The Seven Sisters

[gregbradley]

Its been a while since I imaged this one and I often miss it as its not really very high in the sky and its not up for imaging that long.

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/165251660/large

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/165251660/original looks best in this large size.

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

Quite lovely Greg, well done,, you seem to finally have that Honders singing with the FLI attached :thumbsup: I can't wait to have a crack at this once the FSQ-PL16803 is up and running :D

Mike

[gregbradley]

Thanks Mike. How's progress on the FSQ/16803? A classic combo.

Greg.

[Atmos]

That's really nice Greg, I am going to have to image this area some day... maybe next year.

[JA]

Wonderful Image Greg :thumbsup:

Best
JA

[RickS]

Take a look at the histogram, Greg. Looks like all channels have some hefty black clipping?

[Andy01]

Echoing Rick's comments, that makes for a very dramatic presentation :)

[SimmoW]

Yeah, my favourite target done in a really punchy and dramatic way, lovely! Good to see it with decent data.

[strongmanmike]

Couldn't see this at work but now at home, yeah, pretty obvious Greg, still the makings of a fantastic image dude, just fix the clipping :thumbsup:

Mike

[Peter Ward]

I rather like the high key look to the image that you achieved by having, well, black blacks.

Actually, I think it's one of the best images you have produced in quite a while.

Nice one :thumbsup:

[LewisM]

GX UGC 02838 stands out beautifully in that image Greg. NICE.

[gregbradley]

Thanks for that.



Thank you, appreciated.



Yes the red channel was a bit messy and required some balancing which led to some clipping. I didn't think it was too bad but its worth a redo to see if I can balance out the red properly without causing the black clipplng. A repro coming up.



Thanks Andy. I wasn't able to get as much red as the other channels and some of the red had some gradients (observatory wall gets in the way as this one sets).



Thanks Simon.



Yeah I think I can do it. I may have to resort to using PI hehehe.



Cheers Peter. Clipping blacks does punch up contrast! but at a cost of some subtle shade details. I think there may be a bit of dust in the star areas that could be revealed with more careful processing.



Which one is that Lewis - the little galaxy near the top of the image?

Greg.

[gregbradley]

I have fixed the clipped blacks and done a hundred lines of " will not black clip my histograms".
It did bring out more star colour and some of the dust in the area which I presume is the same dust near those bright stars that is being lit up.

Same links:

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/165251660/large

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/165251660/original looks best in this large size.



Greg.

[RickS]

That's great, Greg. Looks more natural, to me at least!

[topheart]

Just lovely Greg!!

Nice to see the sisters without diffraction spikes.....my BRC + PL16803 has a similar view, but with spikes.....

I really like the un-clipped redo .....very well done!
Cheers,
Tim

[gregbradley]

Thanks Rick. It was a bit lazy of me really. I knew it was blackclipped but thought I would have to go way back in the processing and it didn't look too bad. You're keeping me honest Rick!



Thanks Tim. I think the best version I had done of this previously was with a BRC250. Diffractions spikes are a matter of taste. I don't mind them really.

Greg.

[Atmos]

:thumbsup:
The outer regions are showing up a lot nicer, presumably because they're actually there now :P :lol:

[LewisM]

PGC13696 / UGC 02838 - the one next to Electra (right hand side, half-way up)

[gregbradley]

Yes black clipping is for sinners and losers! :rofl: It does look better as I was hoping to catch some of that dust I've seen in other deep shots.



Thanks Lewis. I noticed that when I was processing the image. Its amazing what modern cameras and scopes can pick up.

Greg.

[Camelopardalis]

Especially like the repro Greg :thumbsup: all the detail in the wisps :eyepop:

[traveller]

Lovely details. My target for next season.
Thanks for sharing Greg.

[marc4darkskies]

A beautiful image in every respect Greg! :thumbsup:

[Geoff45]

Some nice subtle browns in there Greg. Well done.
Geoff

[Andy01]

Loving the smooth detail and contrast on the repro now Greg, really nice dynamic range - still thinking there should be more gold in them thar stars though... :scared3:

[gregbradley]

Thanks for that. Yes I am pleasantly surprised at how much detail came out. Its quite a low object.



Its a classic astro object.



Thanks very much Marcus.


Thank Geoff. I presume that's the dust that gets lit up by the stars.



Thanks Andy. I usually like more colourful stars but David Malin has done a study on star colours and says they are pastel coloured so that is how I have tried to display them.

Greg.

[Stevec35]

Nicely done Greg. Colour and detail look great.

Cheers

Steve

[gregbradley]

Cheers Steve.

Greg.

[Paul Haese]

I agree that everything looks to be working well on this system now Greg. I would really like to see you obtain triple the data you have here. I think you are missing some of that really faint dust and gas that is present in deep integrations. I will never be able to image this object with my current location so I would love to see a rather deep one again from Australia.

[Shano592]

Beautiful image!

I know that this region is my wife's favourite, so I have a feeling that your image may become her desktop, very soon! (with your permission, of course)

[gregbradley]

Deeper is always better for sure. I did a version at my dark site with an AP140 that captured more of the dust etc. But it was also a shorter integration time. Its a difficult one to get large amounts of data as similarly my observatory wall blocks a view of it for part of the time. But there is always next year and I can add to what I already have.




Yes of course, that would be fine.

Greg.

[Shiraz]

perfect - what a winner. Looks like that's the setup to stick with

[gregbradley]

Thanks Ray, I appreciate the compliment.

Greg.

[alan meehan]

that's great greg the redone version is the winner far more detail
AL

[gregbradley]

Cheers, thanks Alan.

Greg.