NGC 6914 - what's black and blue and red all over?

[RickS]

NGC 6914 is an exquisite mixture of emission, reflection and dark nebulosity in Cygnus.

Captured at SRO, 23 Sep - 10 Oct, 2015

Objects in image:
NGC6914, vdB 131, vdB 132

Scope: Ceravolo C300 @ f/4.9 = 1470mm FL
Mount: AP1100
Camera: FLI PL16803
Focuser: Atlas
Filters: Astrodon
Guiding: Lodestar II / Tak guide scope
Image scale: 1.26 arcsec/pixel (drizzled to higher res)
Exposures: 15x1200s L, 9x1200s R, 13x1200s G, 14x1200s B, 17x1800s Ha (17 hrs LRGB, 8.5 hrs Ha)
Processing: PixInsight 1.8

Acquisition credit: John Kasianowicz, Daniele Malleo, Leonardo Orazi, Rob Pfile, Rick Stevenson and Jerry Yesavage.
Processing credit: Rick Stevenson

High res and full res versions on Astrobin: http://www.astrobin.com/full/219874/0/

Hope you enjoy it and feel free to post comments, positive or negative :)

Cheers,
Rick.

[Andy01]

Reminds me of the rift in space & time n Dr. Who.
Very cool image of a target I an unfamiliar with, nice one Rick!

[RickS]

Thanks, Andy. I always wanted to image this one and it wasn't too hard to convince my colleagues at SRO ;)

[Atmos]

I agree, not one that I have come across before... But I like it :D Glad you convinced the rest of your colleagues to go along with it :D

[Slawomir]

Another delightful image Rick :thumbsup:

I particularly enjoyed full resolution version, star colours are very pleasing and clouds of gas are presented splendidly.

[RickS]

Thanks, Colin & Suavi!

[Paul Haese]

Great luminosity seen in the image. In my opinion not often seen in images. It adds real depth. Colour and tonal shading add to the feel of the image. Nice image Rick.

[gregbradley]

Fabulous Rick. I agree with Paul, its very clear and the dust areas are very 3D and reach up out of the screen.

Greg.

[peter_4059]

Top image Rick. Love the colours.

[ozstronomer]

Great image Rick, Love the mix of different nebulosity and stunning colors.

Geoff

[RickS]

Thanks very much, Paul! Reminds me a bit of the area around your Wolf.



Thanks, Greg.



Ta, Peter.



And thanks, Geoff.

[troypiggo]

Awesome mate. Colour from corner to corner.

[astronobob]

The remnants of the Cronulla Sharks after a game against the Dragons ? ? Lol
Really nice colors there Rick, it'd look great on a wall, , Very well composed and framed, , Lots of 'PoP'

:2thumbs: :cool:

[RickS]

Thanks, Troy & Bob. Yes, might be another good image for a big print!

[Camelopardalis]

Beautifully done Rick :thumbsup: certainly worth a print IMO.

Have you found a printer that can do justice the the detail and intricacies of the nebulosity?

[RickS]

Thanks, Dunk!

Best results I have had with printing so far have been with Image Science in Melbourne. I did some large (44" wide paper) prints of the Veil Nebula on Canson Infinity Platine paper. The image was a high res mosaic of around 145 megapixels and the prints were very sharp. The colour was a great match too after soft proofing with the supplied printer/paper profile.

Cheers,
Rick.

[Stevec35]

That's a great image of a lovely field Rick. The northerners must be glad they have Cygnus. So much photogenic stuff there.

Cheers

Steve

[strongmanmike]

Yeah excellent result Ricki :thumbsup: beautifully processed and what a field, very enjoyable view, they should all listen to you from now on, cheers :thumbsup:

Mike

[DJT]

I really like the way this is composed as you are drawn into the reflection nebula in the centre.

great image, marvellous colours.

Interested in the process of getting 6 people to agree imaging targets! An excellent choice!

[Leonardo70]

Wondeful Rick...congrats ! Top result.

All the best,
Leo

[RickS]

Thanks, Steve! I think we should take up a collection to move Cygnus southwards :)



Ta, Mike. My wife doesn't listen to me so why should anybody else? :lol:



Thanks, David. It didn't take much arm bending on this one. Actually, target selection hasn't caused any arguments so far. It helps that I'm a northern hemisphere newbie and any object is a good one as far as I am concerned!



Thanks, Leo. Look forward to your version.

[pvelez]

That is an absolute cracker! (I was going to type phwoar! but decided that might send the wrong message)

At some point you might give us a step by step view of how you process these images - its such a natural looking image but I'm sure the process wasn't straightforward to reach this point

Pete

[RickS]

Thanks, Pete! Here are my processing notes. Some of it is in shorthand but hopefully it's not too hard to decipher. I'm happy to explain anything that isn't clear.

[codemonkey]

Nice work Rick! Thanks for posting the processing notes and congrats on the IOTD :-)

[RickS]

Thanks, Lee!

BTW, here's a couple of small Easter Eggs. GN 20.22.7 aka Parsamian 22 at top left and GN 20.22.1 at bottom right. Simbad classifies them as reflection nebulae but there are claims (mostly in German) that they are Protoplanetary nebulae. They are about 52x23 arcsec and 30x25 arcsec in size.

Cheers,
Rick.

[andyc]

Very nice image, quite a project! And the notes are useful too, good to see your working :) The little nebulae are very pretty too

[pvelez]

Thanks for the processing notes Rick - plenty to chew on there

Pete

[RickS]

Thanks, Andy,



My pleasure, Pete. Let me know if anything in there needs further explanation.