Big foot repro

[RickS]

The great foot in Sagittarius plus M20. A classic FOV, hopefully better than my last attempt. The data is a couple of years old but my PI chops have improved a bit... or so I hope.

FSQ-106ED scope and STL11K camera. 16x300 sec L, 14x300 sec R, 13x300 sec G and 13 x 200 sec B. Processed with PixInsight.

I also have a few hours of Ha and my next challenge is to combine that tastefully.

You can get to a high res version from here: http://www.astrobin.com/full/194975/0/

Thanks for looking.

Cheers,
Rick.

[cometcatcher]

I really like this one. How do you get such a large area of sky with an FSQ 106? Does that CCD have a large surface area?

[gregbradley]

Gee that's good. Essentially a perfect image.

Greg.

[Slawomir]

It is a beautiful image - a feast for the eyes and soul.

[Tony_]

Magnificent image Rick! - perfect framing.

[IanP]

Awesome photo and PI serves you well too :hi:

[Geoff45]

Beautiful wide field Rick.
Geoff

[RickS]

Thanks, Kevin. It's a full size (35mm) sensor so the FOV is quite large @ 530mm focal length. It's something like 234x156 arcmin. This is actually a crop :)



Ta, Greg. I'm sure there's room for improvement!



Thank you, Suavi!



Thanks, Tony. Cropping helped!



Thanks, Ian. I used to use a little PS for finishing off but my workflow is 100% PI now.



Thanks, Geoff!

[alocky]

Love it Rick. You've done a great job of taming the core of the lagoon and going deep as well. Did you only use one sub frame exposure duration, or did you 'HDR' it?
Cheers,
Andrew.

[Camelopardalis]

That's a beauty Rick :thumbsup: one biiiig FOV :D the IIS "preview" doesn't do it justice.

[strongmanmike]

Great stuff Rick :thumbsup: I agree with Greg and I was just looking at the master Walfgang Prompers page and along with your result here they show very clearly that realistic exposure times definitely do not relegate an image to mediocrity :thumbsup:

Mike

[Paul Haese]

That's a good reprocess Rick. The colour is very nice, with surrounding field showing off the star fields and dark dust lanes. The magenta blue balance is well handled and does not have that fluro puce cast all over the image. I think the "blue skirt" is about right and not exaggerated as has been seen in recent examples. That reflection nebulosity is very faint and should not have the same value as brighter sections of the nebula. There is a natural feel to this image.

Certainly benchmark image in my opinion. As good as John Gleasons recent image of the same targets if not better. :thumbsup:

[RickS]

Thanks, Andrew. All 5 minute subs!



Ta, Dunk.



Thanks, Mike! This was captured in one night at Leyburn with the addition of a little extra colour data from home. No opportunity for megadata and none needed. Must be the f/ratio or the aperture or something :rofl:



Thanks, Paul! I thought I might have gone a little overboard as I tend to do but so far I haven't offended anybody. Will have to try harder :lol:

Cheers,
Rick.

[Rex]

Wow Rick, that is just stunning. Very natural look to it, almost like being in a space ship and gazing out the window. Beautifully processed as usual.

I am currently working on a mosaic of this area....:question: not sure how it will go......however, I will be extremely happy if I can produce an image that is 1/10th as pleasing as yours. :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

:rofl: ah excellent, feel better now?

Love this game :)

[Paul Haese]

Must have touched a nerve Mike for you to bother to comment on something I have written. I could well be talking about other images though.

My comments are aimed at how David Malin wants people to respect the light. Started to come around to his way of thinking somewhat.

[RickS]

Thanks Rex! Good luck with the mosaic. They are a lot of fun but also hard work.





:fishing: :poke: :fight: :D

[ozstronomer]

Beautiful Image Rick, love that FOV

Geoff

[jase]

Sweet looking image Rick. Real eye candy material with the different flavours of contrast and colour. The rich golden hues of the star clouds top it all off. I'm in admiration of your PI knowledge. I dice in and out of the app for specific tools which is working well for me, yet I realise there are a plethora of PI tools I have no idea about. I try them out and watch them butcher and mangle the data. I figure its more trial and error, then once you finally nail certain settings, save the process to the workspace so it can be used again. Kinda like learning to walk.

[RickS]

Thanks, Geoff.



Thanks very much, Jase. I'm familiar with enough PI tools now that I can usually get something approximating the mental picture I am chasing. I still only use a small subset of them. I think that learning a small set well and then adding new processes and techniques one at a time is the way to go. I enjoy the challenge of nutting out solutions to imaging problems and then testing them. Things don't always go as planned but you learn a lot from that experimentation.

Cheers,
Rick.

[SkyViking]

Fabulous image there Rick, really impressive both in terms of colour and composition. I also like how the blue stars towards the lower right really give the feeling that they are sprinkled in front of the more distant nebulae and reddish background fields. Top work :thumbsup:

[RickS]

Thanks, Rolf!

[rustigsmed]

looks awesome Rick!

[Bassnut]

Immediate impression was a bit blown, but it has a "fluorescence" that makes it pop, excellent!

[Stevec35]

Late in commenting on this one Rick but this one is a real visual treat! I admire your processing skills.

Cheers

Steve

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

How cool is that!!!:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsu p:

Composition and colour are perfect of course.

Thanks for the visual feast Rick.:)

Cheers,

Justin.

[RickS]

Thanks, Rusty & Fred!



Very kind of you, Steve. I think I have all the techniques now. It's the development of more refined aesthetics that's the challenge now :)



Thanks, Justin!

[multiweb]

What can I add. Epic mate! :thumbsup:

[cazza132]

Fantastic work Rick! Great colours and details with a hint of blue skirt :) Would be interesting to see it with the Ha data, but might be difficult to implement without loosing colour integrity and the blue skirt.

[RickS]

Thanks, Marc!



Thanks, Troy. The Ha blends aren't looking too bad but I'm still struggling to have my cake and eat it too ;) I may have to put it aside for a while and come back to it (I'm about to head overseas for a month and will, unfortunately, miss Astrofest.)

Cheers,
Rick.

[RobC]

Rick the magician. Fantastic :thumbsup:

Cheers

Rob

[RickS]

Thanks, Rob :)

[Leonardo70]

Really nice shot Rick.

All the best,
Leo

[RickS]

Thanks, Leo.

[RobF]

Rick I loved looking at this one. Spent quite a bit of time musing over the blue haze/tones over the lagoon and above up between M20, worried how true they were.

Knowing how much time and care you put into calibration and processing, I'm inclined to admit those reflection hues are true throughout the area and you've shown something that hadn't connected in my dim mind previously. Makes sense of course with the blue hues in M20 you've wonderfully brought out along with those around and throughout the foot.

Umm, short story - really just saying "top stuff" of course.... :lol:

[RickS]

Thanks, Rob :)

I don't believe I've manufactured any new data, only emphasised what was already there (and is visible in other images like Mike Sidonio's super smurfy Lagoon: http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=136824)

Cheers,
Rick.

[marco]

Lovely field Rick, just a tad high in cyan IMHO but never the less impressive!
Regards
Marco

[RickS]

Thanks, Marco.