Ngc 3584

[Atmos]

I have managed to add another couple of hours since my first light with the new equipment. Had big plans of getting a good amount of data last night but Melbourne weather got the better of me.

This is an hour in each channel, 4x900s, horrible SII channel which I have attached. Amazing what a synthetic luminance channel can do :D

I had considered holding off on posting this until I finish it but that isn't going to be for a month or two, getting on a plane tomorrow morning to Vietnam and Cambodia :) Went for a slightly different colour palette than usual, sometimes prefer the gold colour to a fiery red. I don't know about anyone else but I see a giant hand grasping a little statue of the Statue of Liberty :P

Spent more time than usual trying to get the processing good, no HDR being a big one! Criticisms more than welcome :)
Only the first process attempt so I suppose I'll revisit it with really fresh eyes after my over seas jaunt.

High Res (http://www.astrobin.com/full/246318/0/)on Astrobin.

[Shiraz]

looks good to me. Amazing that you got anything from that SII, but it worked out well.

[Paul Haese]

Detail is good Colin perhaps longer subs will reveal the striations which look like thin jets being blown away from the star forming regions.

[RickS]

A good start, Colin. Hope you can get some more data when you return.

[Placidus]

That's lovely, Colin. The bright bits are excellent already. The overall colour is beautifully rich and warm. We much prefer your version to our own. The dust lanes at the top are also already looking very good. Well done!

[Geoff45]

Very nice Colin. I like the irriadescent blue dress on the statue of liberty.
Geoff

[Atmos]

I too was quite shocked at what could be dragged out of virtually unusable SII data. It will have no doubt muted some of the colours and destroyed some stuff along the way. Took a bit of work to get rid of the red bars on either side of many stars.



Thanks Paul. By my calculations I should be read noise limited at about 35 minutes so if I double the exposure time I should be set. I think I'll wait for my next mount to arrive before I go for 1800s exposures. I know my EQ6 CAN produce very clean 1800s exposures, just doesn't do them consistently enough :(
I will have to look up the jets of which you speak :)



Thanks Rick, hoping for clear and steady skies upon my return from Asia. First night in Vietnam, almost felt like getting my 10x50 binoculars out to look at the moon. Cannot see anything else here! Well, except for Jupiter a few degrees away.



Thanks MnT, it certainly needs considerably more data to be able to deal with the not quite so bright areas. I went pretty hard on the noise reduction to try to mute how bad it is in the background :)
As much as I like the golden colours, I'll never get the image of Suavi's burning Cats Paw out of my head! :P



Thanks Geoff. I do also like the vibrant blue! Maybe went a little far on the saturation but I do quite like it in your face :P

[rustigsmed]

nice work Colin, wow that s2!!

rusty

[strongmanmike]

Nice work Colin, I think your star mask might be showing? the stars all have soft halos around them :question: perhaps due to the SII trails removal too of course...otherwise a solid result mate :thumbsup:

Mike

[astronobob]

Grouse Impact Colin - really like this :thumbsup:
Have a good trip !!

[Atmos]

Thanks, the SII data is pretty bad, not sure what caused it to be honest. It was taken just after the OIII and a refocus. The guider was still operating. New mount should fix these kinds of problems :)



I just had a closer look, I didn't notice it at first but I know what you're talking about. I had a lot of trouble taming the magenta, especially the SII induced bar! I used a star mask on the colour data to decrease the saturation of the stars. Then used the star mask (inverted) on the colour when doing the LRGB Combine so that the stars did not get any saturation view the combine. Thinking back, I should have done another LRGB Combine JUST on the stars with no added saturation. It may or may not have improved things.

Basically, the halos are caused by my efforts to reduce magenta, the desaturation extended further than I'd have liked. I do like the softness of the brighter stars though, just need to figure out a better way to do it without causing said halos :)

I'm sure Rick has some obscurely named PI ability that'll fix my woes ;)



Thanks :)
Loving the trip too, currently laying in bed looking out the window at the Mekong River with Vietnamese writing everywhere!