City Lights/NGC2070

[Benjamin]

Got into a strange zone with processing last night and went back over more old data to see what I could get. As I was playing with colour and isolation settings in StarTools I kept thinking this NGC2070 looked a little like city lights viewed from above. Recent trips to Europe via Dubai always seem to fly over Mumbai and this is what was in my head. I guess it departs from a faithfully reproduced Tarantula, given I'm not entirely sure what is and isn't noise in spots, but think if I'm going to get creative I probably need to push more into the weirdness of it all? The other thing I was reminded of was a Laurie Anderson story: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wP9EW2uAW4I

[Atmos]

It looks a bit like the green and blue channels may have been swapped.
It looks quite good otherwise :)

[Benjamin]

This was the previous version, just cropped and stretched in Nebulosity. It certainly seems to have drifted to the green side!

[raymo]

That green is exactly what you get if you properly align the RGB "cones"
in DSS. Green is the dominant colour in 2070.
raymo

[JA]

That looks wonderful Ben. You definitely have that city lights theme goin' on.:thumbsup:

Best
JA

[blink138]

the fuziness could also be dew on your optics?
pat

[cometcatcher]

Unless you use a modified camera or LP filter. Then red Ha is dominant.

[Benjamin]

NGC2070 was taken with an unmodded 600D and no LP filter. No idea what the integration time was. This was before I had the modded 40D hence the green I guess. Don't think there was dew about. This was taken on December 15th 2016 in Brisbane. It's more that the noise was pretty extreme (sensor temps generally go well above 30degrees) and the isolation button in the Life module in StarTools requires a pretty good mask to avoid keeping the noise around the objects you wish to isolate. Trying various masking techniques (selecting similar brightness or similar colour) which work to some extent. Much of the fuzziness is kind of what I was after (and I think it's mostly there anyway) to get this sense of pockets of stellar activity, like little town centers :-)

[sil]

Put on Zappa's City Of Tiny Lights while processing this one? :)

[Benjamin]

I should have put on some Zappa! Haven't listened to those albums for ages :thumbsup: I like the Zappa/astro combo. Have been listening to the new Bowie album on previous astro adventures and some slightly disturbing David Lynch soundscapes so it'd fit right in :-)