Sunflowers

[Andy01]

Loosely inspired by Van Gogh's famous still life painting - "Sunflowers" and a nice APOD from way back 2007 here we have the Sagittarius triplet in glorious post impressionistic (or maybe post apocalyptic?) narrowband.

I've had a go at all three of these individually, (and it took 7 attempts to get a result of M20 that I was happy with happy with but let's not go there...) but I always wanted to have a crack at these guys together, so with the new SV70T it's widefield FOV allows me to play a lot more with composition, and to get a sense of scale of how these objects sit together in space.

Taken from my now very damp, light polluted suburban backyard during May in Melbourne.

Data gathered over 5 nights totalling approximately 20 hrs exposure in all 20min subs. 7 Hrs Ha, & 8 hrs S2 and 5 hrs O3 (All 5nm Astrodon filters) with RGB stars, 15 x 1min R,G & B.

Very tricky to process with the brightness range being extreme over these three objects.
I've spent a few days going back to this one to get what I hope is a pleasing result, although some may require some sunscreen after long exposure to this!

The M8 core and M20 are insanely bright, and NGC 6334 is very dim.
Some interesting fibre like strands of Ha and S2 are showing up near the Triffid, but I have deliberately held back the background brightness so these are not a distraction.

The surrounding area is rich in Ha and S2 so this needed to be toned down to emphasise the "flower vase" structure as the hero of the shot.

I wanted to "respect the light" but I had to compensate by dimming down certain areas for an overall pleasing aesthetic effect, without resorting to HDR (shudder).

Havn't seen too many Sagittarius triplets with this NB treatment and composition, so I hope you like it, thanks for looking!

HighRes Here - (http://www.astrobin.com/full/251583/0/)

Cheers

Andy

[Atmos]

That's fantastic Andy! Love the composition and the RGB stars. I just question where those 5 clear nights came from ;) :lol:

Having recently done M20 (needs more data) and M8, really nice to see them all in the same field :)

[multiweb]

Sacrebleu! Is that M8? Never seen it this way. Interesting comp. :thumbsup:

[Ross G]

Very good photo Andy.

Great detail and I love the composition.

Ross.

[gregbradley]

Very clever framing and composition Andy. Quite striking. You've got a nice formula going there with your scope and processing.

Greg.

[Andy01]

Thanks Colin, sure has been damp lately but all of this data was gathered last month. We're renovating/building a new photo studio atm so it took a while to find time to process this one. Glad you liked it, cheers :)



Lol :) good one Marc, merci beaucoup :thumbsup:



Cheers Ross, sometimes it's fun to think differently about how we see familiar objects, I appreciate your kind feedback :)



Many thanks Greg, lots of research and patience go into composition. My thoughts are that if you're going to spend over 20-30 hrs gathering data, it's worthwhile spending some quality time framing the subject before starting an imaging run.

Thanks to yourself and the IIS community for all your constructive feedback on my processing workflow as well. :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Very interesting composition Andy, don't think I have seen an image of these objects presented in that orientation before :question:...and I can see why it conjures feelings of Van Gough too :). Of course, as is usually the case with NB images though, colour choices are pretty varied and rather personal, so if you are not trying to showcase the real distribution of the three emission lines... it's game on - pure art :painting:. So after several looks with breaks in between (to give the eyes a rest) I probably still have mixed feelings about the colour scheme but (and even though I'm ok with seeing a little magenta in the stars of NB images) I do like how you have handled the stars here :thumbsup:.

An interesting interpretation.

Mike

[RickS]

Definitely one of the more out-there renditions, Andy. Still deciding whether I like the colours or not :question:

[Andy01]

Thanks Mike, I'm glad you liked some of it and I really appreciate your comments ... but, well - your own recent remarks about how this forum is pre-occupied with colour balance rather than the content of images spring to mind here.

So there's no miscommunication, let's get one thing straight - I'm in this hobby for aesthetics first and foremost.

I'm no scientist and am first and foremost a proud "pretty picture" maker.
I'm a photographer, it's in my DNA to create and stretch myself.

My goal is to push the envelope of creativity of this technical art form - I really appreciate and am extremely grateful for all of the technical advice and critiques both positive and negative, duly (and often deservedly) received!

"One cannot be an artist without being a craftsman first" is my mantra, and I'm certainly a new kid on the block craftsmanship - wise but keen to learn quickly.

I've learned heaps from IIS'ers such as yourself and am very grateful for it. I'm also VERY keen to go out on a limb and do my own thing, as I don't want to be the 10,000th person shooting the same thing the same way as everyone else ad infinitum, limited only by my skills and equipment.

I take onboard all that you and others have been kind enough to teach me, and to take that learning to a (hopefully) new approach.

There will be always some hits and misses with this, but as they say, if you want a Gold award you cannot sit safely on the fence, one has to be bold and live with the fact that some judges will hate it, some will love it and some just won't get it and that's perfectly ok.

Apologies for what is sounding a bit like a rant, it's been a big day of renovating and demolition of the new studio, but please remember that I really, really do respect and appreciate your input :)

Cheers

Andy



Perfect! Thanks Rick, I'm very happy that you took the time to comment and thank you for chiming in :)
Seems that this one's a bit of contentious image that has polarised the panel. I'm ok with that as long as I can hopefully continue to learn from the discussion and take all the feedback onboard.

cheers

Andy

[strongmanmike]

Oi! wadda ya meeean..I remarked on both the composition of your frame aaand ya stars..not just the colour :P...as for the the subject matter, well, they are two of the most imaged nebulae in the whole sky and I have probably seen 1000's (literally) of renditions in my time :lol: where as my comments about narrow focused comments on colour critiquing were made in the context of an image of two interacting galaxies that have very rarely been imaged ;)



And that's great Andy, do what you want, there are few rules in this game....especially when it comes to "wavelength ordered emission line" imaging :eyepop:...now that is more like interior decorating...everyone has an opinion on what gawdy and OTT colour is ;)

Go Van Gough :thumbsup:

Mike

[Andy01]

Lol, no disrespect intended and that's why we love you Mike - you're always up for honest debate and critique and the occasional well deserved butt kicking :)

"Interior decorating" - I like that :)

Cheers
Andy

[strongmanmike]

Oooh....careful, not everyone does :sad: :lol:



Mate, my wife loves House Rules...and as a result I often find myself reluctantly dragged into watching it too and sheesh, the nit picking, personal taste driven, over thinking judges who think they know it all, just make me laugh :lol:

Mike

[Andy01]

Delighted to see that this image was selected as the Astrobin "Image of the Day", Sunday June 12th.
http://www.astrobin.com/251583/0/
Woohoo! My first one ever :D

[Placidus]

What I like the most is the way it shows the interconnectedness of the Lagoon and the toes, and the subtle, faint nebulosity between the Lagoon and Trifid.

I like the connection to Vincent too.