Fire in the Sky!

[Andy01]

It's been a while since I loaded an image here - been busy sorting out automation!

During Melbourne Covid lockdown #One in March last year, I decided to learn automation - along the way and with much fiddling and frustration; I've tried Kstars/Ekos directly on the mac, Voyager on PC, SGP on PC and finally ... Stellarmate! :D

This is my first image from my new Stellarmate/Rpi4/KStars/Ekos Macbook pro combo and I'm delighted, not so much because it's good ol' M42, but because I took it while sitting on the couch as the 'Scope- Plate solved, Locked on, Auto focussed, Calibrated, Guided, Changed filters, Meridian flipped and did it all over again for three nights! :cool3:

Still some minor niggles with porting and multi-star guiding to resolve, but nearly there now = A full night's sleep while imaging at last! :cool:

I chose M42 because it's big, bright and required meridian flips to image during the night. Now most folks would agree that M42 looks best in broadband LRGB, so it's a great challenge to try and produce a pleasing narrowband colour palette. Hopefully this one works! :)

ASTROBIN UPDATE (https://www.astrobin.com/uyng59/B/)

Remapped colours of the Running Man & Fan to better balance emissions using Eric Coles Localised Histogram balancing method.

3 Hrs each 5nm Ha & S2, 3 Hrs 3nm O3 from my light polluted suburban location in Melbourne, Australia. Average seeing, Bortle 5/6 skies.

[multiweb]

A superb rendition and all automated to boot. Very cool. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

I agree re M42 and RGB but hey, this is quite pretty Andy with some nice filamentary details :thumbsup:

Great to hear you have your rig essentially all automated now too (jealous :() must be quite satisfying :thumbsup:

Now tells us...did you use that dastardly AI sharpening..? ;)

Mike

[multiweb]

I hope not.

[gregbradley]

Pretty wild Andy. But it kind of works in an arty way. Don't tell me your going to put your hair in a bun and make decaf lattes now!

Greg.

[Andy01]

Thanks Mike, glad you liked it - it's taken a loooong time to get this far! :)



Relax Gentlemen, no photons were harmed in this image. :D
(The process is only suited to starless images, and I didn't take any RGB stars to insert in this one.)



Thanks Greg, unlikely, I'd need to have hair first! :rofl:



Merci Marc! It's been at least 5 years since I last visited this still remarkably beautiful object! I'll probably move on to something less frequently imaged next. ;)

[Peter Ward]

Holy Smoke on the Water Batman! Rendered whilst listening to Deep Purple eh? :)

[Andy01]

Lol, well played Peter! You have picked up on my love of classic British rock :D
Although I was actually listening to a bit of ambient Brian Eno when rendering this one :)

[Ryderscope]

Definitely a wow and high impact image Andy. We need the sunnies for this one :cool2:

[Andy01]

Cheers Rodney! :cool3:



I've also just remapped colours of the Running Man & Fan to better balance emissions using Eric Coles Localised Histogram balancing method. :D

ASTROBIN UPDATE (https://www.astrobin.com/uyng59/B/)

[The_bluester]

Now I have Smoke on the Water as an earworm, thanks!

So great to see all that work we have been doing paying off in getting automation happening for you. A bit more power distribution management and it will be really sweet.

[Placidus]

Definitely Smoke on the Water, Fire in the Sky. There's lots there beside flying lead. We'll think of your image fondly next time we turn the knob up to eleven.

[CoolhandJo]

It certainly brings out the depth! Very nice

[Andy01]

Cheers Paul, M&T & Jo - Seems that I've left a 'sonic footprint' of Orion for you to enjoy :lol:
Currently couch bound recovering from foot surgery, but I'm hoping to be back on the imaging horse next week. :thumbsup:

Thanks for the nice feedback! :D

[pkinchington]

Wow!