M78 from SRO

[RickS]

I haven't had much processing time lately, but here's my first attempt at M78 from the scope I share at SRO in California (where the weather is currently awful too!)

Data captured at SRO, Dec 2014/Jan 2015

Objects in image:
M78, NGC 2064, NGC 2067, NGC 2068, NGC 2071, about 45 T Tauri variable stars and 17 HH objects

Scope: FSQ-106ED
Mount: Paramount ME
Camera: QSI683
Filters: Astrodon Gen II LRGB
Guiding: QSI OAG + Lodestar
Image scale: 2.094 arcsec/pixel (drizzle x 2)
Exposures: 39x900s L, 16x900s R, 13x900s G, 16x900s B (21 hours)
Processing: PixInsight 1.8

High res version here: http://www.astrobin.com/160298/

This object is a bugger to process. Constructive comment is welcomed :)

Cheers,
Rick.

[multiweb]

Very deep and beautiful! :thumbsup:

[RickS]

Thanks very much, Marc!

[Andy01]

Wow, that's a rich image and so smooth, very nice. My eye is drawn though from M78 to the loop and back constantly, like they're fighting each other for attention. Maybe tone down/darken down the loop a little to bring the eye back to that gorgeous M78? Just a thought.

Cracking work Rick :)

[Bassnut]

geez, exquisite Rick, rich colour and love the contrast between the 2 objects, a pleasure to view.

[LewisM]

My favourite DSO, captured and processed beautifully. Bravo!

[RickS]

Thanks, Andy. I couldn't decide whether that tension was a good or bad thing. Perhaps I'll try cropping out the loop and see whether I like it :)



Thanks very much, Fred!



I thought you might like it, Lewis :)

[strongmanmike]

Well...that's rather beautiful Ricki :thumbsup:

Lots of red/Ha there....it's not a loop anymore, more like Barnards swathe

M78 looks good too

Seems many people are doing very similar FOV's on this area lately and this is one of the good'uns :thumbsup:

Lovely work :)

Mike

[ozstronomer]

Beautiful image Rick, bold and striking, love the framing and to me processing looks spot on :thumbsup:

Geoff

[alpal]

Great image Rick,
I probably wouldn't have made the red so saturated -
maybe cut it back by 10% but that's your call.

cheers
Allan

[DJT]

Gorgeous image Rick. Like the framing a lot and the processing for such a bugger looks fine to me!

[atalas]

Great detail lovely colours Rick...distribution of brightness levels seems strange to me.

[Paul Haese]

Looks good Rick. Great colours too.

[Placidus]

Exquisitely beautiful, Rick. And to me, it gives a real and pleasing feeling of the true and proper structure of Barnard's Ring. A delightful image.

[RickS]

Thanks, Mike! Didn't want to do a "me too" but we started collecting the data a while ago. Maybe I should have left the processing another few months and been early for the 2016 season :lol:



Thanks, Geoff!



Ta, Allan. My big beef with Astrobin is that they don't preserve ICC colour profiles. On my wide gamut monitor the Astrobin image looks very magenta and oversaturated. On my crappy laptop (probably close to sRGB gamut) it looks OK. The uploaded image had a sRGB profile but it's MIA now. Could that be the problem? Of course, the original image looks fine on either in any app that does colour management.



Thanks, David.



Thanks, Louie. Anything specific that struck you as strange? I don't think I did anything too egregious in the processing but it wouldn't be the first time I messed up and didn't notice till it was pointed out :D



Thanks, Paul.



Thanks very much, Mike!

[RickS]

Allan: here's the image on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/114789817@N06/16048333874/

Does that look better to you? Flickr does preserve colour profiles as you would expect.

Of course, it may still be too saturated for your taste but that would surprise me since you're such a big fan of CIELAB a* and b* boosting ;)

Cheers,
Rick.

[atalas]

Hi Rick

Not saying there is or you did anything wrong mate(I am a big fan of your work)I mean to say, the brighness in part of the Barnards Loop is very strong but the Ha signal looks week.
Yet It dips down in brighness heading towards the stronger signal towards the centre?
So,I did wonder If this was a result of non linear manipulation?or,this distribution of brightness was there from initial linear stretch?I havent had much time on this object Rick so I find the dynamic range here interesting.

[alpal]

Hi Rick,
No they look about the same to me.
I am a fan of LAB mode but only when the colours are washed out.
I was only talking about a very slight 10% reduction.
Just keep it the way it is if you like that.
I was nit picking & I shouldn't have said it.

cheers
Allan

[Rod771]

Very nice Rick! :thumbsup: Love the colours and its a great way the frame M78 if you have the FOV. You've just got it upside down. ;)

[RickS]

No probs, Louie. I wasn't being sensitive. I often learn a lot from these discussions.

I did do more than just a stretch (which is by nature non-linear like the response of our eyes to light intensity.) I compressed the dynamic range in some of the brightest areas so that the dust and structure was visible. I tried to do this fairly gently. I also did the usual S-curve contrast thing. Most images of M78 appear to do something similar to emphasise the interesting stuff.

I have attached a Luminance that has had no processing apart from a simple stretch just in case you're interested in what the vanilla data looked like.



I do tend to go for bright, saturated colours Allan. Maybe I'll get over it one day :lol: Jay GaBany mentioned in one of his talks at the AAIC year before last that it's hard to compete with all the high impact images that people see all around them these days. I find that non astro people prefer images even more saturated than I can handle :eyepop:



Ta, Rod. Not sure if the location of the scope or the location of the processor takes precedence wrt orientation :D

[RobF]

Love it Rick.
I haven't seen M78 against that much glowing H2 in a single FOV before. Quite striking really.

[gregbradley]

That's a stunning image Rick. I love the colours and the sharpness.

Greg.

[prokyon]

Great work Rick! Colors, sharpnes, details, everything stunning. Congratulations! :thumbsup:

[Leonardo70]

Very nice Rick.

All the best,
Leo

[RickS]

Thanks, Rob. I was surprised at how much Barnard's Loop stood out without any Ha data at all.



Ta, Greg!



Thank you, Werner.



Thanks, Leo.

[Geoff45]

Very nice Rick. The colour contrast is striking and (as others have mentioned) the tension between the two objects really makes the picture. Nicely processed--I'm sure it wasn't easy.
Geoff

[atalas]

Ah thanks for that Rick....explains what I'm seeing in your final image.

[RickS]

Thanks, Geoff. It was a tricky one, but then I can't remember an image that was easy for me to process :lol:



Ta, Louie. Thanks for your interest!

[DJScotty]

Very nice Rick. Love the colours and detail! :thumbsup:

[astronobob]

Mighty Facinating lookin target Rick, solid Imaging cheif :einstein:

[RickS]

Thanks Scott & Bob!

[Stefan Buda]

Very nicely done Rick, and I'm pleased to see that you arrived at very similar colours as I did with my lower resolution image and more pedestrian camera.

[NOMH]

Looks great Rick! That fov is different from most images of M78 and the rich color makes it work. Very nice.

JB

[RickS]

Thanks, Stefan. Great minds, eh? :D



Thanks, John!

[Andre27]

Stunning :thumbsup:

[batema]

That is stunning Rick. Beautiful image.

[RickS]

Thanks Andre & Mark!

[SpaceNoob]

The FSQ/8300 combo is just very awesome, nice work Rick.

No form of criticism, but the two regions almost look fake given the complete differences. I guess such is the nature of having extreme examples of absorption, reflection, and emission nebulae within the same field. It is very cool.

[RickS]

Thanks, Chris. It certainly is a dramatic contrast.

[Shiraz]

That's a very rich and interesting image Rick - quite arresting.

[RickS]

Thanks, Ray!

[Ross G]

What a beautiful photo Rick!

I love the composition, detail and rich colours.

I think my favourite of all your photos I have seen.

Ross.

[RickS]

Thanks very much, Ross!

[SkyViking]

Fantastic composition and the combination of the two very different objects is certainly a cool effect. The result is definitely greater than the sum of the parts :)
Beuatiful work and great processing as usual. Thanks for the view Rick.

[RickS]

Thanks for the kind comments, Rolf.