Melotte 15 narrowband

[RickS]

Melotte 15 is the the open cluster at the centre of the Heart Nebula, Sharpless 2-190, in Cassiopeia. Captured with our shared scope at SRO in California during Sep-Dec 2014 and processed in a heavily modified Hubble palette. This is a small crop of the larger field.

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 2x)
Exposures: 17x1800s Ha, 20x1800s Oiii, 24x1800s Sii (30.5 hours)
Processing: PixInsight 1.8

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

Full res here: http://www.astrobin.com/full/238054/0/?real=&mod=

Cheers,
Rick.

[Andy01]

Holy night sky Batman, that's STUNNING!

I only have one more word, APOD! :bowdown:

I'm going to hide my head in the sand now with the rest of the unworthy. :sadeyes:

[RickS]

Very kind of you, Andy, but this is an object done to death by Northern hemisphere folks and I think it would take a very special version to get an APOD. I guess I could add the ISS and some rings :question: :lol:

[IanP]

THAT WOULD NOT BE ENOUGH. Hydrogen BOMB, Rick ... :rofl:

Nice one ... :thumbsup:

[DJScotty]

Oh wow Rick. That's nice
Great processing.

[Ryderscope]

That's stunning Rick. The colour palette works well. The dark dust ridges along the nebula seem to provide a 3D effect. Very nice viewing indeed.
:thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Somnium]

simply stunning Rick

[DJT]

Hi Rick et al
Stands up really well to zooming in and out at full res on the iPad. Nicely done, quality data and subtle processing.

:thumbsup:

[RickS]

Thanks very much Ian, Scott, Rodney, Aidan and David!

[codemonkey]

Great work Rick!

[topheart]

Beautiful!

Thanks,
Tim

[RickS]

Thanks Lee & Tim!

[Atmos]

Lovely shot Rick, to me it looks like it has been done with the cross between a pastel and airbrush :) Remove the stars and you'll have yourself a lovely painting :D

[Placidus]

Rick, that's magnificent.

The eroded structures are most intriguing, with their razor sharp edges, thick dust, and the strong OIII speaking to powerful forces.

The processing of the stars is faultless.

Best,
Mike

[RickS]

Thanks, Colin. I did actually remove the stars to process the colour for the image (I use a process based on JPM's Tone Mapping) but they get added back with the Luminance.

I have done the occasional image with stars completely removed but I'm never entirely happy with them. I guess I'm never 100% happy with the images with stars either :lol:

Cheers,
Rick.

[RickS]

Thanks, Mike! Very kind of you.

[nebulosity.]

Great image Rick!

Cheers
Jo

[RickS]

Thanks, Jo.

[andyc]

Very fine image Rick. rick colours and nice inky depth on the dark nebula to the lower left. I enjoyed exploring the view on your Astrobin site!

[astronobob]

Spectacular target and grouse Image there for the wall Rick, quite rich colours and the compo is great - good levels of light Ect, Nice show :thumbsup:

[Paul Haese]

Nice image Rick, the orange is not really to my taste but the blues are good. Detail is also pretty nice. What was the FWHM on average for this image? Curiosity only regarding that question.

[strongmanmike]

Wow looks great Rick, this neb is so chunky and has such a solid 3D look, reminds me of twisted weathered coral. Athough I recon the more popular blue-yellow colour scheme looks a little better and the stars could do with just a taaad more intensity (minor), it is still a great rework and a very enjoyable view :thumbsup:

Mike

[RickS]

Thanks, Andy.



Ta, Bob.



Thanks, Paul. I was trying something a little different with the colour. Some folks like it and some don't. Situation normal ;) The average FWHM on the Ha data was around 2.2 arcsec.



Thanks, Mike! It is a very cool object but every man and his dog (in the NH) images it. Hence my attempt to do something out of the ordinary.

Cheers,
Rick.

[Stevec35]

Very nice Rick. An impressive 3D effect.

Cheers

Steve

[troypiggo]

Awesome mate. Was expecting the more golden/browns but this works well.

[RickS]

Thanks, Steve & Troy! I did start with a Hubble Palette rendition but it looked like a hundred other images already out there on the interwebs :)