Ngc6164

[Paul Haese]

Still some data to collect yet on this object, but I am pretty happy with the detail present so far.

It contains 31 hours with 21 hours of Ha and 10 hours of OIII. I want to collect another 10 in OIII and then about 6 hours of RGB just for something a little different.

Click here (http://paulhaese.net/NGC6164.html) for the larger resolution image.

[rustigsmed]

yep after spending some time on this recently i am impressed with the inner detail ... perhaps i need more FL.. really well captured and processed Paul ..very close to Don's fantastic rendition. i hope you get the time to gather the extra O3 i reckon that will add something extra to this great version. (fingers crossed for the weather hey!)


Regards,


Russ

[RickS]

Nice job, Paul. The Oiii is very weak, as you'd have noticed. Look forward to the final version.

Cheers,
Rick.

[gregbradley]

That looks awesome. So much detail in the petal.

Very impressive.

Greg.

[Placidus]

Quite splendid, Paul, with lots of very fine detail both in the outer OIII ring and in the inner workings around the central star, including that thingy that looks like a loudspeaker cone.

I notice a patch of bright red just where it ought to be for SII at the tip of the 2pm bipolar lobe. Does the image contain SII mapped to red ?

Best,
Mike

[Retrograde]

That looks amazing!

[Paul Haese]

Thanks Russ for the compliment. Focal length certainly has an impact upon how much actual resolution that can be obtained per pixel. Though impressive results can be obtained with instruments of lesser focal lengths.

The weather as you would know near our way has been a little cloudy in the last couple of months, so imaging time has been a little harder to come by. I anticipate I will have enough nights yet to complete the image fully. If not there is always next year.



Thanks Rick. The OIII is as you rightly point out is very weak to the point of requiring lots of subs to really start to have an impact. I think another 10 hours will work for me, but I am open to the idea that it will need more than that.



Thanks Greg, I did a combination of different types of sharpening to provide the detail layer mask for the image. It involved deconvolution which is layer masked at a rate of 35% over the top of further selective masking techniques. I am hoping once I get the AOX up and running, my images will have a further impact.



Thanks Mike. In the full res image, there are very tiny feathery aspects to the cloud formations around that cone shaped area. I sort of like the OIII luminance over some of those areas around the main star too and that ribbon type gas running vertically on the left hand side. There looks like there are seams there in the gas. If only I had the AOX working for this data. I am still unfortunately waiting for an adapter to arrive. I have had some nice seeing in the last week for very long periods of several hours at a time.

There is no SII mapped to red in this image. I think it is most likely just where I ramped up the saturation and the pink popped to red. I don't actually know if there is much point to doing any SII on this object. It might be interesting to find out. I think though there is none there.

[multiweb]

That's really good. I particularly like the little fan like oiii neb right under the wolf rayet. It has some filament structure. Spot on focus :thumbsup:

[Slawomir]

Paul, it is a beautiful image, I mean it.

I can also see that you have cranked saturation up a fair bit- something I will need to investigate with my next image :)

[cometcatcher]

Sublime.

[Paul Haese]

Thanks Marc. I am not sure it is a Wolf Rayet. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong. Those details in around the main O type star are very interesting to image and process. Focus is controlled by Focusmax, so it is as good as it can get with the seeing on each session.



Thanks Slawomir, the high saturation in this image seems to work ok. I guess it is a matter of how it looks. I ebb and wane between saturation from image to image.



Thanks Kevin.

[jase]

Excellent detail Paul on this bipolar planetary. I'm not a huge fan of bi-colour filter work. I figure when you have the capacity at a dark sky site to also acquire RGB then why not do so. Still, the details make up for it. Well done.

[Paul Haese]

Yep acquiring RGB as I write this Jase. It was always my plan to do something more with this than just a Bicolour image. Thanks for you comments, always appreciated.

[astronobob]

Nice Target - I'm liking the dark eerie aspect at the moment.... Grouse details, am wondering how this might look if you can POPP that bubble wiv the extra exposure . . .

[Nicola]

Excellent image Paul. I'd be interested to know in detail how you merge the weak OIII data with the rest. I am having a hard time mixing it with RGB. With H-alpha no problem, but with OIII is a pain in the neck.

[Paul Haese]

Thanks Bob, I have been trying to pull a bit more data but local cloud has been causing a bit of havoc with guiding for the last two nights. Fingers crossed it does not last long.



Nicola, I usually use pixel math to merge the Ha and OIII together to create a synthetic green. You could also use PS to in normal opacity to add the two together at 50% opacity or what ever you think looks good.

[marco]

Very natural with lots of details, I would have "pushed" a bit more the outer halo (your image is basically noise free, so I guess you have lots of signal) but that is just my opinion and perhaps this would compromise a bit the natural feeling it has..
Cheers
Marco

[Paul Haese]

Thanks Marco. Lots of signal but I want a bit more yet. I am planning a total reprocess once I get all the data and agree some more stretching will make it look more detailed.

[Shiraz]

very impressive image Paul. outer halo is extensive.

[Paul Haese]

Thanks Ray. I really like this object as it has some many interesting things to look at. Using a long focal length has certainly made a difference. I have looked at a few images of it now and the few that were of shorter focal lengths just lacked the resolution that comes with longer focal lengths. The bubbles in the outer halo are very interesting to examine with seemingly small knots and dimples that give the impression of being 3D.

[Ross G]

A beautiful photo Paul.

Sharp and amazing detail.

Ross.

[Leonardo70]

Very nice Paul.

Congrats,
Leo