Where Eagles Dare..

[Andy01]

Like a soaring eagle rising up to an egg in it's nest, here we have the famous M16 Eagle, soaring up past open cluster NGC 6604 towards Sh2-54 top right.

The bright nebula within is Gum-85. The ring around it is Gum-84.
Together, they are called the "nested egg" nebula.

The cluster below is NGC6604. M16 is of course bottom of frame.

High res HERE (http://www.astrobin.com/full/255908/B/)

11x1800 secs 5nm Ha
7x1800secs 5nm O3
9x1800secs 5nm S2
RGB stars 15x60secs RG&B
Mapped S2HaO3 and tweaked in PS & Startools.
Taken with the QSI8300wsg8 on the Stellarvue SV70T :)

It's taken almost two months to enjoy 2-3 clear nights over Melbourne.
This has been been the wettest, cloudiest winter I can remember :sadeyes:

Not too many NB images of this region around, (actually I couldn't find any!).
I was hoping to find another to compare to as there's not much O3 present around SH2-54 in my data.

Anyway, as always C&C welcome :D

[Placidus]

That's an amazing capture with a 70 mm scope, Andy. We could zoom in a very long way.

Nice to see how the egg area at top right (only other shot I can think of was by Marco Lorenzi in RGB, not NB) relates to the Eagle, and all the interesting dust and nebulosity in between.

The weather's been shocking up here, too.

[Atmos]

That's fantastic Andy! I love your super wide field shots, really helps put the interconnectedness into perspective :)

The weather has been pretty damn awful in Melbourne. Any clear nights have either happened after midnight or been terrible seeing; something that would effect your KAF-8300 and 70mm scope with its large pixel scale.

[Slawomir]

Definitely you have ventured into uncharted territory with this one Andy- very bold image superbly emphasising structures in that region. The only aspects of data processing I would aim to do differently are noise reduction (it's too aggressive) and star protection (to better preserve star profiles).

A great image nonetheless :thumbsup:

[Somnium]

That is bloody amazing ! I have no idea how you continually get such rich colours without killing the image ! Well done

[RobF]

Impressive Andy!
You'd just about be able to fit M16 and 17 in one frame with a FOV like that?

[Andy01]

Thanks M&T, seems that there's a veritable duststorm up there that we don't often see - nice to venture off the beaten track occasionally. Cheers :)



Cheers Colin - I'm enjoying the context the wide field brings to familiar objects too :thumbsup:



Cheers Suavi, I really appreciate the critique - yes it's bold as brass and probably a tad overcooked but hey, it's great fun to try something new. :D



Cheers Aidan, colour mixing is a black art for sure, but using NIK filters (a free download from google) certainly helps. Thanks for the encouragement!




Thanks Rob. Yes I actually started this project with M16/17 in mind, but when I did a test shot, to me those two nebs seemed to be competing against one another, rather than complimenting one another, so I went for this combo instead. Each to their own I guess, but it was good fun to image something relatively uncommon as well :)

[Stevec35]

Amazing detail Andy! Not so sure about the palette - I'm more used to SIIHaOIII. It's a very impressive result for a small scope regardless of the palette though.

Cheers

Steve

[strongmanmike]

It's a great field of view but I can't quite get my head around the almost monochrome outcome with three filters :question:, so much effort in gathering all that data :shrug: That aside, certainly different and a cool bit of art, might make a a nice shower screen or kitchen splash back :thumbsup:

Damn that cloud too!

Mike

[Bart]

I like it for detail and field of view, however there is no "colour" in it. Perhaps let some of the other narrow band colours come through.

[MLParkinson]

Andy, it probably comes as no surprise to you that I love your colour palette. Your image is an amazing work of art. In my opinion, if your image looks great then you have done a great job regardless of any technical issues including noise. I guess though we have to constantly strive to do better. Best wishes, Murray

[muletopia]

Cosmic bushfire

[RickS]

Interesting composition, Andy, and the usual striking colours. 50 shades of orange? :lol:

[Andy01]

Thanks Steve, forgive my typo, it was actually HaO3S2 = RGB



Mike, Thanks for the feedback. Just for the record there's stuff all O3 data in my rendering of this composition except for the centre of the eagle itself. See my three stacks fyi in order Ha O3 & S2

Interesting idea - AstroArt in the kitchen... Hmmm :)



Bart +1 above.



Yay, Murray gets it, cheers mate :) :thumbsup:





I almost wish, flooding in Vic atm - but thx for the nice comment :)



Thanks Rick, yes, I prefer orange to palmolive green in Astro images, just my personal preference though :)

[pfitzgerald]

Nice shot Andy.

If you want a closer look at Sh2-54 (Gum 85) you can have a look at my avatar or for a really nice image use the following link:

https://www.aao.gov.au/itso/outreach/GeminiContest

Scroll down the page to the 2013 contest.

Andy here are a couple of narrow bands for you.

http://cosmicneighbors.net/sh2-54.htm
http://www.narrowbandimaging.com/sh2_54_mk1sn2_dm_geg_cs_s2hao3_page .htm

Paul

PS Gum 85 is my favourite nebula.

[Andy01]

Thanks heaps for that Paul, hmmm - that image is way much deeper in O3 than mine around that region.

On the strength of that, I may revisit my data and re-stretch the living cr#p out of it to see what colour I can pull out.

Cheers
Andy

[pfitzgerald]

Cheers Andy - looking forward to seeing you at SVAC to look at the image first hand.

Paul

[p1taylor]

That is really a detailed image Andy for a 70mm.

peter

[SimmoW]

That's the quote of the week Rick!

Yes Andy, I'd stretch the crap out of the O3, or even better, make an interim false channel from other 'combinations of bits'