NGC 3576 - Statue of Liberty

[AUST2000]

I have had a great learning exercise on this nebula.
The starless image was done to try and highlight the extraordinary nebulosity that showcases the "Statue".
Now the processing may not be palatable to all tastes but I still have source files to have another go down the track.... :)

Astrobin larger image:
https://www.astrobin.com/full/7n7erb/0/?nc=user


Andrew

[Peter Ward]

Humm...has a familiar ring to it.

[jahnpahwa]

Looks great! Which OTA were you using here?

Your gear list is impressive :) How long have you been at this? If your join date for IIS indicates your length of time in the hobby, I'd have to nominate you for rookie of the year with an image like that :thumbsup: Your resolution seems great to me and I like the colours.

Oh, and I hope you don't take Peter's lukewarm response to heart. I suppose he thinks your image is is too similar to his Greenwich winner to deserve any decent feedback. I wonder what he thinks of his effort compared to the winner of exactly the same category one year earlier :rofl:

[AUST2000]

Yes Peter but I know that down the track I may process this a bit different as my style changes :).






Thanks jahnpahwa. Glad you liked the image and thanks for your feedback. I did start this hobby mid last year and it's been (and still is) a huge learning curve. Andy Campbell was an excellent mentor and helped a lot with getting me pointed in the right direction. I hope he doesn't mind me mentioning that. I am not phased by any comments (good or bad) as I assume the intention is to provide guidance / feedback. If you look back at Andy's images you will see he has had an influence in this image (and probably future images). Peter's Greenwich winner is stunning.
Andrew

[marc4darkskies]

Some excellent detail in there Andrew. The colour palette and the starless aspect spoil it for me though (I can tell Andy has been giving you pointers! :lol:) BUT the image does have a compelling quality about it. The composition is great too! Nicely done!

[AUST2000]

Thanks Marcus, it is a polarising image due to the amped up colour and being devoid of stars. Great feedback.

[JA]

Hi Andrew,

It's definitely my polarity Andrew.... Great Image:thumbsup:

I really like the almost diagonal orange ridge that separates the violet at the top of the image from orange below. It clearly delineates the light violet colour as what in real life would be the "blue" sky behind The Statue. It gives it an Earth/Sky feeling.

Best
JA

[gregbradley]

Gee that's detailed. Love it. High impact image.

Let me guess a 10 or 12 inch F4 Newt was the scope?

Greg.

[AUST2000]

Ha ha, thanks JA glad you are plugged in with this polarity :)





Glad you love it Greg. Around 2000mm focal length reflector Greg, but I think the detail also comes from the high resolution camera (and of course some post-processing).

[strongmanmike]

Certainly a rather cool looking result Andrew and yes there seems to be some nice fine detail present, well done on the capture :thumbsup:

I don't mean to sound negative :sadeyes:... but I'm with Marcus though, one needs to be careful, going starless using AI Topaz etc nearly always imparts a harsh, grainy almost messy look, to the image, especially to the background and the highlights look like bright oil paint :shrug: It would likely look quite good printed, perhaps on metal or canvas, as more of an artwork but for me, its hard to truly see it as an astroimage anymore :question:

Again well done with all the work :thumbsup:

Mike

[AUST2000]

Thanks Mike for the detailed feedback. I agree that it's off center from a typical "pure" astroimage (not that I have read that manual on that yet ;)) and yes, I think that a metallic print would look great.

[Peter Ward]

I just had a look at your AstroBin page. Wow. +44 hours of exposure.
Holey Moley !

No telescope mentioned. OK . so fess up..what optics are you using? :)

[AUST2000]

Yes Peter, very long exposure but as you know it gives amazing signal to noise ratio. I have yet to look at the time vs SNR equation to see when enough is enough.


Ok, such interest in gear here, I have updated the AstroBin page to include the OTA...

[Peter Ward]

Seriously? Rare bird indeed.

[Wilsil]

I really love your image, and that only after starting mid last year.
Can't only hope to get that far.

[AUST2000]

Thanks Wilsil, it's a fun and frustrating pursuit but nice when an image comes together.

[Andy01]

Thanks Andrew, really appreciate the nice feedback & endorsement! So you’re Certainly producing amazing results and well on the fast track to consistent imaging success!

At this point you can take either the safe well trodden path or the risky one with Your processing, but while not guaranteed, only the bold stand out in the crowd!
Great image, well done! :thumbsup:

Edit: Ps- learn from Mike & Marcus’ comments, I’ve learned a lot from them ��

[atalas]

Hey can anyone tell me where I can buy a high quality trumpet? oh sorry I might of posted in the wrong section.

[Peter Ward]

:rofl:

[Placidus]

I'm convinced that producing a starless version as an intermediate step is necessary, and yours is excellent.

Bravo!

But I'd like to see the stars put back. One reason is that it's very difficult to be sure that you've revealed the true nebulosity "behind" the brightest stars. Imagine you place a coin over some writing. A human (one of the very best AI's there is) can take a guess what words might be under the coin, but the author might have written just about anything.

It's easy to add the stars (or just the H-alpha stars) back again as white, or to have a go at guessing the star colours from the OIII/{Ha+OIII} ratio, or best of all, to add RGB stars to the starless image.

Best,
Mike

[AUST2000]

Thanks for that Mike.
I will have to think about that "true nebulosity" behind the stars concept vs what Starnett++ does or even what a deconvolution algorithm does when it reduces the star size.



Cheers Andrew

[Ryderscope]

Certainly an impressive eye catching result Andrew.

[AUST2000]

Thanks Rodney