A Frog in Space

[multiweb]

The widefield looks like one swimming in a celestial pool chasing a firefly and there's plenty of green to boot! :lol:

This is a cross star party picture. The head was shot in May at the SPSP 2016 in Wiruna and the tail was shot in August at Astrofest 2016 in camp duckadang about 1000km apart and 4 months apart so you can call it a wide field.

The head is 26x5min and the tail is 41x5min, much fainter. I found it very hard to mosaic and process. Not perfect but I'm happy with the result and colours after a few iterations. I didn't use any masks so the colors are as is. You'll find there is a lot of subtle variations in the background and also in the brown nebulae. This was shot at the zenith so not gradients to contend with. It would have been a nightmare.

I used PixInsight to double the resolution by Bayer Drizzling, then did the colour balance in Goodlook 64. I then used M&T excellent Prometheus 64 to do the mosaic. For the record neither registax nor PI could handle the two large files to stitch (about half a gig each) so kudos to Mike for his work.

I have a couple of big ones in the links below as usual and a couple of high res for the pixel peepers.

[3598x2926 - 13.2MB (http://www.astropic.net/astro/corona_australis_fff.jpg)] Full Field
[1920x1561 - 4.5MB (http://www.astropic.net/astro/corona_australis_HD.jpg)] Full Field
[1920x1723 - 3.9MB (http://www.astropic.net/astro/corona_australis_cp_HD.jpg)] Crop

Enjoy the views. :thumbsup:

[atalas]

Huge field with great detail and colour.... room for a 3rd panel me think...top work Marc:thumbsup::thumbsup:

[RobF]

Nice one Marc. I've never got around to mosaic'ing in this area. Really like what you've pulled off.

[multiweb]

Thanks Louie. :thumbsup: Nope, that was painful enough. :)



Thanks Rob. :thumbsup: It's very a colourful area.

[Placidus]

Wow! Those two golden glowing trails of dust - the legs of the frog - are new to me - no idea they existed. A huge amount of information in that image. Well done. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

(Thrilled that Prometheus was able to register the two halves of the mosaic.)

[gregbradley]

Gee that's good Marc.
Love the mosaic. Its like a bushfire seen from space.

Greg.

[Camelopardalis]

Just beautiful Marc :thumbsup:

[Atmos]

Really nice Marc! It looks like it would have been a real pain to process!

[Stevec35]

Nicely done Marc

Cheers

Steve

[topheart]

Very very good Marc!
Cheers,
Tim

[multiweb]

Thanks for the phone support during the critical part of stitching. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

Thanks Greg. :thumbsup: It goes on and on, like the dark dooda.

Thanks a lot Dunk. :thumbsup:

Thanks Colin. :thumbsup: Yes it was, to me anyway. I tried my luck at this faint IFN stuff as well in the past on widefield shots and failed miserably. Must practice.

Thanks Steve. :thumbsup:


Thank you very much Tim. :thumbsup:

[Retrograde]

I can see the 'frog' Marc!
Super image - detailed and deep - the hi-res is phenomenal. :thumbsup:

[LewisM]

Ca, c'est magnifique!

Best version IMHO that I have ever seen.

FSQ I presume?

[strongmanmike]

That's pretty cool Marc and what a vista...of Rafiki :thumbsup:

Mike

[multiweb]

Thank you very much Pete. :thumbsup:

Merci beaucoup :thumbsup: ... et OUI FSQ106N :)

Thanks a lot Mike. :thumbsup: Is that the Monkey from the Lion King?

[strongmanmike]

Yep sure is, can you see him?

[Andy01]

Sacre Bleu!

Top shelf stuff Marc, really crisp, lovely colours & great balance of composition.

Trés Bien!

[multiweb]

I can now. :)


Thanks Andy. :thumbsup:

[jjjnettie]

:) It's so much fun teasing that dust out. :)
A beaut image Marc. :)

[RickS]

A stunning mosaic, Marc!

[LewisM]

Quality optics over aperture wins every time :thumbsup::P:scared3:

[multiweb]

Hi Lewis, I wouldn't think so. Aperture will always win. If you compare the Narrow band Prawn (http://www.atacama-photographic-observatory.com/photos/f/45_ic4628_SHO_f.jpg) from Atacama (2400m) with the Narrow Band Prawn (https://photos.smugmug.com/Category/Star-Forming-Regions/i-7LdVtLB/0/O/Prawn%20Ha%204%20OIII%203%20SII%202 hrs%20new%20colour%20balance.jpg) from Placidus (660m) then you can see aperture still wins with lower altitude and worse seeing.

[multiweb]

Thanks Nettie. :thumbsup:

Thanks a lot Rick. :thumbsup:

[marc4darkskies]

Excellent work Marc! Dust is rendered beautifully! :thumbsup::thumbsup:

[multiweb]

Thank you very much Marcus. :thumbsup: