NGC 3576 in colour

[Peter Ward]

Nice to get some clear weather and new colour data.

The h-a blend is no longer too ropy, the re-pro has fixed most of it

The colourful result is here (http://www.atscope.com.au/BRO/gallery427.html)

[Star Catcher]

Excellent Peter! I've got something to aim for now :)
Ted

[alpal]

Hi Peter,
lovely crisp tiny stars & great detail.
You can tell that it's an ultra premium scope.
I would have been tempted to adjust it in LAB mode to bring
out a greater variation in colours.
There are brown, tan & many more shades of red to dig out.

cheers
Allan

[Peter Ward]

Ta Allan. I had not visited this one for a while...and forgot that it really is quite faint, hence probably needs a couple of hours in each RGB channel to finesse the colour....which as you say is subtle but varied.



Thanks Ted. I was considering getting some more data tonight...but the temperature today was NUTS...it's Autumn, 10.30pm at night and still 30 degrees C! WTF ????

[Paul Haese]

Lots of nice sharp detail Peter. I agree about the colour, its a tough one to get looking right in my experience.

[Peter Ward]

Thanks Paul. With some spare time I had yesterday, I tidied up the H-alpha blend. The colour is more nuanced and the blue ringed stars are fairly well tamed. Looks really nice on a 5k monitor :)

Same URL

[alpal]

Nice repro Peter,
I wish you would have kept the original so we could
compare.
You've definetly got the left hand nebula looking further away -
it's darker with far more colours.
Wow that has got to be the most photogenic pair of nebulas out there
for astronomers to capture - only the Trifid & Eta can come close.

cheers
Allan

[JA]

Great contrast + detail :thumbsup:

Best
JA

[Placidus]

A tasteful, aesthetically pleasing image, with beautiful star colours. You've preserved the detail in the H-alpha only version, something we found difficult.

Best,
Mike

[Atmos]

I'm usually not too impressed with this region in RGB but this one I do like. Very nice contrast throughout the image and good colour rendition.

[Peter Ward]

Too kind. It was tricky getting the booming h-alpha data to co-operate... in the end I found less is best.



Glad you enjoyed the view



Agreed...the are not too many nebulae that show such contrasting colours due their relative distance. (that's not quite right...due more intervening dust ahead of the more distant object )

Not overly big or bright...hence I suspect this is the reason it does not get hammered as often as M42 or Eta Carina. I have targeted this before with my 12" F3.8...the lack of image scale however led to a very average result.

I suspect it might do well with a HaRGB OIII SII mix. Sadly the weather forecast says otherwise for now :shrug:

[cometcatcher]

Looks fantastic! I want to try for it but will be disappointed after seeing your image.

[Peter Ward]

Very kind....and certainly have a go at this one for yourself...there is no need to please anyone else :thumbsup:

[Andy01]

Wow! Like Madonna on a chariot leading the Sydney Mardi Gras - that's big bold and er - very pink! :D
Love the star colours and the subtle rendering of the dark neb above lady Liberty.

Wonderful sharp details, not sure about the pink... did I mention it's bright? :D lol :scared3:

[gregbradley]

An impressive rendition. What I like is the nebula colours and detail and the way you can tell the right hand nebula is further away which I have to say is the first time that has been shown in versions I have seen.

What I find personally a bit distracting is the star colours are overly saturated and the yellow stars have fairly bright red ring around them. Seeing as the Malin's thing this year is about star colour and David says they are pastel shades then these stars must be too colourful. Makes for a high impact artistic image though.

Greg.

[Peter Ward]

Thanks for the constructive comments Greg...yes the rings are proving problematic as the seeing during the RGB collection was just average.

Suffice to say I would not toss this "Las Vegas" IIS version into CWAS...David's keen eye requires a more subtle, and accurate approach all around.




Strike me pink Andy! You say it's too pink? :lol:

Actually I don't know for sure.....sooo many images of this puppy are Narrow Band and the colour versions vary wildly.
I suspect there really is some H-beta in there somewhere, just need to work out how much :thumbsup:

[Ryderscope]

Absolutely superb! I think that the colour works well Peter :thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Peter Ward]

Thanks :)

[multiweb]

Exceptional details. :thumbsup:

[Peter Ward]

Thanks very much Marc.

It's a tricky one to process as Pixinsight does not do a great job, in this case, of sorting out the gradients. (ah...the joys of urban imaging :) )

That said I think I'm converging on a solution ;)

[atalas]

Nice work Peter :thumbsup: I'd like to see a larger image....smaller one tends to look over sharpened and doesn't do your great work justice.

[Peter Ward]

I hear what you are saying Louie, but I limit the size and .jpeg quality of stuff I put on the web due plagiarism concerns..

Suffice to say, there are no dark rings around stars in the 4k, 16 bit .tiff version :)