The Dragon, The Seagull, The Rose and her Lover...

[Andy01]

NGC 2014, 2020, 2029 & 2032.

Always loved these wacky little nebs in the LMC - and these two are my favourites. :D

This is a Bicolour HaRGO3B taken from Suburban Melbourne over three consecutive nights under a 3/4 moon.

8 Hrs Ha 3nm 1800 sec
6 Hrs O3 3nm 1800 sec
1hr RG&B 120 sec

Hope to gather some S2 data on this soon to make a HST colour palette version. :)

Processed mostly in the new AstropixelProcessor, and finessed in PS.
I'm finally getting my head around it this app. It has great preprocessing & stacking, and a fantastic LP removal function.
Not too sure about the colour combine functionality yet, but probably just because I'm used to PS.

I've got 100+ hrs more data on two seperate projects to finish eventually, but that's going to have to wait until I figure out how to combine binx1 & Binx2 data with APP.

At least I've finally got an image up now - it's been ages!:screwy:

High res version is HERE (https://www.astrobin.com/full/377700/C/)

Comments welcome :thumbsup:

Description: ESO/APOD - Two unlikely nebulae located side-by-side. The pinkish nebula on the far left, known as NGC 2014, is an ionized gas cloud comprised almost entirely of hydrogen. A cluster of stars are responsible for the characteristic glow accompanying the ionization. When the stellar winds pierced through the galaxy, hydrogen atoms were stripped of their electrons when they came in contact with ultraviolet radiation streaming from young, energetic stars . The clouds of gas were then reborn when the hydrogen and their electrons recombined.

Its blueish partner (pictured on the right) is NGC 2020. Its bubble-like cavity was naturally carved out as gaseous material was carried away by stellar winds.In contrast to NGC 2014, the bluish hue seen here is the work of one single, massive, unstable star called a Wolf-Rayet star. Instead of acting as an agent for the ionization of hydrogen, this star is responsible for ionizing surrounding oxygen atoms. (Hence the variation in color)

The rose-like Dragon Head Nebula NGC 2032/2040 is pictured to the right.

[strongmanmike]

Nice Melbourne skies work Andy, a very interesting collection of nebs that :thumbsup: The top left area has always reminded me of a big brain and I've always liked the blue torus near the brain too. So many interesting crazy looking nebulae in the LMC huh? Could keep a small FOV imager occupied for a life time, well done :)

Mike

[Peter Ward]

Hey Andy....sorry can't give you an "A" for this one...maybe a B+....unfortunately my eye was drawn to the soft and slightly elongated stellar profiles, lack of filigree nebulosity, granular sky and almost duo-tone colours (yep...I'm a totally non-PC critic)

That said, the composition and framing is spot-on, as you'd expect from a seasoned professional photographer. A solid image for sure . :thumbsup:

As for the Rorschach test...nup...there is just a fish swimming towards me :D

[multiweb]

Very colourful field with good details. You'll need a lot more data to smooth it out. :thumbsup:

[Placidus]

What we especially like: the head of the seagull. In our version, which is rotated 180 degrees compared with yours, we saw the brain coral, of course, and two espresso coffee cups as seen from above, one strong in Ha, the other in OIII. In your version, we see that your right-hand coffee cup is actually the head of the seagull.

We can also see that we clipped the blacks in our version. You've got some faint nebulosity that we've missed. Well done! We're going to have to reprocess ours.

Best,
MnT

[RickS]

Nice composition and colour, Andy. Somewhat noisy and the stars are a bit funky as Peter noted. Could be a great image with a little more work :thumbsup:

Cheers,
Rick.

[Atmos]

It's looking good Andy, you're getting better stellar profiles than you have been in the past you've got that RC8 going quite well so far :)

I've imaged this a couple of times with different setups but never been quite as deep as this. A lot more going on than I've picked up in my versions :thumbsup:

[Andy01]

Cheers Mike ;) I was originally inspired by an image Paul Haese posted here several years ago, of course there have been many other wonderful versions (including yours) since - marvellous region, so much to image at all focal lengths :)



Aah Peter, you've become the new Red Symons of IIS :lol:
That said, bearing in mind that it is a Duo - tone: I appreciate the tuff love and your frank feedback here.
I'll keep trying to improve and hopefully gather more data soon to remedy these ills :D



Thanks Marc, I'm happy with the colour palette, and yes, you're quite right - as always, more data required! ;)



Cheers M&T, we always look forward to the insights from your finely tuned paradolia - thanks for feedback :thumbsup:



Cheers Rick, I shall take the feedback onboard and endeavour to improve further sir! :D



Cheers Colin! Yes APP has helped with the processing (I think) Hopefully the skies will clear again and I can push on with this image soon :thumbsup:

[Peter Ward]

:lol: I am comfortable with calling a spade a spade, frank and fearless and all that...clearly not PC these days....but I do like to see the cream to rise to the top rather than homogenise the results. Your work is definitely on a an upward trajectory, which is great to see :thumbsup:

[Retrograde]

Looks very nice to me Andy! Imaging at longer focal lengths is always a challenge and it looks like you're really taming that RC8.

Looking forward to the Hubble palette version (although I quite like this bi-colour take).

[markas]

Splendid rendition of a great target:thumbsup:


Mark

[avandonk]

Andy that object in the top left looks like the skull cave that the Phantom of comic fame had.

Just adjust your levels so that the inherent noise is not noticeable like Peter Ward does and all is well.

I personally prefer to see the noise as it gives me a better idea of what was recorded than some sort of fictitious ideal.

Bert

[SimmoW]

Loving some of the comments on this one, cheaper than a movie!

Yes you're gradually taming that beast, and a braver man than me at those focal lengths and relatively small aperture. At around 50hrs it'll look pretty schmick I reckon

[Peter Ward]

Err...That's not correct , but hi-jacking Andy's post is not the place for me to discuss how I process my data.

[Andy01]

Thanks Mark! It's a fascinating region that's for sure :)



Cheers Trev, Yes refractors are easy by comparison! But like the little engine that could, "I think I can, I think I can" :)



Cheers Bert, Yes this region is your baby - thanks for your insights :)



Ta Simmo - Glad the IIS crew doesn't disappoint!
50+ hrs? Heck, I have 75+ hrs on the Helix, and 5 nights on NGC 300 to get together yet, still the forecast of clouds for all this week may allow some more processing time.
If I could just tame the merge 1x1 & 2x2 bin data function in APP it'll be a breeze :)

[LewisM]

Well done Andy. This has been my target of choice for 2 months but skies aren’t cooperating here.

[Andy01]

Cheers Lewis, looking forward to seeing yours in due time :)



Done! - New version with minor tweak to black point Here (https://www.astrobin.com/377700/C/) :)

[LewisM]

Thankfully, its a year round target :lol:

[LewisM]

I agree with you there Bert. Warts and all approach is the only honest way. Nothing worse to see a nice GX image or similar with a sky background that looks like a woman with FAR too much foundation makeup on her face. To me it's akin to imagers who remove stars either completely or selectively - that's simply absurd to me.

Only thing that tames noise is exposure, and unless the image has a heap of exposure, you know it's been "airbrushed". Lord knows my carpy images are warts and all.

I am NOT pointing any fingers, so don't get all huffy :lol:

[Peter Ward]

Apart from the bleeding obvious, object BRIGHTNESS and exposure determines a
concept called “Signal to noise ratio”....so stating exposure alone tames noise, is frankly rubbish....(you shoukd know better Lewis) ..or are you being PC? ....anyway, let’s take this discussion elsewhere if you want it to continue.

Andy posted a good image. It got critiqued by yours truly. Yep, I do that, not as a put-down, but to see those that clearly have talent do even better.

[petershah]

stunning image:thumbsup:

[Geoff45]

It’s a great composition Andy. Lovely contrast in the colours.

[Bart]

That is very nice Andy! I always call this one "The Worm Rider". :lol:

[silv]

I love it. Bi-colour is great. Very scientific, too.
I like the title, too but I can't see the actors. What I see is "stuff" and an Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors.

And "noise"?? Is it?

It's photographed through 2 layers of galactic cirrus. The one around our own galaxy plus the one around LMC.

[Stevec35]

Love it Andy! Wish my bi-colour images would turn out that good.

Steve

[Andy01]

Cheers Peter - we're quite fortunate here in the Sthn Hemisphere to have a nice view of these little nebs in the LMC :)



Cheers Geoff, appreciate the nice feedback :)



Thanks Bart, - say waht? Please explain the worm rider reference, Dune? :question:



Feed me Seymour! :lol:That's interesting about the galactic cirrus - I always thought imaging this region was unusually problematic noise wise - maybe that's the real answer! :D



Cheers Steve - but to give credit where it's due, thank Marco Lorenzi for his method (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=138473) for adding Ha & O3 to RGB :)

[willik]

Looks good to me Andy very nice image great colour and detail.
Martin

[gregbradley]

Oh one of my favourite nebulas and you have done a fabulous job of it.
Great composition which is your hallmark. Terrific colour and the perfect field of view.

Love it.

Greg.

[Benjamin]

Looks wonderful. Such a great variety and balance of shapes and colours. Will be drooling over this for a while...🤤

[Paul Haese]

One of my favourite areas. Done it several times myself. I like your rendering. Detailing is nice too.