Gabriela Mistral Nebula (NGC3324) - A face in the fire

[SpaceNoob]

Hi All,

This is my rendition of a fairly well covered target from this season.

Conditions were not ideal but this tends not to have much impact when sampling at 2.10". Not much to say with this one, captured with my trusty FSQ. The CDK has been dismounted for maintenance, I intended to put it straight back up after but I think it may stay put for a bit with the weather being so chaotic lately.

The FSQ is an absolute pleasure to use, I almost forgot how simple life was to use it.

Image details:
Gabriela Mistral Nebula (NGC3324)
Telescope: FSQ106EDXIII
Camera: SBIG STT-8300M
Composition: SII, HA, and OIII in various mixes through each band. 9 hours total. Captured in full moon conditions.

High res

Flickr: https://flic.kr/p/sbQXwL

Astrobin: http://www.astrobin.com/full/178200/E/
As usual I can't get Astrobin to play nicely..... probably looks better on flickr.

[Andy01]

Wow! Those reds pack a punch alright. Great detail especially in the gem cluster, havn't seen that much in that region before.

The blues though lack punch and saturation, probably due to the O3 being affected by the moon. Can you dial them up a little to compensate?

Darn good result though, you should be pleased with that one :)

Andy

[SpaceNoob]

Thanks Andy,

The subdued blues are kind of intentional and a result of the mix. I haven't done a straight Sii/Ha/Oiii mix, it's more Ha:Ha/Sii:Oiii(Ha):Oiii, With a bit of fiddling to get the Oiii to be "smoky". I see a lot on here that all look like NASA hubble or similar and flat/compressed, so I try something different to reveal nebulous structures.

I could try a different mix over the weekend. I had an idea in my head before I captured this and it got kind of close to what I was after so I'm pretty happy with it. :)

[cometcatcher]

That's quite stunning!

[gregbradley]

Lots of detail and very dramatic. Nicely done.

Greg.

[kkara4]

just astounding. Excellent image :)

[RickS]

Nice narrowband colour and composition, Chris.

I'm about to drop back from 2760mm to 800mm focal length for a while and I expect I'll find it a lot less stressful :)

Cheers,
Rick.

[graham.hobart]

I really like this processing, does look flame like.
Thanks for showing
Graz

[strongmanmike]

Great framing not seen that often and yes does look flame like, quite a bit of movement in there too...different, nice work :thumbsup:

Mike

[chuckywiz]

awesome picture there.. makes me drool as it smashed anything my little dslr can do on that target... now dreams of affording a ccd one day.

[Placidus]

Hi, Chris,

I really like the composition, depth, and clarity, and especially the treatment of the nebulosity toward lower left. There are bits of the cat's paw that have a similar "roast chicken" texture. Goes with the flames, perhaps.

Astrophysically, I wonder if that vaguely honeycombed effect is due to two overlapping sets of multiple shock fronts at slightly different distances, and slightly different orientations.

Best,
Mike

[SpaceNoob]

Thanks Kevin, glad you like it. :)



Cheers Greg, I've been enjoying your posts lately re- the AP-RH, very envious of your latest acquisition. I wish they were as easy to get as a nice Tak. :lol:



Thanks Krishan :)



Thanks Rick, I've been loving your work of late, the compliment is much appreciated.

I do like imaging at longer focal length but with the 8300 it is not ideal. I just can't justify dropping a large sum of $$ into a new image train with out-dated and old tech sensors. Current large sensor setups seem somewhat in a limbo.



Thanks Graz



Thanks Mike :)



Thanks Ben, CCD's are a good way to go, perhaps CMOS too in the near future, which could be more affordable?



Thanks Mike,

Yes, there is a lot of movement visible. I guess there were various events triggering separate shock fronts which interact (like ripples in a pond, either amplifying or canceling out?, i.e wave motion?), in addition to differing densities reacting differently too. It is cool to observe it at this scale.

[raymo]

Absolutely no wish to hijack this thread, but Ben you'd be amazed at
what can be produced with a DSLR, and a lot of skill and effort.
Perhaps someone can confirm that I think it is Sarah Wager who did
great work.
Marvellous image Spacenoob.
raymo

[RobF]

Beautiful work Chris.
Didn't recognise the field at first, you've done such a great job of pulling in the faint fuzzies. Congrats!

[pixelsaurus]

To the best of my knowledge, Sara does not use a dslr in any capacity. Perhaps you are thinking of Anna Morris http://www.eprisephoto.com/

[AlexSavoy]

Beautiful. All I can really say hahahaha. The colour in it is just so mesmerising...

[Logieberra]

That's an awesome pic. It reminds me to put the RC aside and return to my poor old FSQ!

[Leonardo70]

Very Nice Chris, i'm totally a newbie about Narrow but i like it so much.

All the best,
Leo

[Bart]

I really like this pic, it has a lot going for it and it think it desrves more comments than it has got. :D

To me, the only thing I do not like is the green flavour. Call me green challenged. I used SCNR to remove the green from your jpeg and it looks a lot nicer....to me. :thumbsup:

[SpaceNoob]

Thanks Bart,

I had some spare time last night so I messed around a bit and reprocessed the image from the very beginning with a different mix. The mix is probably a little more in-line with the emission lines now.

Reprocessed on Flickr:
https://flic.kr/p/taCLRV

Direct High res link (flickr) (https://farm1.staticflickr.com/353/17830656143_70c426846f_o.jpg)

Astrobin:

http://www.astrobin.com/178200/F/ (http://www.astrobin.com/178200/F/)