Horse Head and Flame in Ha

[Ryderscope]

First image posting to kick off 2018.
Ha channel with Astronomik 6nm filter. TSA120 @ F5.6, QSI683 CCD.
23 subs @ 20 minutes per sub. Processing in Pixinsight 1.8.5.

Link to Astrobin image here. (http://astrob.in/full/330813/0/)

Comments and critique welcome.

[Peter Ward]

Excellent framing. Great technique and handling of the highlights and shadows.

Nice one :thumbsup:

[Paul Haese]

Agreed, the framing is nice Rodney. I reckon though you could do some selective sharpening to give it that extra punch.

[strongmanmike]

Looks good Rod, a classic composition for this field.

Mike

[Ryderscope]

Many thanks for the comments and feedback everyone.

[Placidus]

Masterly in all respects, Rodney!

Much of the very faint material has a "fox fur" look to it, and there is even a very fine spare "cone nebula" at the bottom edge at seven o'clock.

Very best,
MnT

[Atmos]

It looks really good Rodney, nicely framed and it’s quite deep!

[gregbradley]

The perfect framing for this object. This is the classic look and I think the best. Lovely deep reach in the Ha but I agree with Paul its a bit soft in the key items. The Horsehead and the flame plus the ridges of the Ha could take a bit of masked sharpening.

In Photoshop:

duplicate layer
overlay or soft light mode
high pass filter set to 7
mask hide all
set paintbrush to white
paint in the areas you want sharpened - brush set to say 30-50%
flatten image

Greg.

[RickS]

A fine horsie, Rod :thumbsup:

[Stevec35]

It is of course a very well known scene Rodney but a particularly nice composition. It might be worth trying a touch of HDR but it's pretty good as it is.

Steve

[Ryderscope]

Thanks MnT. Yours comments always help me to peer further into my images.

[Ryderscope]

Thanks everyone.

[willik]

Looks good Rodney
Very nice horse head a little bit sharper would have done the trick.
Martin

[Ross G]

great looking Horse Head photo Rodney.

Nice composition and beautiful tones.

Ross.

[Ryderscope]

Thanks Martin and Ross.

[Ryderscope]

I've improved the contrast in the image very slightly using Pixinsight. I applied a star mask and a small amount of Local Histogram Equalisation. Not much as I don't like pushing things too much. A slight but subtle improvement I think. Link here to new version. (http://astrob.in/full/330813/B/)

[Camelopardalis]

Beautifully done Rodney :thumbsup:

[Ryderscope]

Thank you very much Dunk.

[topheart]

A classic!
Well framed!!
Cheers,
Tim

[Ryderscope]

Thanks Tim.

[multiweb]

Great shot Rodney. Never tire of a good HH. As Peter said you've ticked all the boxes. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Ryderscope]

Thanks Marc.