Godzilla's last stand (updated image)

[Andy01]

The Fighting Dragons of Ara - NGC 6188

Oblivious to their surroundings, locked in perpetual combat, Godzilla and Monster X fight their eternal battle to the death under the stars of Ara.

I've always loved this extraordinary DSO and have desperately wanted to achieve some kind of a result, but I've have had to wait until now to have a real go at it. Starting initially at 2am after it clears a big tree next door, this is 5 nights data captured with the QSI wsg8 and 5mn Astrodons from my light polluted suburban backyard.

Processed in Nebulosity, Startools, PS & Nik filters -took a while. I have sacrificed a little noise to keep as much detail as possible - and as always, it could probably use more data to smooth it out further ;)

Note to self - do something about learning how to plate solve on a mac, it's hard work lining this up each time! :)

Tricolour NB image - Hubble palatte (ish)
Ha 3 hrs 900 sec subs
S2 4 hrs 900 sec subs
O3 4 Hrs 900 sec subs
RGB stars

Photographed over 5 nights from backyard Melbourne, Australia
(Updated) High res here - http://www.astrobin.com/164638/B/

Comments, constructive criticism welcome - thanks for looking.

Andy

[strongmanmike]

Well, well, Andy, looki that :D...awesome! :thumbsup:

It really is a fabulous region huh? Cool colours and I like the dynamic orientation too, the graininess across the frame is a little bit of a shame though...but overall a very captivating image :cheers:

Mike

[Placidus]

Quite utterly glorious, Andy. You are getting very good at this.
:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

I went back and had a look at our old version (from the Kermit colour scheme era). Much smaller field of view than yours, but even so, looked nothing like either your version or Big Strong Mike's version. I pushed the red and blue about ten times harder and it started to look more like yours.

Best,
Mike

[RickS]

As I mentioned elsewhere, love the bold colours and composition, Andy.

Cheers,
Rick.

[nebulosity.]

So magnificent Andy! Very impressive, I find this a very captivating image and a real enjoyment to view.

Cheers
Jo

[suma126]

nice work andy love the colours.maybe little bit over cooked for me but still a great image

[Andy01]

Thanks Mike - I'm overall happy with it but the noise bothers me a bit too. It's a fine line balancing detail vs. noise, and I'm a bit gun shy of over smoothing after er - an experienced "strong" imager - suggested (rightly) I was guilty of doing too much :)

Any tips on how to smooth noise without sacrificing detail, other than getting more data of course!



Thanks Mike - playing around with narrowband colours can be a great creative challenge, I appreciate your support :)



Thanks very much Rick, now if I can just get the technical stuff sorted...



Wow, thanks Jo! It's a beautiful object, but a real challenge to photograph :)



Hey thanks Suma, yeah it's certainly big and bold but so is Godzilla and that's my inspiration for this one! That being said, I'm wondering if some subtle form of smoothing might yield a slightly more painterly result? Cheers :thumbsup:

Andy

[gregbradley]

Gee that is really very good Andy. Your images are always high impact. You've got a nice style there that is somewhat uniquely identifiable as yours. I think that is a very good thing. Basically I am surprised you get so much out of 110mm of aperture.

Greg.

[astronobob]

Far out , , They fighting over a bubbling Lava Pit :evil:
Beauty :thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Andy01]

WOW Greg, that's a very encouraging statement, thankyou that really means a lot.

Although I 've been a prof photographer my entire career, I've only been at this Ap thing less than 2 years now and still have so much more to learn. At least now I can almost see that there's a light at the end of tunnel!

Thankyou so much for the positive feedback:)



he he, cheers Bob - that's cool :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Who? Who was that? huh? :shrug: why you orta....

Perhaps go back and apply less stretch and sharpening in the first place..? :question: or try adjusting the exposure function settings in PS?

All good fun Andy :thumbsup:

Mike

[graham.hobart]

Mighty impressive Andy- remind me of two leafy sea dragons. I admire your late night commitment! Couldn't do that and go to work the next day. Cheers
Graham :thumbsup:

[Andy01]

Cheers Graham, yes it's become something of an obsession - but when wifey and the kids are asleep it's all good fun :)

[Andy01]

Thanks for pushing me (again) Mike - I tried a different approach and rebuilt the luminance layer from scratch, less stretch, slightly less noise, reduced stars in Startools etc. Still no substitute for more data, but it's overall slightly more subtle and painterly now.

New version here - http://www.astrobin.com/164638/B/

Cheers
Andy