I'm in the mood for some colour! Horsehead widefield

[gregbradley]

The Horsehead - what would we image if it weren't there eh?

One of a recent series of images I have done when the weather cleared for a little bit.

Nice and colourful.

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/165243586/large


http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/165243586/original looks best in this larger sized file. Explore!

There is a nice cometary globule top left. This area of the sky has so much going on in it.


Greg.

[Retrograde]

Gorgeous! The detail in the Flame is just mesmerizing and so much going on everywhere. :thumbsup:

[gregbradley]

Thanks Pete. Yes you can see why its called the Flame Nebula, it does look like its on fire.

Greg.

[Stevec35]

Quite exceptional Greg! I have to admit I was getting sick of wide field horse head images because they all look the same. I think you've lifted the bar significantly.

Cheers

Steve

[RickS]

Very nice, Greg! I like the subtle reflection nebulosity at mid-left especially.

[billdan]

That's beautiful Greg, how do keep Alnitak under control?, its impossible for me to image the horsehead with my QHY12 due to large Halos from Alnitak.

[beren]

:thumbsup: hit a six with that one Greg, exceptional congratulations

[strongmanmike]

A lovely traditional, almost photographic, shot of this area Greg, exactly the sort'a thing the RHA/FLI PL combo were born to do :thumbsup:.

Mike

[gregbradley]

Thanks Steve. I liked the FOV but was a bit unsure if I was over the top on the colour. This is the "toned down" version!.



Thanks Rick. Yes the scope seemed to pick up some interesting details.



Firstly the camera - the 16803 has 100,000 electron full well so it can capture some bright stuff without getting overwhelmed. Secondly I used the shadows/highlights too to reduce the highlights and 3rdly the AP Honders scope is really well baffled so I think it helped a lot there too. I actually had a ring reflection artefact on the LRGBs. I took a 2nd run and moved the scene a tad to reduce it. Then when I processed them together this acted like a dither and magically the ring reflection artefact disappeared. I was nicely surprised there. When I first saw the reflections I started wondering how I was going to get rid of them so that worked out accidentally well. So if you get nasty reflections try a large dither (like 10% movement of the frame)



Wow, thank you.

[Bassnut]

Nice work Greg, youve certainly banged up the colour, and why not, appropriate.

[Andy01]

Looks clear & crisp & poppy Greg.:)

Not sure what's happened to the star colours though, they seem to have been lost?
Amazing detail & the dynamic range is excellent. :thumbsup:

[Maurice]

Very striking image Greg.
Congratulations.

Regards
Maurice

[gregbradley]

Thanks Fred. Yes the colour is a bit in your face.



Must 've been the ha. I look at that and see if I can get some star colours back.



Thanks very much Maurice.

Greg.

[Placidus]

Rich pleasant colour, silky smooth, lovely composition.

[gregbradley]

Thanks Mike. I was worried it was a bit over the top but then it is a very colourful area. I also saw David Malins Horsehead on the Star Gazing show and it was very colourful as well.

Greg.

[gvanhau]

Beautifull image Greg.

Is that really a cometary globule on the top left? it apears also in my own images, but never payed attention to it.

Geert

[gregbradley]

I am not sure Geert. I'll look it up in the Sky X.

Greg.

[Atmos]

Love the detail in the flame and horsehead Greg, I don't think the saturation has been pushed too far though, it should be colourful!

I've come back to it a couple of times so it isn't my mind playing tricks, at first I thought it looked a little like a registration issue in the green channel but a closer look has it looking like the left side of a lot of stars are missing the other channels.

Is this caused by the 50% resolution drop and JPEG compression? Just haven't seen it before.

[DJT]

Lovely image Greg. Nicely framed and I also think e colour and saturation is great. Top job:thumbsup:

[topheart]

Beautiful image Greg!
Cheers,
Tim

[gregbradley]

I redid a lot of this image and paid more attention to extra data rejection on the Ha layer. I also tracked down a source of some star artifacts and got it all corrected. But then I looked at the posted image and could not see those artefact stars you posted. They must be heavily cropped and magnified? There were some minor artifacts though (I think). I have posted the latest repro version that has had more care on data rejection and any star artifacts and it seems pretty free of artifacts at this end. Image looks much the same with some subtle colour difference.

Greg.



That's good to know. Its hard to judge what is a good amount of colour at times.



Thanks Tim.

Greg.