VdB152 in HaLRGB

[RickS]

VdB 152 is a reflection nebula at the tip of the dark nebula Barnard 175. The small bright red object just under VdB 152 is the Herbig-Haro object HH 450 (a proto-star.) The red tendrils are a supernova remnant. A pretty cool field :)

It took me quite a while to process this one because it was difficult (28 hours of Ha was still very noisy) and also because I was testing a new version of PI that will be released soon. It has some pretty cool new features and my ColorMask script is now part of the standard version :D

Scope: Ceravolo C300 @ f/4.9 = 1470mm FL
Mount: AP1100
Camera: FLI PL16803
Focuser: Atlas
Filters: Astrodon
Guiding: Lodestar II / Tak guide scope
Image scale: 1.26 arcsec/pixel (Drizzled to double res, processed, then downsampled x 0.75)
Exposures: 35x1200s R, 35x1200s G, 31x1200s B, 61x600s L, 56x1800s Ha (71.83 hours)
Processing: PixInsight 1.8.5

Acquisition credit: Scott Johnson, Augusto Hernandez, John Kasianowicz, Daniele Malleo, Jose Mtanous and Rick Stevenson
Processing credit: Rick Stevenson

Big version on Astrobin: http://www.astrobin.com/full/303504/0/

There are still some minor nits that annoy me and I'll probably go back and do a repro. Feel free to point out all the obvious faults that I've missed :thanx:

Cheers,
Rick.

[gregbradley]

What a striking and unusual image. That shaft of Ha reaching up under the dust area is very dramatic.

Greg.

[Martin Pugh]

This is gorgeous Rick with a colour palette I really like.

well done.

Martin

[cometcatcher]

71.8 hours!!!!!!!!!

A lot going on there. Beautiful image.

[strongmanmike]

Wow Rick that's a beautiful image and intriguing, so much to look at, well done, take a bow :prey2:

A lot of shots of the vdb152 complex miss the vibrant Ha SNR tendrils but you have captured them here nicely, and I love the bright blue stars :thumbsup:

Any very minor imperfections are only visible at the full res image, who cares :shrug: :thumbsup:

So you have been immortalised :innocent: in PI..? cool!

...nuff said, I'm going back for another look :rundog:

Mike :thumbsup:

[RickS]

Thanks Greg. We originally imaged it without Ha and I could see the faint "forks" and managed to convince the rest of the team to hit it hard with the Ha filter while there was plenty of moon and not much else to do. It was definitely worthwhile.



Thanks very much, Martin!



Ta, Kevin. Long integrations are not that hard with an automated scope and a site with mostly decent weather. I chucked more than 12 hours of subs that I wasn't happy with :)



Thanks, Mikey! I normally try to tame the halos but in this image I let them run free :lol: It's a very photogenic field and I just tried not to mess it up.

[SimmoW]

Lovely image Rick. Main complaint I have is that there's nothing to complain about:lol: :lol:

[RickS]

Thanks, Simon. You could complain that the background has a bit of a colour cast. I can come up with several more if you'd like :lol:

[lazjen]

Too much noise - throw it out I reckon... ;) *cough*

More seriously, that looks great and excellent news re: your colour script. :thumbsup:

[Paul Haese]

At the fit to window resolution this is spectacular looking. Colour is great and interesting detailing around the reflection and dark nebula The addition of the Ha data really makes the image. Well done Rick.

[Andy01]

Wow! 1st impressions are love the colours & 3D feel. :)
Probably just me but I'm not sure about the linear composition of the hero subject being placed smack bang in the middle though, makes it look like two images (top half & bottom half) competing with one another for attention. :question:
Spectacular processing & I really enjoy the glowing bright stars.
Well done! :thumbsup:

[Stevec35]

Lovely work Rick!

Steve

[ozstronomer]

Beautiful image Rick, really like the FOV on this one

Well done :thumbsup:

Cheers Geoff

[marc4darkskies]

A magical image Rick! Rich and compelling colours.

[vlazg]

Fantastic image Rick, the band of dust is amazing.
Congratulations on the inclusion of your script in PI, it will be nice to try it, i couldn't use it before as i use a Mac, looking forward to it.

[Placidus]

A wonderful photo. So much to see!! The snr has some razor-sharp shock fronts. There are some interesting shells and squiggles around the bright star dead centre that suggest it is busy blasting away at the cometary globule it is embedded in.

Thanks for pointing out the HH object. That's a special treat.

[beren]

:thumbsup: awesome Rick........wish I could get those nice blue star colours

[RickS]

Thanks, Chris. I'm looking forward to fewer messages from people who can't figure out how to download the script :)



Thanks, Paul!



Ta, Andy. I agree that the composition could have been better. I played with a few crops but didn't find anything that appealed so much I was willing to toss away a big chunk of FOV. Unfortunately, we don't have a rotator on that scope or I would have gone for a different angle.



Thanks, Steve.



Ta, Geoff. I didn't even mind the big stars in this one :)



Thanks very much, Marcus!



Thanks, George.



Ta muchly, M&T! I read that the central star is thought to have wandered there. It's a shame we can't see how these things evolve over time.



Thanks! I didn't even need to boost the blues... this time ;)

[Retrograde]

A delightfully deep mix of delicate red filaments, smoky dust clouds and sparkling blue gems. What's not to like? :)

[DJT]

Wow, that's pretty cool, simply loads going on in the fov and the colours are excellent. I went pixel peeking and there's a shed load of faint fuzzies tucked away in there as well.

Great stuff:thumbsup:

[RickS]

Thanks, Pete.



And thanks, David!

[markas]

Great image Rick. The colour balance is very appealing and there is a terrific 3D look to it.

Mark

[RickS]

Thanks, Mark.

[topheart]

Hi Rick,
Amazing!
A landmark image for sure.
Very beautiful!
Cheers,
Tim

[multiweb]

Top shot Rick. Very colorful. Interesting structures. Reminds me a bit of the cone nebula. :thumbsup:

[atalas]

Wow Rick....very cool work dude :thumbsup:

[alan meehan]

Hey Rick very nice image well done on your imput to PI ,Just watched the latest space movie LIFE the dust cloud looks like the alien from mars in there
AL

[RickS]

Thanks, Tim!



Ta, Marc. Certainly has some of the same ingredients.



Thanks, Louie.



Thanks, Al.

[strongmanmike]

Just came back for another look....top shot Rick :thumbsup:

Just sayin...

Mike

[RickS]

Ta, Mike :thanx:

[Geoff45]

Very interesting field Rick--lots of variation in the objects. Plus good definition and detail to really round it off nicely.
Geoff

[RickS]

Thanks, Geoff!