Illuminated dust - M78

[andyc]

Been a long while since I got any imaging time - there's been no clear nights in Sydney while I've been free to image, and a few other distractions. But a trip down the South Coast over the long weekend offered a chance!

Here's my M78, and only the second time I've managed LRGB with the new CCD camera. I'm hoping the colour calibration worked - LRGB with Kayron Mercieca's guide was a good help, but I'm pretty new to it. I'm conscious the stars are pretty ordinary, with a mix of windy guiding, seeing and one or two optical issues on the first night. But the dark skies and the CCD are a very fun mix :D.

Comments and criticisms welcome :scared3:

2 hours luminance and an hour of RGB, a larger view is here (http://www.pbase.com/andycasely/image/164905524/original)

[Atmos]

Looks really good Andy! Perhaps a little flat but that could very well be from 2 hours of luminance :)

[cometcatcher]

Looks great! Another one I haven't imaged yet.

[willik]

Nice image good detail

[LewisM]

I have a psychopathic obsession with M78.... so much so it is my Astromart user name etc :) Just the most delightful object in the sky IMHO.

Here's a few attempts I took at it (most uploaded prior to me knowing about ICC/internet colour profiles etc). Most were with an old f/6.4 Vixen FL-102S, a few with my FSQ-85 (VERY small amount of data, hence the lack of colour, graininess etc). When I get settled again, I will turn my reduced FS-102 M78's way :)

http://www.astrobin.com/106575/?nc=user

http://www.astrobin.com/full/106523/0/

http://www.astrobin.com/full/118609/0/

I love M78 - have I said that? :)

[strongmanmike]

Nice work Andy, yeah some wonky stars but you have tamed your less than ideal conditions pretty well mate :thumbsup: This is really a special area, soft and like a pastel painting...nice.

Mike

[dylan_odonnell]

Nicely done! I keep meaning to do this and keep forgetting it's there because of it's showy neighbours.

[gregbradley]

Wow, pretty impressive for your 2nd LRGB attempt.

Nice one.

Greg.

[astroron]

You have got a nice view of McNeils variable Nebula, it is just to the left of the nearly vertical double star at the top of the nebula.
This nebula is visible in amateur telescopes of 8" and above when at it's brightest.Information here
It was discovered by an amateur astronomer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McNeil's_Nebula
Beautiful image Andy.
Cheers:thumbsup:

[Paul Haese]

That is a really nice composition and quite close up Andy.

[RickS]

I like that a lot, Andy.

[andyc]

Thanks everyone for the kind comments!
Ron, thanks for the heads-up! I vaguely recall reading about this, sounds like it's an object worth monitoring from year to year, a glimpse of star and nebula that was only found in 2004, interesting story.

It's worth loving, Lewis, and a nice scene you have there! It is quite different in texture from a lot of other nebulae.
May well be my processing :D I've attached a dirty slightly more stretched version, darkening the shadows - what do you think, is that closer to the shading you were thinking of? Going harder on the stretching does stress the limited data though.

[SimmoW]

Thats already punchier Andy! Nice image

[clive milne]

The second version is much better... I would argue, however, that the colour balance is still off though. The stars, for example, (with 2 exceptions) are all varying shades of orange.

And it still looks a bit soft


2c

[Andy01]

2nd version looks really nice Andy - Great colour, well done! :thumbsup:
Could be just me but maybe it looks a tad soft?
Great job. :)

[andyc]

Hi Andy, thanks! It is a bit soft thanks to some of the issues I mentioned, and I don't (yet), have the processing skills on the stars to really fix it.

Hi Clive, thanks for your honest opinion, I appreciate it. I think on colour I'd respectfully disagree - this is a region of the sky where the large amounts of dust are reddening a lot of background stars - for reference see for example the star colours in this APOD (https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100302.html), or in Marco Lorenzi's version (http://www.glitteringlights.com/Images/Nebulae/i-hLvXxvd/A). While my colour balancing can be very sketchy indeed, I was not afraid of a lot of reddish stars in this case! Though it's possible my red is slightly strong? They are undoubtedly soft stars though.

Thanks Simmo :)

[sjastro]

Nice image Andy.

M78 could be an interesting target with a polarizing filter.

Steven