Thors......

[Paul Haese]

Well it seems it is the season!

Taken over 5 nights last week when we had very clear skies and some nice seeing on a few nights. This is a relatively short integration at 15 hours. It really needs more and I will collect the rest in the next week. The Ha and OIII need a lot more data to smooth out the back ground without using smoothing.

This image started off about 5 hours ago as let's just see how much more data there is to collect. Overall I am relatively happy with how it came out except for the back ground speckle (I can see it on my screen :P).

I hope this meets Marcus's depth requirements. ;)

Click here (http://paulhaese.net/NGC2359RC.html) for larger and uncropped image.

[Atmos]

That's really nice Paul! :thumbsup:

I have since decided that it is the Electric Blue Space Spider :P

[Maurice]

Very nice Paul.. looks great.

cheers
Maurice

[cometcatcher]

15 hours is short? :help:

In any case it's a beauty in the making!

[marc4darkskies]

Looking good so far Paul! Depth is looking OK and perhaps a little deeper than Mike's, but I do see a bit of a red cast - mostly on the left of frame. Perhaps some gradient as well?

There is Ha over much of the frame and it has medium to large scale structure. My experience was that it was not easy to render because it's so intertwined with the OIII. The danger I found was letting the OIII swamp the Ha (blue/green is sooo pretty! :) ). In the end it's personal taste, but I balanced mine to be as true as possible to the relative signal strengths between the two, blinking between the full colour, OIII and Ha masters.

[Paul Haese]

Thanks guys for the comments



I guess with the amount of hours I do on most objects I would consider this short. ;)



Thanks Marcus for the detailed thoughts. This is really a very interesting topic. I don't think it is a gradient and I am reasonably sure of that. When I imaged this field a few years back with my wide field set up (http://paulhaese.net/ThorsHelmetBiColour.html), I noted a huge concentration of Ha data in the immediate surrounding field of the this object but it was more concentrated in some parts of the field and diffuse in other parts. And; this correlates well with what we are seeing here. So I think this might be genuine. Like you say though, at the end of the day its personal taste as to the concentrations exhibited.

[Paul Haese]

I took a bit of a look and have eased down the red cast quite a lot. Always good to look at things through others eyes. I suppose I was being heavy handed with the saturation in the red channel.

[gregbradley]

Yes that looks better. You got some nice detail in the tendrils. As Marcus pointed out there is some broad red Ha structure in this region. I think some 2x2 binned subs may bring it out as it doesn't have any detailed structure.

Greg.

[marc4darkskies]

Yep, much better Paul! :thumbsup: Did you add some Lum stars as well? Your stellar profiles got a little broader (not a criticism - I like stars :) ).

Look forward to seeing the result of more data.

[Placidus]

A very pleasing, detailed image. Nicely captured and processed.

[Paul Haese]

Thanks MnT for the comments.



Thanks Greg. I am not really one for using 2x2 binning. I found over the years it limits how I can use the data in the end. Sure it speeds up colour imaging but it also has its limitations. My plan here is to pick up more red data, currently I only have an hour and it needs about 3 hours I think. It also needs a lot more Ha and OIII data too. As Marcus pointed out the OIII tends to dominate on this target and getting the blend right can be interesting. I am hoping for some nice seeing next week when we get some clear skies, so it will be interesting to see what can be gathered further.



Thanks Marcus, fresh eyes made a difference.:) I actually worked on the RGB data again and alleviated the red cast out of the back ground then I used lighten mode and masked the RGB over the existing image. I normally do this during processing to get the star colours I am after but it also had the effect of changing the profiles of some of the stars in this case. I was not entirely enamoured with the previous stars either. As long as the stellar profiles do not change hugely, I am usually ok with this effect. Just need some clear sky now to complete the collection of the data. I agree this version though is better overall than the previous one.

[Slawomir]

Very nice image Paul. Processed skillfully without overcooking data, well framed and colours are spot on. Top image IMO :thumbsup:

[Paul Haese]

Thanks Suavi, nice that you think so. :)

[RickS]

So many nice Helmets around at present :) Good detail and colour, Paul. Would be nice to see with a few more hours of data ;)

[Paul Haese]

Thanks Rick. There is indeed a plethora of Helmets to view at present. I was thinking it might go under the radar this apparition, but I was clearly wrong.

I am definitely going to add more data. I am waiting on the next target to rise early enough and so have a month or so to collect a bit more. I can then be a bit more selective with what data I use. I only rejected 6 subs out of the current data set and there are still a few that have a little too high a FWHM for my liking.

[andyc]

That's very pleasing to view - it looks really smooth, yet detailed, nice processing. I hadn't really noticed before what looks like a dusty band around the base of the helmet in among the blue gas? - especially around the lower right 'wing'.

[atalas]

Looks great...well done Paul:thumbsup: