M17 - An Opal in Space

[Andy01]

Hi folks, It's been 10 looooong weeks since I posted anything here.

Camera issues, family holidays and p*sspoor Melbourne weather yada yada etc...

This is probably born a bit premature and it's a tad overcooked for some tastes to compensate for insufficient data, but I just had to get something up at last!

I wanted to attempt to bring something new to this well photographed object, hence the unconventional colour palatte.

Seeing was a bit average, which has contributed to a softness in the core detail and I've had a jolly difficult time balancing the core brightness etc. (the dynamic range is insane!) but I didn't want to lose the feeling of the light source either by going too HDR.

But enough with the self critique, it's no Malin, but it's an image at last!

4 hrs Ha, 3 hrs O3 and 4 hrs S2 with average seeing, Hubble palatte (Andyfied) and RGB stars.

High res here -http://www.astrobin.com/204450/0/

Constructive criticism and feedback is always welcome :)

Cheers

Andy

[Somnium]

Well worth the wait !

[RobC]

Not bad Andy , I think it is excellent .

Rob

[Peter Ward]

Dunno.

Doesn't look much like a German car to me. :)

[Andy01]

Thanks Somnium, very kind of you - it's been a while :)


Cheers RobC, glad you like it, thx for the feedback :thumbsup:



Lol, Nicely played Peter, nicely played! :lol:

[DJScotty]

Beautiful rendition Andy. I really like the palette. Good job :thumbsup:

[multiweb]

That's a cool field Andy. Very deep. :thumbsup:

[Slawomir]

Interesting and innovative interpretation of M17 :thumbsup:

[Paul Haese]

Hmmm not sure either Andy. Focus looks a little soft to me and there appears to be a quite a lot of burn out here and there. Colours are interesting though.

[Andy01]

Thanks Scotty, glad you liked it too :)



Thanks Marc, the Ha data was from waaaay back in May or therabouts, so was challenging to merge it with the new O3 & S2 from last weekend.



Thanks Slaw, NB does lend itself to creative interpretations so it's nice to try something new, cheers :)



Thanks Paul, fair call too - I've probably been too impatient and not as picky as usual when it came to rejecting subs due to seeing & light cloud cover. I suspect that made processing an even more challenging task! Glad you liked the aesthetics though. Wouldn't it be nice if the tech & artistic process came together easily on a regular basis :)

[gregbradley]

Andy you crazy artistic genius you.

Pretty wild and definitely different. I kinda like it but I don't want it in my loungeroom!

Its a good image as itself but as pointed out technically a few points could be better. Your images are usually sharper so worse seeing than normal or cloud?

But its still a very striking image. I bet the man in the street would like it.

Greg.

[Andy01]

Lol, too funny Greg - makes me wonder what people would have said if Van Gogh had posted his stuff on Facebook :D (not comparing myself btw, just loved your comment!) Now to take the laptop out to find that man in the street!:rofl:

[Rex]

Wow talk about psycodalic colour pallette. This is really awesome Andy. Very artistic indeed.

[h0ughy]

i cant throw any stones in this glasshouse, never done a narrow band image before but it is funky and different. only the guys who have the ability to process this stuff would pick the faults. for me it is very energetic, hard to view - there is just so much there.

[RickS]

I quite like the colours, Andy. Probably better than in the vanilla Hubble version you just posted :)

[Andy01]

Thanks Rex, sometimes pushing the accepted boundaries of what we are used to seeing can send us into a zone of acceptance of the new. Unfortunately in this case the technical side didn't match up to the artistic on close inspection.
Appreciate your positive feedback though :)



Thanks Houghy, I felt the same after seeing a recent doco on contemporary Australian art. Some of those paintings are disturbing, difficult for my brain to process and as you say, very energetic. But boundaries are there to be pushed so as I/we strive for that ultimate goal of perfection (or at least very good) in this technical art form there will be always be some missteps and false starts on the journey. Probably where this one sits as is. Appreciate the feedback as always :thumbsup:



Well thanks Rick! It's hard to please everyone and I sort of agree completely. That drama/technical balance/impact & aesthetically pleasing formula is hard to crack. 'Twas pleasing to get closer to a technically correct image today in the 'vanilla' version but I struggled to push the data to the previous level without it breaking up.

Probably need to get mega data like Slawomir's recent & amazing Cat's paw to achieve that balance. Thanks for the sentiment though :)