M78 and Barnard loop

[multiweb]

M78 in the corner of the barnard loop in Orion. This is a stack of 20x5min shots in RGB. Little noisy but still pretty deep. This was shot the same night I did Q2 so from Midnight onwards.

Big one here (https://public-dm2305.files.1drv.com/y2pGmAQcEq6-OP8CiKqb7bAg-5IdW4-tXE7rFaleB3w1JKifBFB3VVmXg-lRiZJRCkjmR1B4ky-98SjMdnM7hRRtHHWjlaF1B8tTSYefYzOsYc/M78_FSQ_fff.jpg?psid=1). :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

That's a beauty Marc! nice work mate, love the sharp field, M78 looks pretty schmick!

Mike

[Leonardo70]

Very nice Marc. Congrats.
Noise coming also from a green cast, try to reduce them.

All the best,
Leo

[Placidus]

Hi, Marc, You've answered my silly question about Barnard's Loop.
Fine sharp detail in the darkest dust toward bottom right. Definitely the head of a startled black-faced weasel-like creature with two glowing orange eyes. Love it.

[RickS]

Nice details, Marc, and quite low noise for the amount of time you spent on it. Well done! Some images of this object show a lot more blue/reflection neb. I wonder if they exaggerate this feature?

Cheers,
Rick.

[Ross G]

Great looking M78 photo Marc.

Very sharp with nice colour.

I really like the composition.

Good to see you back imaging DSOs. Your work has been missed.

Ross.

[multiweb]

Thanks Mike. It's a cool object. Faint though but interesting in wide field. Never got a good one in the past but now I have a new toy to put some hours on it.


Thanks Leo. I know there seems to be an aversion to green in the astro community and there is even a Photoshop plugin for the 'green haters' called HLVG but the skies that this was taken under were inky black with no LP in a 100km radius. So I'm pretty confident the colors are close to what it looks like in reality. Those two blue reflection nebs in the middle are not true blue. The bottom is cyan while the other is a little more of a mustard color. They are also embedded into some pretty thick brown dust and the red cast from the barnard loop to the north (left of the field).

I agree that the colors could do with a little more saturation but I'd need a lot more integration time to push the data which is on my list to do. That said I'm happy with the color balance as is. I'm not a fan of red and blue pictures. You'll see green in the core of my tarantulas or orion sword as well. It's there. Just personal processing preference.
'


Thanks Mike. Glad you like it. I had a ball imaging. Thanks again for everything. :thumbsup:


Thanks Rick. :thumbsup: Still a lot of noise but limited time to image and a lot of other DSOs to try that week-end. So that's ADHD imaging for you. ;)
Yes colors all come down to personal preference. Although as mentioned previously with Leo, the color balance was done by the numbers and the site was free of any LP.



Thanks Ross. :thumbsup: That was the first imaging session for me since Border Stargaze last year in October. Bit rusted but I enjoyed being out again.
Now I definitely have to fit the Sharskypro focusing motor to the FSQ. I did the focusing with my fingers and a bathinov mask. It's close but it doesn't take much to be out on the FSQ. Especially with a 1:1 focuser know and a thick thumb.

[gregbradley]

That's a great widefield image. Good to see some more deep space images from you.

Greg.

[Rod771]

M78 is a fascinating object, this a great result for 100 minutes! Well done Marc! :thumbsup:

[multiweb]

Thanks a lot guys. :thumbsup:

[Leonardo70]

You are right Marc, but just for info a green cast don't come everytime from LP but also from airglow. And this kind of cast come with a lot of noise due to the variation during the shot. Thats all , when i said to reduce green cast my intention was to say it is related to the noise.

I don't know about the plugin you wrote, i usually reduce gamma on green curve.

Great image for me.

All the best,
Leo

[multiweb]

Ah yeah, got you. I didn't think about airglow. Definitely present when I do time-lapses overnight. The background sky color can change dramatically. Point taken. Thanks. :thumbsup:

The plugin for PS is called hasta la vista green or HLVG for short. It's free. You can Google it. There are three strength settings.

[Geoff45]

Great result Marc. Doesn't that region have some amazing colours?
Geoff

[multiweb]

Thanks Geoff. :thumbsup: Yeah it is a very colourful part of the sky. I definitely want to revisit it and spend a whole night on it at least.

[TR]

Marc, Nice FOV. I can see where Barnard's Loop is clearly. Gives a much better idea just where everything is in this area. Good to have that contrast of wide and narrow FOV on this region.

Terry

[rustigsmed]

awesome composition marc!
you've been busy - good to see someone with clear enough weather to take some images!

[Andy01]

You've gotta be happy with that, well done :)
Andy

[sjastro]

Very nice Marc.

Steven

[atalas]

Nice work Marc.

[multiweb]

Thanks Terry. Yeah it looks like it's hanging on a branch off the main loop.

Thanks mate. Yeah I had two terrific nights Friday and Saturday. Text book. Dark skies, no wind, no dew, great transparency and seeing. Last time this happened to me must have been 6 years ago.


Thanks Andy, yeah pretty stoked for first light. Very happy with the scope. I now have to work on the focus and keeping it.

Thanks Steven.

Thans again Louie.