Dolphin head redux

[Nikolas]

Dolphin head nebula reprocess using gradient exterminator in a new way that eliminates much of the gradients and gives a real flatter field. I've been using it for years but the process is different and seems to work. The process is on their web page.
294mc pro riccardi 0.75 reducer TSapo130
3 hours of 10 minute acquisitions
Optolong L-extreme.
Can't wait for it to reappear and do more work with this in the coming months.

[RyanJones]

An amazing sense of depth in this one Nik. Especially in the top of the head. There’s a real feel of mounds of rolling gas. A nice contrast without being over saturated. I look forward to seeing how this develops when you get more integration time. Very nice

Cheers

Ryan

[Nikolas]

Thanks Ryan When it rises earlier than it does I plan to really work on it and see what materialises.

[AstroViking]

What Ryan said - there's a ton of detail in your image, and to my eyes, the colours are spot-on.

I don't see how you could make it any better (But please do go ahead and prove me wrong!)

Cheers,
V

[AdamJL]

Excellent!

edit: looks like this plugin could work well with the Helix, too. That tends to have difficult gradients to pull out for some reason (my experience anyway)

[Dave882]

Wow this is beautiful. The colour and depth is quite amazing. Few weird things happening in and around some of the stars but I reckon this could be just a function of the size reduction. Do you have a full size link?

[Startrek]

Great image with depth and contrast
Colour is spot on too
Nice to see some objects rarely posted from time to time
My only observation is the Star field looks a tad suppressed ?
Adding more data will certainly bring out more fine detail
Well done !!

[Crater101]

Wow! Excellent result. Beautifully defined image.

[Nikolas]

Thanks for the comments everyone, in answer to the stars being suppressed I did that on porpoise (see the pun?) in order to give the nebula more of a 3d effect.
I will add the large image to astrobin soon.

[Stephane]

Looks excellent Nik! Well done on both acquisition and processing. The 3d effect has come through nicely. I’d go slightly less agressive on star reduction, at least on the two bright stars in the nebula, but this is of course just a personal opinion. Overall, it’s a great result with nice colour, faint detail, and contrast.

[Nikolas]

I agree but the halos were horrible hence the aggressive star work, I might "fuzz" them up a bit

Any better?

[Stephane]

I see. Fair enough then. I think the second version looks a little more natural, particularly that bright star in the nebula. But again, just my two cents. Both version are excellent images. I look forward to giving this target a shot one day.

[strongmanmike]

It's such a cool object, very happy to see lots of repro's :thumbsup:

Mike

[Mavspace]

Amazing Nik great work !! The 294MC doing its job :thumbsup:

[Addos]

Nice one Nik! Very good job taming Udra too!

[Nikolas]

Cheers mike



That and the filters thanks



The halos were horrible so layer masks helped intensely Cheers