The Trifid Nebula, is it the most beautiful nebula in the night sky?

[gregbradley]

Ah yes another Trifid but who can resist its charms? One of the most beautiful nebulas in the sky.

I was hoping to get more data for this but poor weather moved in and blocked that for now. I do intend to add to it as I think this area is one of the best objects out there. I had just freshly tweaked the collimation and the scope was sharper.

I'll have an AO on this scope shortly as well so it will be interesting to see if it tightens things up further.


http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/163530577/large regular size


http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/163530577/original large size

Greg.

[Peter Ward]

Seems I have to log on as Greg Bradley to get a better look...

[SimmoW]

Ha, I thought you were making a nasty comment Peter! But yes, the links prompt us to log in as Greg :lol:

[IanP]

me greg too :rofl:

[Stevec35]

You're probably right about how beautiful it is Greg but you've done it again. You've set the permissions so that only you can see the larger versions of the image. Certainly looks pretty good but appears a little too blue on my monitor.

Cheers

Steve

[Paul Haese]

The thumb nail looks good Greg. Maybe a little too blue as suggested by Steve but I like the framing. I look forward to seeing the larger image when permissions are sorted.

[gregbradley]

Oops. So sorry. Fixed.

Greg.

[Atmos]

Tis very nice Greg! Wonderfully sharp :)

[gregbradley]

Thanks Colin. I was very pleased with this image and the performance of my gear. I had just finished a recollimation and tilt correction and it improved the sharpness of the images a lot. The AP1600 handles the CDK17 like its a toy.

Greg.

[atalas]

Nice Greg,good detail and nice luminosity through the stars.

[gregbradley]

Thanks Louie. I am very happy with it overall. I was hoping to get more data but I am not sure how much it would add.
Greg.

[graham.hobart]

A lovely flower Greg. Never get tired of this nebula. :thumbsup:

[Stevec35]

That's a good Trifid Greg. Nice detail and it looks pretty smooth. One problem I'm having though is that the large version doesn't load properly. There are gaps and the image seems jumbled up. It almost seems as if the file is corrupt. Of course it could be some obscure problem at my end.

Cheers

Steve

[Peter Ward]

Thanks for fixing the link permissions.

I'd like to see a tad more colour in the field stars and a bit more shadow information, but a fine trifid just the same. :thumbsup:

[gregbradley]

Thanks Graham. Yeah I love it too.



I just checked it Steve and its loading fine for me. Perhaps you need to clean up your RAM a bit?



Thanks Peter. I'll look at that. I did want to add more time which tends to improve those areas but there may be latitude in what I have already.

OK those adjustments are done and it does look better. Same links.

[strongmanmike]

An excellent Trifid Greg, well done :thumbsup: the colours are on the money I recon (perhaps there should be just a tad more teal in the reflection neb..but meah no biggy, probably just me :)) The dust really looks like dust with a nice subtle layering effect evident too and the little index finger and thumb feature is nicely shown too. You look to have used the magic wand to select some of the dark background areas and desaturated them in places though ? which looks a bit stark?

Regardless of any minor improvement suggestions, it is a fine result :thumbsup:

Mike

[gregbradley]

Thanks Mike. No work done on the background so not sure what areas you are seeing there. I'll have another look but
I was planning to do more exposure as that brings everything up which would improve the background which I think probably is the area that needs the extra exposure time. A few hours would have done it.
I've adjusted the blue to be more teal. Thanks for the suggestions.

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

As I said not a biggy, perhaps you just clipped the background colour in the low signal areas? Anyway, as I said still looks great and more data may well fill in theses areas :thumbsup:

Mike

[marc4darkskies]

Very nice rendition Greg! :thumbsup: Colours are nuanced and the detail is excellent.

No major flaws, but I do tend to agree with Peter Ward's critique.

[gregbradley]

Thanks Marcus. I just updated the image with an extra luminance layer to bring up the background which it has. The stars have a little extra colour. In the thumbnail they look fairly white but on my monitor the larger image has quite a bit of colour in the stars now.

I'll still add some exposure later on to bring up the background even more as this is about as bright as it will go with the data I have now.

Cheers,

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

Yeah that's better Greg :)

Mike

[gregbradley]

Thanks Mike.

Greg.

[el_draco]

Its pretty but, "the most beautiful nebula in the sky?". Don't know; its apples, oranges and mangoes I suspect. For me The Tarantula is just drop dead gorgeous.

[Paul Haese]

The latest rendition looks good Greg. The reflection looks good with the illusion of it being semi transparent.

[PRejto]

Your gear is singing now. With the AO it should rock and the comparison will be most interesting. Really nice photo!

Peter

[gregbradley]

True. Thanks.



Thanks Paul. I added in another layer of luminance to bring the background up.



Thanks Peter. The FLI ML16 also works well on the CDK17. I wasn't sure that it would but it does. Its higher resolution as well in good seeing.

Greg.

[Stevec35]

[
I just checked it Steve and its loading fine for me. Perhaps you need to clean up your RAM a bit?

I don't know what that means but it doesn't seem to be anything to do with RAM. Seems to be some problem with Chrome which I've never seen before. Works in other browsers.

[Atmos]

I think Greg may mean your browser Cache :)

[Stevec35]

No - don't think it's that. Chrome is doing something funny which I haven't seen before. Might be related to Windows 10.

[Placidus]

Lovely. The blue reflection nebulosity and the star colours do the trick. The HH jet is clear.

[topheart]

Well done Greg!
Cheers,
Tim

[OzEclipse]

Just stunning Greg.

Joe:bowdown:

[codemonkey]

Nice and smooth Greg! I like the colour and the contrast is nice and punchy. Only thing I might suggest tweaking is there's some ringing artefacts around the stars, most obvious as grey rings around the stars in the core.

Scope definitely looks sharp, nice stars across the field.

[gregbradley]

Thanks Mike.



Cheers Tim.



Thanks very much Joe.



Thanks Colin. Sometimes star masks if slightly off in size do that or Ha blends sometimes do that as well. I have tweaked it already and its pretty minor so I'll probably just leave that as that step was early on. You must have been pretty zoomed in to see it I think.

Greg.

[Shano592]

Wow, Greg, that is a superb image.

I love it.

What length of exposure was required, to bring this forth?

[gregbradley]

Thanks Shane.

Its a total of about 6-7 hours plus another 3 or 4 of the Ha from another camera.

So a total of 10 hours 10 minutes. Most exposures were 10 minutes.

Greg.

[RickS]

Very nice, Greg. I expected to see the jets a little more clearly given your aperture and focal length. Perhaps they'll jump out when you get the AO up and running.

[gregbradley]

Its there:

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/163833970/original

It can get even sharper and more detailed but its still pretty impressive I think. Collimation could probably be tweaked a small amount ( although CCDinspector has it as something like 1.4% error which I think is extremely low). Also you can see those 6 core stars fully resolved. Not easy.

The jets probably got toned down in the combines and was not particularly pushed hard. I plan to get more data on this and tried recently but the wet weather made it impossible. When I get the extra data I will try to bring that out more. I may have the AO up and running then as well.

Greg.

[RickS]

Yep, looks a lot stronger in the Ha, Greg.

[gregbradley]

How to get through to the final image is a bit of trick though. I guess more luminance would help. Its sometimes hard to get subtle detail from Ha through to the final image.

Greg.

[multiweb]

I'd be stoked with that Greg. I reckon you've nailed it. It looks really good, both colors and resolution. One for the cool wall. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[gregbradley]

Thanks very much for that Marc. I like this image the best of any image I have done in the last few years and feel I am getting the best out of my CDK17 finally.

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

Agree with Marc :thumbsup:...the dust looks fantastic and if you juuust tweeked the red in the main neb slightly more toward magenta I recon it would be peeeerfect :D

Mike

[gregbradley]

Thanks Mike. Good advice. I just did that.

Greg.

[Stevec35]

Looking better and better Greg.

Cheers

Steve

[gregbradley]

\

Thanks Steve. Sometimes our images are works in progress and they evolve.

Greg.

[Phil Hart]

I'm late to the party but that is a cracker Greg.. I'd be very happy with that result.

Phil

[gregbradley]

Thanks very much Phil. Yes I am very happy with it. Everything worked well on the night plus some good seeing!

Greg.

[Rex]

Beautiful image Greg. Love the way those colours pop.

[gregbradley]

Thanks Rex. I like this image myself the best of any of my recent images. Sometimes it all comes together nicely.

Greg.