Tarantula region - a few different views

[strongmanmike]

Hi guys

Long time since my last image post, 4 months I think? Life has had its road spikes chucked out under my feet so sorry for my absence. :(

Anyway, here is last weekends effort on the Tarantula Nebula region of the LMC.

I managed to get a totally clear night from dusk till dawn last Saturday night, shame a 70% moon rose around midnight though. Given the LMC was cullminationg around 10pm'ish I decided to point at it for a few hours once it got dark. The seeing was quite good for Newcastle but being in the direction of the significant Newcastle light dome, gradients were a hassle later in the session for the Red Green and particularly Blue shots :sadeyes: (oh sigh.. to have a one shot DSLR....) but I tried not to over process, a look gradient removal filters tend to give if you aren't careful, playing conservative with gradient removal and I think the results are acceptable..?

The seeing was quite good initially but improved to excellent as the evening wore on. I also shot the Lum and Ha while the region was at its higher altitude above the horizon so as to get the best possible resolution and I think this paid off..? As usual, I have pushed the data a bit at times and thus walked the tightrope between extracting detail and increasing noise :whistle:

It was a balmy summer night with the ambient air temp at 24C for the first sub frame and droping to about 19C by the last several hours later. This was a good night to be thankfull for the super cooling capablities of the FLI camera which can cool the chip some 60C below the ambient temp so I still managed to image at a chip temp of -35C all night, this allowed me to keep using the one and only set of 10min darks I've ever taken (Mr Lazy) ...and stay in my shorts and T-shirt till dawn :P....a few mozies though :mad2:

I have provided links below to a few different versions of the data and each image is between 1 and 2 meg in size so may take some time to download on dial up (like I have...DOH!!) with broadband you will have no worries :thumbsup:

Hope you like'em :D

HaRGB full frame:

http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/92357472/original

HaRGB cropped close up taken from full frame image:

http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/92458914/original

LHaRGB Full frame:

http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/92459844/original

Halpha only full frame:

http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/92411408/original

Luminance (Luminance+Halpha+Red = 3hrs):

http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/92439014/original

For those of you who aren't familiar with my setup here it is:

http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/81003751/original

Hope it isn't as long till the next image :scared:

Mike

[edwardsdj]

Wow!

That is the best Tarantula I've seen,

[EzyStyles]

:eyepop::eyepop: :prey2:

WOw mike.... breathlesss. yes i havent heard from you inawhile and suddenly an awesome image! dont you stop now :)

[rumples riot]

This is one superb image set. I really like the LHaRGB image. Certainly of the best tarantula image I have seen from any amateur across the globe. very sharp image and looks really similar to the image I see in my SDM. I don't often see great images but this in one of them. Well done and very masterful.

[jase]

The Ha only and HaRGB do it for me Mike. Very impressive work. IMHO, I feel you could have managed the luminance images better. The intricate details on the highlights look washed and lost. Thanks for sharing this master piece, please don't take too long to deliver the next dazzling blow. Look forward to seeing what you'll cook up next.

Cheers

[iceman]

WOW! Extraordinary image, Mike!

I was chatting to Dave and Petra the other day, and we both commented on your absence.. and now here you are with a ripper of an image as a welcome back!

Stunning result.

[h0ughy]

I can honestly say you worked damn hard for that shot, I think I can almost count on one hand the amount of clear nights we have had in the Hunter this summer. I do agree - shorts and tshirt in an area known for mozzies is a brave move ;-).

Fantastic result Mike

[acropolite]

The detail is incredible Mike, looks almost 3 dimensional. Good to see you back :thumbsup:

[Tamtarn]

Very spectacular image Mike. So much detail in the outer areas lots to take in. Nice colour balance also, not over saturated very subtle.

[marc4darkskies]

Oooo Yeah!! Definitely pay that one Mike :thumbsup:

I actually prefer the shot with the lum data - I like seeing more stars in this gorgeous field. I'd also experiment with increasing the colour saturation - just a tad.

Makes me want to try out my new Ha filter! Unfortunately I'll be selling my entire system soon - the permanent cloud cover over Sydney these days has made my equipment look like Paris Hilton at an Astrophysics convention - nice to look at but completely useless!

Welcome back!

Cheers, Marcus

[Lester]

Top of the class Mike.

Absolute rippa, well done and look forward to more.

[Hagar]

Lovely images Mike. You have definitely raised the bar a lot for us mere mortals.

[sheeny]

:eyepop:Wow, Mike!

Your work never fails to impress me!:thumbsup:

Al.

[Bassnut]

And the blue halos?, bah, you need an RC ;-)

[alan meehan]

welcome to the home of the mozzie, brilliant shot mike got to be the best i have seen

[skeltz]

Very nice mike welcome back!
But are you going to tell us about the asa story?
Come on mike quit the mystery and spill the beans.
CHEERS SKELTY

[strongmanmike]

Thankyou everyone for your compliments on my latest image. You are all too kind (except bitter and twisted, long focal length Fred :lol:)

Jase: you are quite right I wasn't totally happy with the combines either but I have learned to be happy with mediocrity :thumbsup:

Marcus: I also like stars in the image and I agree I would have liked a little more saturation too but my HaRGB combine technique wouldn't allow any improvement in the saturation without screwing up the image :(.

Thanks again everyone :thumbsup:

[richardo]

Hey Mike,
nice to see you getting the gear out!!

Aint that typical of woman (sorry if there's any woman reading this ... no offense:D..... really :whistle:)

Who knows buddy, you might be movin' back to imagers mecka... dough:doh:
Geeeeezzzzz mate, go figure.....:screwy:

Look forward to some more of your hi res images from the coast.

All the best
Rich

[strongmanmike]

Hi Richi

Yes I am sitting here right now shaking my head in dissbelief that my wife insisted and dragged me to this weather ****e hole only to land herself a job that takes her back to Canberra for much of the year (she is there at the moment actually) :doh:

While I seriously did contemplate it, we can't really move back to Canberra, just not financially viable now and my son is doing well at his new school here. I have a crap job and my ASA dream was completely shattered (screwed me emotionally and financially actually) so sigh... here I sit all depressed with only a Starfire APO and FLI PL11002 to hammer away with...under regularly cloudy, salty, moisture laden sea level skies with no observatory :scared: :sadeyes: :sad:

:violin:

Mike

[Peter Ward]

Ah...luxury lad...luxury.... I sit here, with gear and weather similar to the above, plus a few gigawatts of outdoor lights to boot. :)

Nice spider by the way. Good to see it wasn't blue :thumbsup:

[Bassnut]

Sorry to hear about your situation Mike, but youve always liked the Starfire (not too hard to set up without an Obs) and the FLI was a serious upgrade, so it aint all bad. Why not get into NB?, it would suit the skies your under now.

[strongmanmike]

Yes my sulking when looking at houses to buy in light polluted areas of Newcastle has already delivered me the permission to order a set of Astronomik narrow band filters :D :) :whistle:......I never really liked narrow band images (as you know) so I'm not totally enthused about it......:sadeyes: :sad:

:help:

[h0ughy]

well thats why I really appreciate goingto dark sky sites Mike, but narrowband imaging is better than nothing? I take it you have not settled on a house yet?:help:

[Ric]

Hi Mike, a lovely image to get back into the game again, I loved the colour and detail.

If it's any consolation the weather down here hasn't been much better for the last five months.

Cheers

[Garyh]

Now I know why you have been quiet lately Mike!...
Getting ready to blow our socks off with this gorgeous image. Beautiful colors and those stars are tight as a fishes... , well you know what I mean.. :)
cheers Gary

[strongmanmike]

Hello fellow big guy

Yes I guess if I can have the filters may as well get'em..? Dark sky site would be good again though :(.

Looked at a couple of places since talking with you, currently serious about a house in Valentine up on the hill in Andrew Rd, open back yard with a 10m inground pool. One street light with cover missing visible from backyard over the back fence and neighbour, also with a pool, has a flood light directed over his entertaining area aaaaand toward our potential backyard DOH! :doh:About 80% of the sky is visible though and it's a nice affordable place. I'm working on Ang to authorise a Sirius observatory now to protect me from any direct lighting problems. Valentine should be darkish I guess particularly to the south and southwest..?

Any whooo could be a completely different place next time we speak :lol:

Mike

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Ric, yes I was happy with the final detail and blending, the seeing was good and Halpha always helps sharpen things, oh and a pretty good piece of glass helps too :P. The Tarantula is hard to process well and is often presented either too blue or too red even by the big name imagers (not that it really matters). There is plenty of magenta from the blue H-Beta and green from OIII in that hairy monster too.

Oh and nup! doesn't make me feel any better :sadeyes: :lol:



Halpha imaging provides tight R's stars for sure, thus in turn providing a good challenge when combining with RGB if you want to avoid nasty processing artifacts around stars, some of which are still present slightly in my closeup image version (and so graciously pointed out by Fred :P)

Cheers

Mike

[tornado33]

Great images there.
You should look for a place close to where you are now lol , as it is even more cloudy in Newcastle. Would you believe it was mostly cloudy in Newcastle city the night you took the images. I got about 2 hours of washed out skies through thin high cloud before thicker stuff came over.
Scott

[strongmanmike]

Sigh.... tell me about it... I KNOW! :scared: As far as "my" needs and wants go, during the house hunting I have slowly capitulated down to just wanting some decent sky access. Seems simple huh? but noooo the houses with the good sky access (Newcastle has lots of trees) aren't nice and the nice houses have lots of bloody trees :scared::scared::scared::scared:. The latest house in Valentine is up high on the hill with a bckyard with good sky access but (of course!!!) has a bloody street light nearby in view of the backyard. I will build an observatory to try and be ready for those short windows of oportunity that having a setup and pull down affair is not good for:help:. The hosue has a nice inground pool though :D wish me luck at the auction :thumbsup:

Mike