N44 complex and The Crazy Frog Mouth Nebula (and other strange things)

[strongmanmike]

Among several other things...to me this little nebulous patch in the LMC reminds me of a crazy frog with eyes on stalks caught in the midddle of a croak...:question:...:screwy:...:D

This is a Bi-Colour image composed of Ha and OIII only, taken over two cloud interrupted nights. The seeing for the Ha was quite good but very poor for the OIII, so this coupled with having only two colour sets meant getting the data to match and blend properly into a visually appealing image was a challenge. I played around with a few palettes and ended up liking this one :P (I may well get some SII and RGB yet?)

The Crazy Frog Mouth (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/158681999/original) (cropped for composition)

Full Frame (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/158680942/original)

Strange things in N44 (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/158693348/original):eyepop:

Mike

[Placidus]

Hi, Mike,

Delicious. The "frog mouth full of stars (or gnats) and bulging frantic eyes" effect is somewhat reminiscent of the region around NGC 1760. Perhaps there is a heron that is doing the rounds of the lily-pads, and harassing the locals. Perhaps the astrophysics is broadly similar.

I like your rendition very much.

New year's wishes,
Mike

[Andy01]

:cool3:I love that crazy little guy :P
Great rendition and a funky colour palatte, well done as always Mike :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Cheers
Andy

[Geoff45]

Nice pallette Mike. I think OIII and Ha are good enough in most cases--they give a similar pic to RGB. SII is usually pretty weak and just complicates the colour.

[cometcatcher]

Looks like a crazy alien frog / spaghetti monster in outer space. Love the colours Mike. :thumbsup:

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Superb Mike!:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

The detail is amazing, I have to remind myself occasionally this is another Galaxy and how massive this nebula complex must be!

I think I'm right in saying if the Tarantula was at the same distance as M42 it would light up the sky brighter that a full moon.

Cheers,

Justin.

[strongmanmike]

Thanks for checking it out and commenting guys :thumbsup:
Mike you have the mind picture spot on there (of course) :D and I tend to agree with you Geoff but I think I could see some improvement if I had some RGB, so I will likely collect some next new moon period (if I don't lose interest in it in the meantime :))

Mike

[SkyViking]

Very impressive Mike. I really like the colour palette, and the entire nebula complex appears very detailed and intriguing. There certainly seems to be a lot of action going on in our neighbouring galaxies.
Thanks for the colourful vista and Happy New Year to you Mike! :)

[atalas]

Very cool Mike!

[gregbradley]

Nice one Mike. I like it.

Greg.

[marc4darkskies]

Mmmmmmm .... yeeahh :question: ... can't say I'm thrilled with the orange. I reckon it needs OIII & RGB as you say. But what do I know - I've never done NB! Love the composition and naming though and detail looks good! Overall, not bad for bi-colour.

Cheers, Marcus

[strongmanmike]

:love2:

:mad:

The Astroimaging Daily front page reports: "Narrowband colour choices continue to divide opinion" :lol:

Thanks for looking guys, I'm mounting this image and hanging it next to my green drapes :D

Mike

[Bart]

Very, very nice, Mike. :thumbsup:

Great processing as always. :)

[strongmanmike]

Ah! Bart! How the hell are ya? :hi: (ahhh hmmm? wait, are you the Bart that was on IIS in the past?)

Thanks for the comment mate

Mike

[Bassnut]

Thats pretty loud for you Mike!. Nice to see you experiment with the asthetics, certainly vibrant.

[RickS]

It's a very interesting object, Mike. Looks rather like the Flying Spaghetti Monster to me. Are you a closet Pastafarian? :)

Great detail and I like the colour palette.

Cheers,
Rick.

[alpal]

Hi Mike,
nice image - I'm not sure about the colours.
Maybe it will grow on me?

cheers
Allan

[multiweb]

:lol: Top field. Love the colors and details. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:
If your crop is the crazy frog then I reckon it's definitely a lady frog.
I found the poor bloke looking the other way, saying: "not again...."

[DJT]

Nope..the frog is toast, I see the head of a blue puddy tat right of centre eyeing it up.

Great image, lurve the colours:thumbsup:

[Paul Haese]

The 12" has an advantage in resolution of the 4" refractor here Mike. I see detail in yours that the FSQ missed in mine.

RGB stars will make a huge difference to the overall look too.

I am uncertain about the orange colour too. I thought that about my version which has this object a bit orange too. I think it ought to be slightly more brown/red, but horses for course.

[strongmanmike]

Thanks for all the feedback guys :thumbsup:...BUT you are all mad (and blind) of course :screwy:

To put you on the sane and narrow I have pointed out a few of the more obvious strange things living in N44 (thanks for the insight from some of you) but sorry Marc couldn't reeeally see your guy looking the other way though :shrug:

The Main Nebula looks like either:
1) Admiral Ackbar
2) The Spaghetti Monster
3) a (crazy) wide mouth Bull Frog

Then there are the following:
4) a Gremlin
5) Floyd Pepper (from Dr Teeth Muppet Band)
6) a down hill skier
7) a rabbit

LOOK HERE (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/158693348/original)

Please feel free to add to the list :P

(in) Sane Mike

[whale]

Well done Mike. I love the weird, twisted forms of this nebula. I can see the crazy frog in there amongst other creatures!

Nick

[strongmanmike]

Despite different equipment, filters, processing (and exposure time :whistle:) we have come up with essentially exactly the same colours...so we must be right and all those dodgy retina cones out there have clearly lost their calibration :shrug:...they probably see shapes in the orange nebulosity too :rolleyes:

[alpal]

Hi Mike - they are all alien creatures in your picture:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mF6dCD8n2E


cheers
Allan

[Leonardo70]

Great shot Mike ... i like colors and details...

All the best,
Leo

[dvj]

Super image Mike! I like those colors as well. While most professional would wavelength order narrowbands, it's anything goes when it comes mixing the channels. Great detail too. That little camera does well on short fl systems. Happy New Year!

[strongmanmike]

He he bit of good fun huh? :thumbsup:



Grazie Leo



Thanks DvJ Gleason :D yes the SXH694 is a wee ripper :) but I am starting to itch for the big ProLine again though...

Happy New Year to you too, you remote Aussie :thumbsup:

Mike

[David Fitz-Henr]

Nice one Mike; good detail and the colour looks OK to me for a NB image :thumbsup: I like the Wide Mouth Bull Frog analogy, and it appears to me that the frog is spewing something out of his mouth (Floyd Pepper?) :screwy:

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Dave glad I'm not totally seeing things...oh and as MBJ pointed out the frogs mouth is full of flies :P

Mike

[alpal]

Mike,


Hi Mike,
space is full of creatures & you have proven it.

[strongmanmike]

Ha, yeah...and I am one of the crazy ones ;)

[Ross G]

A great looking photo Mike.

So sharp and amazing detail.

Nice composition as well.

I'm normally not a fan of narrowband "colours" but I do like the look of yours, especially the orange.

Ross.

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Rossco :thumbsup: I could have perhaps made a more universally appealing colour palette if I had collected some RGB and or SII as well but I'm glad that plenty of (other crazy?) people still like it none the less :)

Mike

[Rod771]

Had to soak this one up for a while Mike, I can see the frog but I reckon the orange Yip Yop martian from Sesame street is quite visable. :P

Great image too! :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

:rofl:

Love it, I see'em, I see'em!! :thumbsup:

Mike

[BigJohn]

Love it the colors are something else...

[strongmanmike]

Ah yes...they certainly are :face:

Mike

[Shiraz]

high quality hi res image of a very interesting region - as for the colour, I can't even get my RGB right, so could not possibly comment on your NB :lol:

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Man named after wine :)

Yes, my Ha was take in quite good seeing, the OIII in very poor seeing, so with only two filter data sets to work with I processed it such that the details in the nebulae are predominately coming from the Ha. The OIII was tricky to use as well becasue it was so blured. The resulting colours were a whim given the limited variation in data :D although Paul H came up with the same colour scheme in his recent wide field version, even with SII and LRGB in the mix.

Cheers

Mike