The Leaning (Dark) Tower of Scorpius

[Martin Pugh]

Hello everyone

Well, this was an interesting result. While I followed the typical NB
colour mapping of SII, HA, OIII, the outcome was quite unusual and a
challenge to process.

I would appreciate your thoughts and comments on this image, as my searches on the internet do not yield any NB images of this cometary globule.

27 hours exposure (OIII and SII, 8 each, and HA 11 hours)

thanks for looking.

http://www.martinpughastrophotography.id.a u/images/DarkTower.jpg (http://www.martinpughastrophotography.id.a u/images/DarkTower.jpg)

cheers and clear skies

Martin

[jase]

Legendary work Martin (as mentioned on the SBIG forum). I'm really amazed how well the NB emission line has brought out this target. Certainly when comparing Rob G's recent post anyway. Well done and thanks for sharing.

Cheers

[skeltz]

Beautiful image martin,the detail in the tower is stunning.
Well worth all the time spent i would say ..eh.!!
As for the nb colours ..sorry cannot help you there.
CHEERS

[winensky]

Way out of my league for years to come. I will just enjoy the fruits of your incredibly patient efforts. Thanks

[AlexN]

27 hrs exposure for one image... That pretty much equals the following:

1: 3 nights without cloud.. (not likely here)
2: 3 nights without being able to use the scope (i get astro-withdraws)
3: Unimaginably good alignment/tracking...

Well done.

[Garyh]

Awesome like all your images Martin!
I think this is the best image I have seen of this!
cheers Gary

[iceman]

Wow Martin, that is absolutely amazing. Thanks for posting!

[strongmanmike]

A rather unique view that Martin, looks really great! I wish I had a permanent setup, marathon imaging like that is rather hard otherwise :sadeyes:

Don't think I have seen you on this forum before..? Nice to have your images on show :thumbsup:. Watch out for Jase though he will likely put your images through his photonmultiplieramplifierinspectera tor :scared:

Mike :lol:

[jase]

That equipment is old school Mike. It was replaced by the pixelsquizorama3000 five years ago. This is indeed a fine image. As Martin highlights, the SHO palette on this target did provide an unusual result. I would have expected something different. But hey, with NB you can make up the colours as you go and it is still technically correct.:lol:

[Bassnut]

Stunning Martin, absolutely stunning.

[marc4darkskies]

:jawdrop: I'm not a big fan of NB but that's an awesome image Martin! It's just gorgeous!

WOW! 27 hours of image data too - outstanding! I think it would take me a week of all-nighters to acomplish that!

Cheers, Marcus

[renormalised]

That is a fantastic image, Martin. Well done:)

[Martin Pugh]

Hello everyone

and many, many thanks for the strong response to this image....I am grateful for the feedback as it was an unusual result, despite a fairly prescriptive approach to the processing routine.

Hi Mike...yes, I joined sometime ago, but have only really browsed the posts.

Jase....only discovered your website and images last night!...and I must say some excellent work is going on there.

thanks again everyone...appreciate it.

cheers
Martin

[Hagar]

Magnificent detailed image Martin. You really set the target high for those of us learning this art.

It would be nice to know the equipment list used to gain this image.

[seeker372011]

that is the best picture I have ever seen of the DT. Beats my old favourite John Gleason's H alpha version by a country mile..and IMHO enormously more detailed than Robert Gendler's APOD

as for astro imaging, i will now take my bat and ball and go home and become a visual observer :)

Narayan

[Rodstar]

Wow, Martin, fantastic image!



Now, Narayan, we know that isn't true!:camera:

[avandonk]

Fantastic image Martin. As far as I know the Hubble palette was chosen as the human eye is far more sensitive in the green (x20) than in the red. Subtle and faint contrast then is far more discernible.

I have been playing with mixing colour and narrow band and here is an example.
Large image 1.6MB
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~trlee8/col+ha+o3.jpg

HA into RED, O3green to GREEN and O3blue to BLUE from Canon 5DH data.

I took the liberty of doing the same to your data.

HAgreen to RED, SIIred to RED, O3blue to GREEN and O3blue to BLUE.

Below is your original and my colour assignment. You can see how the contrast is not as obvious in the fainter parts of the emission nebula but it looks more 'normal'.

Again a superb image.

Bert

[avandonk]

Here is your image and Robert Gendlers and a combination of both.

Interesting result.

Bert

[Ric]

Hi Martin, a stunning image and I enjoyed the NB colours that you have brought out.

I found your website a joy to browse through with very stunning images indeed.

Looking forward to seeing more of your images.

[acropolite]

Amazing detail and your colour treatment is IMO refreshingly different.:thumbsup:

[Martin Pugh]

Thanks once again for the comments.

Bert....I appreciate the combined versions...they look very good. In fact, I did actually produce an RGB version of this from the NB data....but I thought that the latter looked more striking, so I didnt keep the RGB.

The combination of both mine and Rob's is quite intriguing!

cheers
Martin

[avandonk]

I only had eight bit low resolution images to play with Martin but it at least it confirmed my ideas about my future imaging protocols. I hope it gave you an idea or two.

Bert

[Tamtarn]

Excellent image Martin. 27 hours........shows how capturing much more data certainly pays off.

Look forward seeing more of your superb images on IIS.

[tornado33]

Excellent work there. The detail inside the tower is striking.
Scott

[Martin Pugh]

Hello all...and thanks for those who have commented.

as I said yesterday, when I put this image together I also mapped the NB data in a different pallette....this time OIII, SII and HA.

For a while, I didnt know which version I liked the most...but I think I favour this one because it reminds me of the Witch Head, a nebula I find particularly striking.

I will update my website a little later, but for those who were enquiring about the equipment used here, it was:
12.5" RCOS at f9.1
SBIG STL11K, with AO-L
Paramount ME
Astrodon NB filters

Let me know what you think.

cheers
Martin

http://www.martinpughastrophotography.id.a u/images/Dark-TowerOIIISIIHA.jpg

[strongmanmike]

:lol: seems with narrow band you can do anything you want and it doesn't matter and can still look good - bit like playing or singing Jazz really :P

Although strangely beautiful it is a very scary image that (Appropriate for Friday 13th :)) and looks more like wild space art than astrophotography.

I am getting a set of new narrow band Astronomiks filters soon so I look forward to finally trying my hand at this forgiving and strange art form :)

Mike

[RB]

Absolutely breathtaking Martin !

And I agree with Phil(acropolite), the colour palette is refreshingly different.