Soul Nebula, SH2-199 aka IC1848, in Hubbleish narrowband

[RickS]

Another one from my shared scope at SRO in California. The Soul Nebula is an emission nebula in Cassiopeia.

Scope: FSQ-106ED
Mount: Paramount ME
Camera: QSI683
Filters: Astrodon Gen II LRGB, 5nm Ha, OII, SII (1.25")
Guiding: QSI OAG + Lodestar
Image scale: 2.094 arcsec/pixel, drizzled to double resolution
Exposures: 15x1800s Ha, 11x1800s OIII, 21x1800s SII (23.5 hrs)
Processing: PixInsight

There's a high res version on Astrobin: http://www.astrobin.com/138813/

Constructive feedback appreciated...

Cheers,
Rick.

[Stevec35]

Very nice Rick. These nebulae always look better in NB I think but you need marathon exposures for the best result. Your remote site must have better skies than around here.

Cheers

Steve

[RobF]

Lovely work Rick. Love that palette.
Did you use your new secret weapon script on this one?

[strongmanmike]

That's a beauty Rick, some lovely details around the nebula edges and really nice dot like stars too, great stuff... from the poorer hemisphere :P

Mike

[RickS]

Thanks, Steve. The SRO skies aren't exceptionally dark but the seeing is great.



Ta, Rob. Yep, much use made of ColorMask and a couple of improvements suggested themselves. My next project is to implement the feedback from Juan and others and do a new release.



Thanks very much, your Mikeness :D

[Geoff45]

Impressive shot Rick. The contrast of the blue and orange looks great. As others have said, a lot of fine detail. I like the little black bear near the bottom right part of the blue region.
Geof

[gregbradley]

That's a very nice image Rick. Colours and details are good. My only reservation is the image seems slightly strained and that is a result of a small chip on a small scope effect. I prefer your images from your Ceravolo as they don't have that problem.

Greg.

[RickS]

Thanks, Geoff. I was thinking it looked like a knuckle bone but a bear is much cuter :)



Ta, Greg. I'd much rather have a full size sensor or bigger on that scope (a 16803 would be lovely) but it's not an option at present.

Cheers,
Rick.

[sjastro]

Excellent image Rick.

Steven

[lazjen]

Sorry, no constructive feedback from me - just that it's damn impressive Rick. :)

[gregbradley]

Ta, Greg. I'd much rather have a full size sensor or bigger on that scope (a 16803 would be lovely) but it's not an option at present.

Cheers,
Rick.[/QUOTE]

11002 and 16803 are great combos with the 106ED. 8300 works pretty well but it seems to be working to get more resolution than is really there at that aperture. It still does well though.

Greg.

[atalas]

Great detail and colour Rick...splendid!

[Rod771]

Very nice Rick! Lovely detail. :thumbsup:

[RickS]

Thanks, Steven.



Thanks, Chris. I usually get the most constructive feedback when I've screwed up so this is a positive sign :)



I may be pushing a little to double the res with Drizzle but it has worked pretty well on a few previous images. I'd still love a 16803 instead :thumbsup:



Thanks, Louie.



And thanks, Rod!

[multiweb]

Another one from the North hey? Pretty cool. :thumbsup:

[Ross G]

Great looking photo Rick.

Amazing detail.

Ross.

[RickS]

Thanks Marc & Ross!

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Beautiful image Rick!:thumbsup:

Must say I really like the Hubbleish colours.

Cheers,

Justin.

[Placidus]

Superb, Rick. Wow at first sight.

[Bassnut]

Yes, high wow factor, impressive and rare for us.

[SimmoW]

Magnificent Rick.

May i ask, only if you have spare time - what is the difference between the drizzled and non-drizzled version? could you post or pm a non-D'd version? I'm asking as I'm expecting delivery of a Sony A7s astro modded camera soon, and am worried that its large pixels (8.4nm) may mean that I'll also need to drizzle, but am unsure as to how small the issue will be (eg the tiniest stars frankly won't matter imho...)

Your work is most inspirational.

[RickS]

Thanks, Justin.



And thanks, Mike.



Very kind of you Fred, being one of the masters of high wow factor :)



Thanks, Simon.

I have attached a crop of the original Drizzled image and a downsampled version which is at the original resolution. This is cheating a little but close to what you'd see from a non-Drizzle version (in reality the non-Drizzle version would be slightly inferior with stars a little more square.)

Drizzle is only useful when the scope/camera combination is significantly undersampled. At SRO the seeing is exceptional, often down near 1 arcsecond so this is easy to achieve with our image scale which is around 2 arcsec/pixel. TANSTAAFL, of course, and Drizzle does trade off noise for resolution so you need more data too.

What focal length will you be using with the Sony?

BTW, someone told me that the small area of dark neb looks like a bear :lol:

Cheers,
Rick.

[SimmoW]

Thanks for replying so quickly Rick.

Er, I can't discern much difference. Which is probably good, 2 arc secs/pixel is probably well within tolerances - I've read that 3-4 is the limit.

I'll be using it with my Tak E-130D, 430mm FL, meaning that it'll be more like 4 arc secs/pixel.

Thankfully I've found an example image taken at a similar FL, here (https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/116260312230579398213/albums/6085026033796722705/6085026320642613378?pid=60850263206 42613378&oid=116260312230579398213), that proves to me that the issue is certainly not worrisome to me. I detect some squareness if zoomed to the very smallest stars, so drizzle might be of use, but you really do have to zoom in close. Compared to the ridiculous sensitivity of the cam, I don't really care.

Hope I'm not hijacking your thread, but as you mentioned drizzle, it pricked my attention.

[RickS]

The difference is fairly subtle, Simon, except for the shape of the stars. I did a quick non-Drizzle integration of the Ha and attached to this post is a direct comparison of Drizzled Ha vs non-Drizzled with no processing apart from an equivalent stretch and upsampling.

Cheers,
Rick.

[SimmoW]

That's the best demonstration of drizzle I've ever seen, thank you.

[RickS]

No probs...

[Paul Haese]

Cool composition Rick and the palette looks good to me too.

[marc4darkskies]

Very nice indeed Rick - excellent composition & colour :thumbsup:

Cheers, Marcus

[RickS]

Thanks, Paul & Marcus.

[E_ri_k]

Another excellent image Rick, love the colour's.
Erik

[astronobob]

Brilliant Mr Rickster, - crypeeze, oversampled, undersampled, the only undersampling done here is with Rum & Coke :lol:
Man, what I really like abouth <- (oops, stop slurpin :P) this image Rick, is the sharpness around most the field, and Im also seeing some blurred section around low middle and bit to left where blue meets dark - how facinating is that - it appears like you have captured some serious intersteller turmoil winds or somethin' ? :question:
Cheers for any insight master :cool2:

[RickS]

Thanks, Erik.



Ta, Bob. What's happening here is that the radiation and stellar winds from a cluster of stars has carved out huge caverns in the dust. You'll notice pillars where denser material has eroded more slowly. Where the dust is compressed new stars are forming. So, you're right about the turmoil and interstellar winds :thumbsup:

[astronobob]

Cool as Rick - that then is indeed somthin awesome - can imagine it in kind of 3D now also :cool2:

[RickS]

Have you seen the 3D simulations done by J-P Metsavainio, Bob? Here's one which shows the area at the top left of my image: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5cRr16r3FE

Cheers,
Rick.

[John Hothersall]

Lovely colours, this one always reminds me of a Buffalo or Bison. S2 edges aginst OIII look very strong and pleasing.

John.

[astronobob]

Not that exact one Rick, but yeah, they are super grouse !
Wondering if he does them for other astro-imagers, you know, really good astro imagers :poke: That would be quite :cool:

[RickS]

Thanks, John. I've heard it called the Embryo Nebula but Bison would be a good fit too!



I think he's probably busy with his own stuff. I wouldn't mind trying the 3D stuff one day but I have about 20 images to process first :)

[John K]

Amazing shot Rick - really 3D!

and one of the reason that it's only a matter of time before I get into mono LRGB imaging!

John K.

[RickS]

Thanks, John! Mono is the way to go... especially for narrow band :)

Cheers,
Rick.

[RobC]

Another incredible image Rick. Well done

Cheers

Rob

[RickS]

Thanks, Rob.

[Leonardo70]

Very nice Rick.

All the best,
Leo

[RickS]

Thanks, Leo!