47 Tucanae - Trillions and Trillions

[SimmoW]

My most complex job yet. 4 different exposures of 15 and 30 secs, then 2 and 5 mins, almost 2 hrs of data, all combined via pixinsight's HDR composition tool. Then I found out about PI's great plate solving utility, only to discover dozens of galaxies embedded in the image. Look closely and you'll see all the faint fuzzies.

Far better rez here:

Original (https://www.flickr.com/photos/48232585@N00/15142431697/)

Annotated (https://www.flickr.com/photos/48232585@N00/15142254420/)

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Love this Simon!:thumbsup:

Looks like Dandelion seeds floating on the wind.:)

Cheers,

Justin.

[PeterEde]

That is fantastic

[dvj]

First of all, it's a lovely deep image. Are the star halos the result of the HDR and drizzle processing in PI? I ask, because I am interested in the full capabilities of PI and the results on this list are looking pretty good.

j

[lazjen]

That's great. How many of each exposure did you use?

PI has a plate solving utility? That's how you made the annotated version? If so, that's great and something I'll have to look at using too!

[SimmoW]

Thanks, I think the halos are a result of the very bright exposure for such an object, 5 mins. Might be an artefact of the hdr process, I've only just tried it for this image. Might experiment more in the next bad weather period.

I took 15 shots of each exposure length, 15 secs, 30, 2 mins and 5.

[RickS]

Nice work, Simon! A very interesting effect.

[strongmanmike]

This would be a smacker of an image Simon...without those halos..it's good even with'em but if you could lose them....

Great stuff none the less :thumbsup:

Mike

[Ross G]

A nice looking photo Simon.

Great detail!

Ross.

[SimmoW]

Well it's pouring with rain here in Melb, so what do you do on such nights? reprocess eh!

I actually liked the halo effect, but for the purists out there, here's a corrected version, I think I didn't click the lightness mask option when I used Pixinsight's 'HDR multiscale transform' process. Whatever, it's fixed now anyway. Very pleased it was so easy to fix

Upped the luminance and saturation a fair bit, gawd you can amend things so much can't you, hard to know when to stop..

The link to the un-haloed image (https://www.flickr.com/photos/48232585@N00/15153638419/)

[cometcatcher]

Well you're going to hate me but I like the cluster better in the halo version and the non cluster stars better in the non halo version. :D

Astrophotography is more art than anything I reckon and I'm no art critic so don't listen to me. ;)

[SimmoW]

That made me laugh Kevin! Then cry...

If this weather keep up I might even take up that challenge

[lazjen]

Oh I can play Kevin's game as well: I prefer the halo version, but maybe the stars' halo toned back a bit? :)

[strongmanmike]

He he...ok now just blend the inner 50% of the original glob only back in over the blue core of the new version...and it should look schmick :thumbsup:

Mike

[SimmoW]

Ok Mike, done especially for you, yes it's looking nicer now. No more edits for me, had enough! It's interesting all the different possibilities eh? The funny thing is, I couldn't replicate the Haloed look again, must've been some obscure setting I clicked.

Hybrid version here (https://www.flickr.com/photos/48232585@N00/15364494232/)