Tarantula mosaic complete

[Placidus]

Our first completed 6 panel mosaic. 32 hours total exposure.

Here it is. (www.mikeberthonjones.smugmug.com/Category/Star-Forming-Regions/i-Sbv7Rpv/0/O/Tarantula%20Ha%20OIII%2016hrs%20eac h.jpg)

H-alpha + OIII, 16 hours each, in Placidus Palette (H-alpha = yellow, OIII = blue).

No deconvolution or sharpening. We're not planning on making the stars white. They add a certain sparkle.

Apart from the lack of SII, our shot looks virtually identical to Slawomir's. I suppose that's a good thing - it means we're all photographing what's actually up there. (The framing is very slightly different).

We're reasonably chuffed at how our written-in-house mosaic software (Prometheus) worked. :)

Best, M & T

[Atmos]

Wonderful resolution MnT! Different take on it compared to Slawomir's without the SII.

[RickS]

Exceptional data, M&T. Impressive on an epic scale. Not a big fan of the palette but I'm sure that my idea of colour isn't everybody's cup of tea either :)

Cheers,
Rick.

[marc4darkskies]

"Epic" sure is the right word for this one M&T! Great work! :thumbsup: And so glad to see you posting it at high res. Can't stand it when folks do mosaics and then only post scaled down versions.

Cheers, Marcus

[strongmanmike]

Ah Ha! Check that out! Prometheus strikes again! Rather grand and the whole area is full of stuff :thumbsup:... and no evil worms or dots to speak off guys, so I'm happy :D

Mike

[Placidus]

Thanks, Colin.



Thanks, Rick. Took a long time to get the data wot with the rotten weather.



Thanks muchly Marcus. We experimented with a 50% reduction and a JPEG compression of about 10/12, versus a 100% version and a JPEG compression of 7/12. Both produced about the same final JPEG file size, but the full res was hugely better to look at.

[Ryderscope]

Stunning MnT. Thanks for this paticular journey through the cosmos. There is much detail to wander around and explore.

[rustigsmed]

Awesome can scan that for hours, worth the effort for sure!
Rusty

[Slawomir]

Awesome image Mike and Trish, certainly a benchmark IMO :thumbsup:

[Placidus]

Thanks, Rodney.



Cheers, Russell. We'd have liked to have done another three panels along the top, but you have to stop somewhere.



From you, Slawomir, that's quite a complement. Thank you. :)

[topheart]

Congratulations on the mosaic!! Looks like your software has done a very good job.

Cheers,
Tim

[gregbradley]

Epic Mike! Great work and a fabulous image - congrats.

Greg.

[Placidus]

Thanks, guys, you've cheered us up enormously. We just came back to our pied-a-terre near Penrith, with guests coming for Christmas, to find that the fridge full of fish died two weeks ago and we had to call in the biohazard team and flame throwers.

[Paul Haese]

Huge field of view now MnT. The detail is great. I just spent about 10 minutes looking through the whole image. Not enamoured with the colour but once you get the SII you will have a mega NB image of this area.

[Shiraz]

beautiful image with both detail and cloudy softness - really top effort.

fish! - oh no, not fish....

[Placidus]

Thanks, Paul. Given that SII is often faint in the outskirts, but one wants to hopefully balance the red, what are your thoughts on 2x2 binning the SII? Binned, we're just on the edge of critical sampling with 1.1 sec arc/pixel and typically 2.2 sec arc seeing.



Thanks muchly Ray.

[multiweb]

Completion of a great project. Lots to browse around. Great stuff. :thumbsup:

[LucasB]

What a great mosaic! Sharp, wide and a beautiful colour palette!:thumbsup:
Lucas

[Placidus]

Thanks, Marc. Glad you like it. Perhaps next year's Tarantula season might be time to add 2x2 SII, and the year after that, RGB stars!



Cheers, Lucas. Thrilled that you like the Placidus Palette.


Happy new year to all from Euchareena, where it's raining hard. Life is good because we're minding the neighbouring farm's chooks, and we've got more eggs than we can omelette.

[Amaranthus]

Simply WOW!

[Placidus]

Thanks, Barry, that's definitely encouraging.