Eastern Veil - NGC 6992

[RobF]

My son thinks he can see a brontosaurus leaning over feeding in this one. I think his neck is dangerously long if that's the case. :)

Ideally wanted a bit more Ha than time allowed at Astrofest, but have managed to get about another 5hrs from surburbia in recent weeks. That's probably all for this year, so putting up the end product.

About 13hrs of HaLRGB in total. LRGB was 70:70:60:70 minutes, all 10min subs.
Ha was a mixture of 10, 15 and 20 min subs (500mins total) - Ha sub times dependent on time before flips, quality of guiding and rooftop obstructions from my backyard more than any precise science.

Larger Astrobin version available here (http://www.astrobin.com/214802/).
Suggestions for improvement welcome. Thanks for looking.

[batema]

That is stunning Rob.

[strongmanmike]

That's an excellent image Rob :thumbsup:

Mike

[AlexN]

Very nice indeed Rob.

[ozstronomer]

Great image Rob

Nicely processed to bring out the nebula from that massive star field.

Cheers Geoff

[Placidus]

Very fine.

[RobF]

Appreciate the encouragement from the Astronomer royale (Centrale?) :)



Thanks Mike - pleased how it came through in the end



Thanks Alex!



Thanks Geoff. Everyone is so used to bicolor narrowband on this one its possible to use the Ha more than usual. I've followed some of Rick's advice on Ha combines and thrown everything available into the super-luminence to bring up the contrast/detail a bit.



Most appreciated Mike and Trish!

[RickS]

Great work, Rob! The Veil is quite a challenge from the deep south and you've done remarkably well. One minor suggestion would be to boost the blue stars a little more (maybe a star mask and targeted ColorSaturation.)

Cheers,
Rick.

[gregbradley]

That's a ripper image.

Greg.

[Stevec35]

Top image Rob! As good as most of the ones I've seen from the northern hemisphere.

Cheers

Steve

[Octane]

Fantastic effort, Rob. Really like this!

H

[RobF]

Thanks Rick. Good suggestion. I think my masking skills are still too rudimentary and I need to keep working on those final finer details. At the moment I might mask the stars while working on the neb, but need to go the extra distance on the stars - and blue probably suffering most at low altitude. Also try to get some of the outer colour back into somewhat overexposed centres. The RGB subs certainly weren't at the optimal length for AF skies, but even so the brighter stars tend to have white centres.



Glad you enjoyed Greg :)



Thanks Steve. Was really happy how it came together in the final stages :)



Thanks Humayun. 2nd last batch of data from AF skies. Just need to grapple with a final mosaic now which will probably give me more grey hair.

[Octane]

I'm not having much fun with a 4-panel mosaic at the moment, and, I've just started another mammoth 9-panel one.

I'm trying different combinations of processing steps to ensure I don't end up with residual gradients after combining my RGB stack. *sigh*

H

[Spookyer]

Hey, good one Rob!

Brett

[RobF]

Its a frustrating business at times for sure, but then again we're spoiled for options with PI. Biggest I've ever attempted was 4x2 on Eta C. Going past 2x2 is always a game changer - good luck H!



Thanks Brett. I really enjoyed shooting AND processing this one. If only they always worked out :lol:



Also, some repro and additional Ha image info.
Rick had suggested I pay a bit more attention to the star colours. I've messed about in PI with colour correction scripts for stars with overexposed or stretched centres and masked the effect back in. Mainly some blue stars affected - goal was to get some of the external chroma back into the washed-out centres of the larger stars in particular. Hopefully subtle but slight improvement. Was an interesting learning exercise in any case. In hindsight many of the brighter stars are a bit flat, but I figure its more about the neb in this one anyway.

Also a Ha-only stack, with a quick stretch.

[Fabiomax]

For men no suggestions. ..just congratulations because it is really beatiful nebula in so rich stars field well balanced.
Fabiomax

[RobF]

Thanks for checking it out Fabiomax :)