The Eye of Sauron

[Andy01]

Been working away at this one for a while - inspired by Suavi's magnificent image a month or so ago.

Probably not finished yet, not sure if it ever will be!
Even after a whopping 30 hrs of 3nm Ha I can't get seem to get more detail without it being noisier than the MCG on Grand final day!
That elusive little chevron on the far left may be just too dim to seperate from the skyglow at home from under my LP skies.

That said, I wanted to feature the O3 spikes.
There's 11 hrs of data there too and I've attempted to do so with processing & masking etc. and added some RGB stars in to the mix as well.

There's a big one HERE (https://www.astrobin.com/full/363926/C/)

Thanks for looking anyway :)

[topheart]

Very eye catching and original !!
I like it!
Cheers,
Tim

[multiweb]

Sure looks like an eye, especially the iris. Nice one. :thumbsup:

[cometcatcher]

The OIII spikes show up nicely. I like the mix of colours. I'm trying this one as well. Looks like it needs lots of time.

[gregbradley]

Those O111 spikes have shown up very nicely.

Greg.

[RickS]

Noisy but very promising, Andy.

[Stevec35]

That is indeed an interesting presentation of the Helix Andy. The spikes are certainly very prominent. Initially I wasn't that wrapped in the colour but it's growing on me.

Cheers

Steve

[JA]

Well done Andy :thumbsup:

Best
JA

[Slawomir]

I really like your image of the Helix Andy, very nicely balanced in terms of detail, colours, stars and overal impression :thumbsup:

I had just over 50hours of Ha in my attempt at the Helix; the skies in here are quite dark but a large chunk of data was captured around the Full Moon as well. I think what helped was imaging at F/4.5 combined with 4e read noise, both helped to compensate for a small aperture and relatively short 15-min subs.

[troypiggo]

Interesting to see a different interpretation of it.

[strongmanmike]

Not too bad Andy, it's coming along, the outer faint stuff is starting to come through. It's very hard to show both the OIII structure and the Ha structures, they seem to exclude each other when you try layering etc. Which telescope is that? The thin diffraction spikes look to have been added :question: so I am thinking it's your refractor..? One thing, there appears to be a black hole lower right, the outer billowing structures down there look like they have a big chunck out of them? Flats?

Mike

[Benjamin]

Beautiful. I like the way you’ve held back the central Ha ring given how much that O3 hides in it. I guess there are some sacrifices with central Ha detail too but it’s still a compelling image!

[Andy01]

Thanks Tim - it's not easy to bring something new to a classic target - glad you liked it :)



Cheers Marc, it's a pretty amazing object and it's extraordinary that we can see the eye so clearly in O3



Thanks Kevin - it's taking forever to get the feint bits from my location, maybe you'll have more luck up there :)


Cheers greg, I used the NIK filters PS detail extractor to help render them more clearly :D



Yep, just like my son's trumpet practice sessions :lol:



Cheers Steve, it's an aquired taste! A fresh approach to an old favourite :)



Thanks JA :)



Thanks Suavi, with my rig it needs a bazillion hrs more data to come close to the detail in yours, so I tried a different approach - glad you liked it :)



Thanks Troy! :)



Cheers Mike - it's the RC8. I don't have a flat panel/lightbox for it yet so it may well be a flats issue - well spotted!



Thanks Benjamin, yes that was my intention - if you let all the Ha through it washes out the O3 spikes. I saw an earlier APOD version by Martin Pugh and another here by Al Sam that got me thinking about trying something different with this well imaged target. Seems to have worked, just needs yet more data. Crikey, it's now 44 hrs worth already!

[cometcatcher]

So I'm not going mad. I've noticed that. Where did all my nice Ha go? The OIII ate it!

[Geoff45]

It is a it noisy, but the detail is still pretty good. The colours really do suggest an eye—one of the first things that hit me.

[strongmanmike]

It's a challenge for sure Kev :thumbsup:

[Ryderscope]

Wow, definitely the year of amazing challenges of the Helix. This one stands up extremely well to the challenge as well Andy :thumbsup:

[tornado33]

The spikes most impressive as is that dust lane of darkness at around the 7 oclock position in the inner ring
Scott

[SimmoW]

Yeah, as others said, noise is an issue but the colours are cool Andy.

Good to see you try a common target for a change!

[Andy01]

‘Tis a balancing act that’s for sure, much patience and layering in PS was required to achieve this result so far :D



Cheers Geoff, appreciate your comments :thumbsup:



Thanks Rodney- I’m happy-ish with it so far.
Not much else to shoot from home at this time of year so may get back to it soon.



Thanks Scott! Those spikes are hard to render properly. :)



Cheers Simmo, was inspired by Al & Suavi to have a decent crack at this thing again. Hav’nt tried it since back at Nhill in 2015!