped images. This one is about 1/15 cropped.



Yes there has been something weird going on at the site this afternoon. Not sure what is causing this but the servers were migrated about 2 months ago and domains were changed. Not sure if this will continue or now. I can open from this site, so it might just be a time out issue.

[mithrandir]

It might be that than Paul. None of the nameservers for .net (i.e. [a-m].gtld-servers.net.) have an address for ns190.ausweb.com.au. or ns191.ausweb.com.au. I got an address for ns191.ausweb.com.au. (ns190 gets NXDOMAIN) from ns3.ausweb.com.au. but 203.190.232.44 isn't responding to direct queries.

[Paul Haese]

Yes I have received word that there is an outage going on at the website host and they are working to resolve the problem. I will find a temp spot to access via smug mug.

New link below.

Click here (http://phaese.smugmug.com/Other/Astroimaging/42506577_WVjfxk#!i=3347547648&k=3mBv3vS)for image. When on the site click on image an select original for the size

[Regulus]

This is beautiful to look at Paul.

[E_ri_k]

Amazing image Paul, well worth the 23 hours:thumbsup: I think I see the reflection. I don't think its overly noticeable though. Was this through your RC?
Erik

[alpal]

One of your best ever Paul,
The Thackeray's Globules are very sharp & clear.

well done.

cheers
Allan

[strongmanmike]

Quite a nice image Paul with an interesting alternative colour palette too, plenty of interesting bits and pieces to view, cool :)

Mike

[Paul Haese]

Yes this was done through the RC. The reflection is only in the OIII filter which is a 3nm filter. I might have to flip the filter around in the filter wheel and see what happens.

[SimmoW]

Massive effort, producing a stellar result! Great work Paul.

[Bassnut]

Wow Paul, high detail and smoothness. A pleasure to view. The effort shows, an excellent result.

[Shiraz]

Very nice smooth and detailed result Paul - congratulations

[gregbradley]

I like this rendition the best. The colour to me is a tad off still though. Those cyan areas to the left side seem to weaken the impact of the image on the left side. I like the mustard tones and nice blues on the right. Plenty of detail but lacking a bit of contrast again on the left.

Lots of sharpness and detail and that GSO RC is really a very sharp scope.

Greg.

[dvj]

A beautiful piece of work Paul.

[Octane]

Now, that's a stunner. Beautiful work, Paul.

H

[Paul Haese]

Thanks guys for the comments.



I made a small adjustment to the contrast on the left hand side. I think that works now.

[pluto]

That's awesome!
Great work :)

[gregbradley]

Yeah that looks better. Stronger in that area. There's no question these GSO RCs are sharp.

Greg.

[Peter Ward]

Things I really like:


Perfectly round stars with no magenta halos (gotta love self-guide ahead of the NB filters ;) )

Beautifully smooth background with bugger-all noise.
Good highlight and shadow control and not too much chroma.


What a great result!

[atalas]

Detail to die for!awesome Paul.

[Paul Haese]

Thanks Louie and Hugh



Yes the optics look to be good with these scopes. It is the little finishing touches that need refining a little. Getting rid of that crap focusor would be a start, putting in a heated secondary would be good too.




Yes I am really happy with the guiding of this scope with the integrated guide head. I still think there is room for improvement with the guiding but overall I am happy.

Being able to image at -30C all the time is great. The QSI is a great little camera but the -25C limitation in winter and -20C in summer does make it hard to control noise. I could easily push the cooling on the STXL to -35C and that would make for less noise again. The sensor and electronics also produce low noise levels as you know. It all helps to produce backgrounds with low noise. Although mostly I attribute lower noise to going long on my subs. I routinely do 30 minute subs and this gives me high ADU to work with, which impacts on noise.

[graham.hobart]

That's really brilliant Paul. Quite stunning.
:thumbsup:

[Rod771]

Well done Paul! Lovely image with so many points of interest.

Congratulations :thumbsup:

[Phil Hart]

Sweet image Paul.

The whole system is working well together there and the processing finishes it off nicely. :thumbsup:

Phil

[trent_julie]

Nice one Paul
Image of the week??

[Paul Haese]

Thanks Rod and Graham for you comments.



Not quite there yet Phil, some tweaking needs to be done yet. I am waiting on an adapter for the field flattener that went back to the states for an adjustment but I reckon Australia Post sent it via Jupiter as it is not there yet after 12 days. Once my camera gets back here from repair, I will have to undertake collimation work again and do another pointing model check and then I can start a galaxy I have been after for years. It is nearly working to how I want it though. ;) (did I say perfect?)



Yeah that would be nice, wouldn't it. :)

[Draco]

great shot

[steveyzh]

Great shot! Time worth.

Stars in Sii channel often bigger than others and Oiii channel easier reflecting from brighter stars. Due to SHO(RGB) hubble palette, magenta around the stars is really unpleasant. I often reduced magenta saturation to achieve better looking.

I did try OSH(RGB) for stars color only,presenting kindly of faule blue,then select stars only,blending on top of SHO layer, and make some PS adjustment to taste.

Also, taking short exposure RGB for stars and blending to SHO layer is another option.

Anyway, this is a fantastic image!

Steve

[Paul Haese]

Thanks Niv for your comments.




I tend to use selective colour to control various colours and either use a mask to blend in or select the level of opacity to control the hideous magenta tinges.

RGB stars is certainly a way through the problem but time consuming and doing the blend right will sort that issue out anyway. I am working on learning that technique to get RGB stars from NB data. Martin Pugh told me how to do it a couple of years ago and I don't quite have it right yet.

Thanks for the detailed comments.

[steveyzh]

As for getting RGB stars colour from NB data,you could probably check this out:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.jp/2014/04/tone-mapping-v20-my-lecture-at-neaic.html
Tone Mapping V2.0, J-P's lecture at NEAIC conference, New York

Natural colour palette from NB data,
R=Hydrogen + Sulfur, G=Oxygen and B=Oxygen + Hydrogen.

I haven't tried this method yet since it seems a little complicated to me.Hope that will be helpful for you to yield even better skyscape.

B.Rgds

Steve

[Paul Haese]

Thanks Steve I will take a look. :thumbsup:

[astronobob]

Brilliance at work there Paul, Very Impressive & Stunning to say the least :thumbsup:

[Paul Haese]

Thanks Bob. :)

[CoolhandJo]

This is lovely work