Triple Treat - Cat's Paw, Lobster & Prawn.

[Retrograde]

Another wide-field from SPSP. Originally planned as a two-panel mosaic but when I set up the framing it seemed pretty good as it was.
I'm really pleased with how this came out in the end. 20 x 90-second subs through the Samyang 135mm f2 (at f2.8) using the modded Pentax K-5iis.

Whilst there are plenty of images of the Cat's Paw and Lobster together, plenty of the region around the Prawn and plenty of very wide-field shots of the whole region, there do not appear to be many shots at this in-between focal length covering this incredibly rich area.

Bigger: http://www.astrobin.com/full/298729/0/

Thanks for looking :)

[Placidus]

Wonderful! As well as the three (four) main subjects, you've got some beautiful detail in the general Milky Way.

Your colour presentation is also great. You've steered away from the awful magenta-bruised-liver "natural is best" look, and given the nebulosity a rich warm glow.

Bravo!

[strongmanmike]

Another great SPSP shot Peter and yes, well framed...and good to see good'ol fashioned shots with pinky-red nebulae pock marked across the star fields of the Milky Way :thumbsup:

Mike

[gregbradley]

Very nice Pete. Looks on my monitor to have just a touch too much green in it (top left area of stars).

Your modded camera picked up the Ha really well.

Greg.

[topheart]

Great Shot!! Lovely grouping of objects!
Well done!
Cheers,
Tim

[Retrograde]

Thanks for your very kind comment Mike & Trish.



Thanks very much Mike!



Thanks Greg - I kind of agree with you about the green - I actually tried taking some out using HVLG but the image as a whole lost some of its punch so I ended up just leaving it :lol:



Cheers Tim - thanks for the positive comment. :)

[Slawomir]

Looks very nice Pete. I think your image has helped me to make my mind in regards to my next target. No, it's not Cat's Paw :)

[Atmos]

Very nice Pete! Actually had this in my sights with my unmoderated D7200 for the next new moon :)

[Raydar]

Nice star field resolution mate

Ray

[multiweb]

Another great widefield Pete. Really nicely done. :thumbsup:

[RickS]

I thought I'd responded to this already but maybe I failed to press the submit button :question:

That's a really cool composition and well-executed, Pete.

[Retrograde]

Thanks Suavi - glad to be able to provide some inspiration. Let me guess - Prawn region? So much going on there (with the dark tower just nearby too).



Thanks Colin.

I was wondering if the slightly hazy regions near the Cat's Paw (with lots of blue stars in them) match up with the blue cast you were seeing in your Cat's Paw image?



Thank-you Ray :)



Cheers Mark!



Thanks Rick - appreciate your comment as always.

[atalas]

Awesome wide field shot Pete :thumbsup: well done.

[gregbradley]

Thanks Greg - I kind of agree with you about the green - I actually tried taking some out using HVLG but the image as a whole lost some of its punch so I ended up just leaving it :lol:

I know what you mean about HLVG. The slightly extra green can make some stars look brighter. Sometimes it improves and other times it doesn't.

Greg.

[astronobob]

Great scene & image, Pete, loving the color splash in this composition, & contrasty dark areas through-out - very nice job :thumbsup:

[Retrograde]

Thanks very much Louie!



I tried with just the minimal HLVG setting as well. Perhaps if I play around with some masked HLVG removal it might work better. I didn't use any sharpening or noise-reduction on this either.



Thanks Bob, it's a really interesting field and I was quite surprised at how some of those dark nebulae came out almost jet-black in contrast to everything else.

[marc4darkskies]

Almost missed this one! I love this field Pete! Very nicely done! Quite a reasonable colour balance too. Even though colour & saturation is largely a matter of taste, I do agree with Greg about the green tint and, on my monitor (calibrated Eizo), the HII is a teensy bit salmon too.



No clue what HVLG is (other than a typical 4 letter PI acronym :lol:) but in PS it's very straight forward using Colour Balance and Selective Colour tools. I tinkered a bit (to make sure I was right) - see below - hope you don't mind! :scared3:
I threw in a bit of contrast enhancement for good measure. Perhaps I was a little brutal with the saturation but the green is largely gone and the HII is slightly pinker plus the fainter HII is more visible.

Regardless of my impertinent tinkering :D, you've got a fine image here Pete! :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Aaaah wha...?? :scared2:...Pete, I think Marcus had a brain fart :eyepop: :rofl:...sorry Marcus :ashamed:

I also think 76 year old :eyepop: David Malin may well have his own special critique on this image...I am sure you will enjoy it at Parks :rofl:

Mike

[marc4darkskies]

Oh my! I was merely illustrating with a thumbnail that getting rid of green (which Pete had said he was unable to do effectively (yet)) was easy. I was not attempting to reprocess Pete's great image, and I was not (I thought) inviting your ridicule! Getting rid of superfluous green in an LRGB image is crucial to getting a good outcome, assuming it's not the rare case where green is actually present. It also simultaneously improves any reds and magentas you want to highlight. I'm only sorry I couldn't demonstrate that in PI but I'm sure it's easy there too. A fuller remediation of the relatively minor green cast in this image would probably require some masking and, of course, some time - not a quick hack like I did.

Sorry Pete, I don't often supply examples unless asked, but I took an interest in your image. It's a good one and my tinkering was meant only as an illustration on removing the scourge of green.

[Retrograde]

It's all good Marcus.

I'm certainly not offended or anything and glad that you would take enough interest in my image to try and help out. :)

I used to have to process my images on the laptop screen and they always looked anaemic unless I pumped up the saturation. Of course on any other monitor they looked way over-saturated!
At the beginning of the year got a decent sized 2K IPS monitor (it's not an Eizo or anything) but it has made a huge difference to my images and processing results. Still along way to go however and I guess you never really stop learning in this hobby.

I had look at the your adjustments Marcus and can see the increase in nebulosity but I think it now lacks blue. I removed some blue during my processing as I thought it was a bit overwhelming and maybe this has in turn caused your removal of green to result in a lack of blue? :shrug:

Thanks for your concern Mike - truth is I rushed the processing after returning from SPSP on the Sunday so as to submit this image to the Malins in time for the deadline on Wednesday. It wouldn't surprise me at all if David makes the same critique as Greg and Marcus. :lol:

I'm ecstatic to have two of my wide-field images in the finals - I'm only up against some guy called Troy - anyone heard of him? :rofl: :rofl::rofl:

[strongmanmike]

Hey com'on Marcus where's ya sense of humour mate :lol: was fun ridicule not nasty, no harm intended, your efforts just made me chuckle, that's all, don't take it personally, it's just crazy'ol me :nerd: :)

[strongmanmike]

Troy?...Troy who? :lol:....man his work is spectacular :eyepop:

And so you should be ecstatic, I hope you enjoy DM's critique, he may even reprocess your image too :lol: :thumbsup:

Mike

[DJT]

Hi Pete

Great image. Looking forward to looking at that space between the prawn and the cats paw, interesting red stuff in there.

Marcus, HLVG is a plug in for photoshop. Apparently it means Hasta La Vista green and it was written by Rogelio Bernal Andrew.

PI use SCNR ( subractive Chromatic Noise Reduction). HLVG has by far the better acronym!

Come over to the light side, you know you wanna;)

[Retrograde]

Thanks very much David.

Yes I think that area might make a good target for someone with narrowband/Ha capability.

[Bart]

Another lovely wide field shot. Very nice.

[Retrograde]

Thanks very much Bart.