NGC2020 and lots of friends -repro

[Paul Haese]

This image is a revisit of an image I did a few years ago. I have never really like the original composition and I still am not 100% convinced that I like the new composition either. There are lots of really cool objects in this image. Just to name a few there is NGC2020, NGC2040, NGC1934, NGC1935 and NGC1955. Most of these need a narrow field image of their own and I will eventually get around to doing that I suppose.

This image is really only half way done. There is still OIII and SII to collect. However I thought at 22.5 hours I ought to have a go at putting it together. Probably a bit fluro for my tastes but I am sure others will like the saturation. Dealing with stars in the nebulosity is not to my liking either. When I do the final image I am going to handle this aspect a lot more carefully.

Click here (http://paulhaese.net/NGC2020-NGC2040-NGC1935.html) for larger image

Edit-repro included here.

[Placidus]

Absolutely stunning Paul. As well as being superb in its own right, I will find it a very valuable wide-field shot of what is there.

[RickS]

Lots of cool stuff in there, Paul. It will be interesting to see what you can do with the addition of OIII and SII.

Cheers,
Rick.

[atalas]

Very nice Paul.

[Bassnut]

Each of the objects stand out well, a nice composition. The saturation suits this perfectly.

[Slawomir]

A very nice image and an inspiration to make an attempt at this area of the sky myself :-)

[marco]

ahh, the jewel mine of SMC, so rich of amazing objects! Great image indeed, the long exposure gave a very noise free image!
Well done :thumbsup:

Regards
Marco

[Rex]

Wow, great work Paul! As you said, each object would make a good image in it's own right, but seeing them all together in one frame is awesome.

[gvanhau]

I like your rendition.
Nice colors .
Lots of interesting objects candidates for individual closeups.

Geert

[SkyViking]

Very nice Paul, love those bubble-like clouds of the SMC/LMC. Like the saturation too, not overdone at all.

[gregbradley]

This is a very nice image. I like the wide field and all those interesting nebulas. The lovely teal greens in the nebs make for a great colour scheme. I agree some more exposure would be nice as it lacks a bit of the sparkle and transparency your fabulous Orion image had in spades. I wonder if it could take a bit more sharpening or if that would damage it.

Greg.

[atalas]

Paul,some advice....too dark and I don't think the channels are quite aligned well.

When pushing colour the image tends to need some brightening of small iterations as you go otherwise things go south very quickly.

Treat colour as If you were working with contrast and you'll be fine.

Diid you use the PS HDR tool? If yes just keep an eye on the the histogram...It loves heading the wrong way.

Having said that,still a great looking image but I know you'll never be happy with anything less than perfection.

[Paul Haese]

Thanks guys for the comments. After a day or so of reflection I decided to do a reprocess of the data and am happier about the result now. Please see the link above and the new image to the right of the original posted here.



Never use HDR tool. :eyepop:. I take your point about it being too dark but it was not clipped. I tend to go for that contrasty look and as a result this tends to make the image a little darker I suppose.

Yes the channels were not well aligned and I knew this from the outset. It has been a problem for the last few images. The red channel seems to be the problem and could be slightly out of focus and thus causing a different scale. Such is the new paradigm to be dealt with the FSQ106.

I took several hours last night manually realigning and scaling each channel. It was quite fiddly and is still not 100% aligned but so much closer than the previous effort. Martin Pugh talked about this problem with CCDstack last year at AAIC and it seems I might have to look at Pixinsight after all just to use the alignment function.

In the end this is a good example of waiting a day or two to see how things fit in your own mind. When I look at the two images now side by side I can see the glaring issues. I was certainly not happy with how the whole imaged looked so I am with you there.

[gregbradley]

I like the repro - more detail and contrast.

The alignment issue is pretty minor. It could also be seeing was worse when you did the red exposures.

Greg.

[Paul Haese]

Thanks Greg, now that you mention it I have been imaging the red at around 27 degrees and that could account for your suggestion regarding the seeing. The other colours are being imaged higher up. In any event I can't use precision align in CCDstack1 which is a bit out of the ordinary as I usually use that and get great results, so I might have to get CCDstack2 to get the new features and higher precision.

[Shiraz]

I like it. I think that you have got the colour just right. The bright stars overlaying the nebula detail are a real pain to manage and you have them pretty well under control.

FWIW have found that it helps with alignment in PI if hot pixels are removed beforehand - might be worth looking into.

[E_ri_k]

I like it Paul, probably prefer the repro better, and I don't mind the fluro colours. Look forward to seeing it with added NB data :thumbsup:
Erik

[NOMH]

Hi Paul, I like the field of view and the variety of emission and reflection nebula set in a deep star field. Are there that many young type O stars on the right side of the frame? The star field seems to have a variety of star colors and some extinction running diagonally across the frame which adds interest to the field.

Also, each object would look awesome with a longer FL setup.

JB

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Great work Paul, love it!:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

The repro has a slight edge but I like them both.

I've imaged some of these LMC nebs and know how hard it is to balance everything out, especially the multitude of stars!

You've inspired me to have another crack at the LMC nebulae.:)

Cheers,

Justin.

[Ross G]

Great looking photos Paul.

I love the sharpness and detail of both versions.

Ross.