Thackeray's Globules - Tricolour Narrowband

[SpaceNoob]

Hi All,

This is one I have been working on for some time now. First phase was a bicolour (Ha/Oii) composition. I have now added the remaining SII data as suggested by Paul Haese and a few others (thank you ;) ). The SII has some very tight detail, effectively it appears as a structural highlight. Initial test subs of this were pretty useless as I had the wrong settings and there was very little signal there. I gave it another go last night during a fairly full moon and random clouds passing over, neither of which seemed to impact the long subs.

I don't think I'll add RGB stars as they seem ok to me like this. After the last few images from the CDK I am really starting to get some respect for it. Matched with small pixels, the resolution is pretty cool.

Image details:

Telescope: CDK 12.5 @ f/8 , 0.44" pp
Camera: SBIG STT-8300
Composition: Ha, SII, and OIII, 450:630:390, all subs bin 1x1, 24.5hours total.

Astrobin:
http://www.astrobin.com/full/169020/C/

[strongmanmike]

At a Boy :thumbsup:

Fabulous image Chris, any critique would be purely personal preference and..?..just analness :lol:

You've maintained that gaseous feel too, awesome work.

Mike

[RickS]

A very classy image, Chris.

[Rod771]

Absolutely! I really like that. Great work Chris, lovely result! :thumbsup:

[LewisM]

Yeah what Sidonio said.

Well done. Just impressive.

It certainly LACKS that wishy-washiness I don't like in most RC/CDK images with "floofy" stars :)

[strongmanmike]

Err? yeah....what he said...ah, not too floofy :question:...:lol:

[alpal]

Hi Chris,
Excellent image - beautiful processing on top data.
Well done.

cheers
Allan

[Ross G]

Amazing photo Chris.

Great detail.

So sharp.

I like your composition.

Ross.

[SpaceNoob]

Thanks guys, this one took me some time... many mistakes. The lack of wishy washy stars is likely thanks to very low FWHM subs. All are sub 2", mostly 1.5 - 1.65". I can't do much about the brighter stars, the shallow well depth and 30minute subs can blow things out a bit and I have no idea how to fix it with processing.

[Tony_]

Magnificent image!
(Is that a fox with a cigar in the top left corner?)

Tony.

[multiweb]

+1 Top shot, Chris! Beautiful. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[gregbradley]

I agree with the other posts, that is a super image. That AO8 helps do you think? The stars are very tight.

Greg.

[Paul Haese]

Good detail Chris with nice tight stars. Maybe just a little dark as the luminance on the large Bok globule is not well seen. The striations emanating from the bottom gas and dust cloud at well defined too. Not sure about the colour though but that is really personal preference. Well done.

[SpaceNoob]

Thanks Greg,

Yes the AO8 does help. That said, I didn't use particularly fast corrections with it. I change the corrections depending on the sky / filters, with deep reds, i.e Ha and SII, the observed oscillations are kind of slow so I stick with around 2Hz. Anything higher keeps the same FWHM but the lower spread appears amplified. I don't understand it, I just use gut feeling and fiddle a bit. I'll leave the math for the professors on here... lol

I am sampling at 0.44", with FWHM consistently below 2".

My mount is pretty smooth, probably well within 1" with PEC applied (my graphs say +/- 0.3" but I tend to take this with a grain of salt), so the AO doesn't need to do a whole lot in that regard.

I'm sitting around 586m above sea level, so that probably helps a little? I wish I had this thing sitting on the mountains a few km away!




Thanks Paul, not sure how to boost this as the bok has a similar profile to the background in the lower right corner, If I boost that part of the histogram the weaker background falls apart so I left it a bit darker. It's like someone or something is puffing on a cigar and blowing the smoke over the boks. The scene reminds me of a series of novels (the rift-war saga), two sorcerers are effectively observing the creation of the universe.

[dvj]

Not much to add here that others have not. Brilliant work.

j

[Placidus]

Chris, that is truly a magnificent image. You've managed to produce very high contrast with negligible loss. I found it quite inspiring. Best, Mike.

[Shiraz]

very classy image Chris - top quality.