Orion region

[gregbradley]

Here another taken earlier this year that I was never happy with the processing. Redone today.

FSQ106EDX with F3.64 reducer and STL11 class 2 with Astrodon filters from my dark site observatory.Mount is a Tak NJP.

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/99385463

Greg.

[renormalised]

WOW!!!!! That is brilliant!!!:eyepop::D

Know what would be great....knock up a mosaic of the whole Orion region, including the rest of Barnard's Loop. That would be a great piccie:D:D

When you think that what's there, is only just those bits fluorescing on the outskirts of the Orion GMC, you really get an idea of the enormity of it all. Blows you away:eyepop::D

[gregbradley]

Thanks! I also have an Apogee U16M camera which has twice the field of view as the STL and outperforms it in every way. I have an adapter on order and will be able to do something like that.

Vela Supernova Remnant is another one that would be good for.

Greg.

[renormalised]

That piccie is APOD material....easily:D

[Matty P]

Very impressive Greg.

The overall visual impact of this image is incredible. I almost fell off my chair.

Very well done.

:eyepop::2thumbs:

[strongmanmike]

Did you sell that FSQ :shrug: :screwy: :doh:

Excellent image mate, rather Gendlerish actually :P. Surely those exposure times underneath are wrong?? :eyepop:

It isn't displayed very large though? any reason for this? I wonder what Jase will find wrong with it when he runs it through his imagephosphoexaminator :lol:.....ah, he's such a Jase :love:

Mike

[strongmanmike]

Yeh, and even though it is of the most imaged area in the sky and several versions very similar have been seen on APOD before, "luckily" it is a deep sky image done with an SBIG camera, so he still has a good chance :lol:...it's a conspiracy I tell you :scared:

[AlexN]

Holy Crap! the detail within M42 are utterly amazing! So much contrast in the Ha region of IC434/B33 too.. Incredible....

I could stare at that for hours...

Alex

[gregbradley]

Hi Mike,

Yes I sold my FSQ106N to Wayne. Fabulous scope.

This was imaged with my FSQ106EDX and F3.64 reducer and those times are correct. Fast imaging is fun and suits my time constraints travelling to my dark site.

By the way I had an email form Barry at Orion Optics UK about their astrograph which really is an ASA with some fixes. He said its in field trials and the mirror cell and focuser are working out well and the scope is performing really well.

Perhaps hope yet eh?

Greg.

[jase]

A great image Greg. The FSQ-ED w/focal reducer certainly captures a large swath of the sky. I'd imagine it would restrict your imaging capabilities with the 16803 considering its smaller image circle? Natively with the FSQ being 88mm image circle, it wouldn't be an issue. Are you using square filters yet?

I feel to do this area well needs a four frame mosaic at F/5. Jim Misti and Steve Mazlin did the region with the FSQ @ F/5 as shown here (http://www.fourthdimensionastroimaging.com/orionwidefield.html). The further you extend the FOV, the lower the resolution sampling... in which lies the problem. Certain targets in this FOV really need to be acquired at a longer focal length to bring out the details... perhaps similar to Rob Gendler's Hybrid imaging techniques. A nice repost indeed. Well done.



Get over it.

[gregbradley]

Hi Jase,

I think you forgot to post the link.

Yes a mosaic is one way to go. Certainly a mosaic at longer focal lengths will get more resolution - without a doubt.

The 16803 should fit any scope that can handle an STL as it is basically a square 11002 in size give or take a mm. I am expecting the FSQ with reducer to handle it OK, perhaps slight vignetting, but flats should handle it - here's hoping. It handles the STL11 easily. Quite a remarkable optical feat really, the sort of thing you'd expect from Roland Christian.

Yes I have Astronomik LRGB and Astrodon 5nm S11 O111 and Ha 50mm square filters and am also getting the Baader version of the LRGBC as they seem the best on the market at the moment. Astrodon narrowband are fine in 50mm square. You'll notice a number of Astrodon 50mm square LRGB filters for sale on Astromart. That's because they have a bad reflection problem with these big chipped cameras. Even the STL it can be a problem at times although they are overall very good. The series 11 are supposed to handle the reflection problem but a friend emailed me a sample image and it still had annoying reflections - better but not good enough. FLI research 50mm square filters also seem fine.

Mosaics are tricky though. It'd be nice to find some sort of a writeup on tips on how to do them. One guy suggested running Gradient Xterminator on each panel before combining which makes sense. Also perhaps a gradient mask to help wth the blend. Rob Gendler mentioned once he matches the brightness of the background and does not necessarily go for equal exposures on each panel.

Do you have any tips? I have done 2 mosaics now and the difficulty was the blend line. One decision I made was about mosaics would be to take the panels over a few days as you need ideally to image in the same angle of the sky for each panel within a range. If you try to do 5 hours worth the last few will be low in the sky and get too much red. Difficult if you have a time constraint like I do travelling to my dark site and only there 3 or 4 nights. Although at this time of year its not uncommon to get 4 nights in a row that are perfect. 3 is likely, 2 would be a bummer and 1 only would be rare.

Rob Gendler's Vela SNR and Tarantula Nebula mosaics are totally amazing.
I'd like to do something like that at some point.

Greg.

[leon]

Have to agree a very detailed and pleasing image indeed, well done.

Leon

[jase]

Hi Greg,
I look forward to seeing your results with the new gear. Thanks for the info on the filters too. I see Don Goldman has gone down the extreme bandpass with some 3nm filters now. I haven't had to opportunity to use these, but feel certain they'll have similar transmission ratings as the Custom Scientific set.

Re: Mosaics, there are a few options. I've emailed Rob a few times to discuss his techniques. All very helpful. You're right, he doesn't capture each panel with the same length of exposures. I believe the determining factor is frame brightness. As with all mosaics, planning is critical. Rob goes to great lengths in the stage of imaging. By matching a wide field image he then determines how to optimally acquire the data with the most efficient panel overlap. This could mean rotating the camera to different angles to achieve the goal. The wide field image also services another purpose during the registration process - it helps to counter act rotation. Not matter, how good you acquire and plan, rotation is simply a fact you need to deal with. Usually, its quite subtle between the panels, but I've experienced a situation where it was rather severe. I've found TheSky to be rather efficient. Rob has a novel way of using TheSky, Registar and photoshop - http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/Compositions.html I've used this to try some compositions in which I have not followed up in acquiring data (yet).

I've also asked what he feels is the best acquisition technique. For example, a rotational loop acquisition method i.e take a 900s luminance of panel a,b,c,d, then again a,b,c,d. Or perhaps, all blue channel data on the one night (if possible). It would appear there is no "best practice" approach on the acquisition. Regardless of how you acquire the data, you'll always face the challenge of matching the panels. The "brightness/contrast" tool in PS can greatly assist, along with "select colour" and normal curves on the RGB. If you've taken an LRGB composite, you can process each panel as LRGB or match the luminance, then overlay the RGB. The former is sometimes easier.

There are a few resources on the web that can assist, here's one:
http://www.astromatt.com/Articles/MosaicsPI1.html

Don't bite off more than you can chew...start with straight RGB until you get comfortable at adding luminance (less headaches) or do RGB frames for the bright regions and just add luminance to bring out the fainter regions.

Also, I did include the link in the last post. You need the click the "here" hyperlink. Anyway, Hope this helps.

[strongmanmike]

I vil now poot yor image through zee exzaminatoor vatch:einstein: :lol: :hi: :love2:

Just a little fun :)

[AlexN]

nice snippet Mike... :D

[gregbradley]

Hi Jase,

Thanks for those links and tips. That was very clever on the click "here" - how'd you do that?

I plan to do a Ha mosaic this weekend or I was. Perhaps I'll leave it to the moon weekend and do an RGB mosaic this weekend instead.

I have seen that Jim Misti/Steve Mazlin mosaic before - very nice. It is certainly a fabulous region of space. Imagine that as a 4 panel mosaic with the Apogee U16M and the FSQ reducer - that would be about 2.5 times larger than that one!

I am hoping this combo will do a 2 or 4 panel mosaic of the entire Vela Supernova remnant later in the year when it rises again.

Rob really does it tough with these 16 or 30 panel mosaics using a 14.5 inch RCOS. Now that is hard work and only attempted after you've conquered your procedures for doing mosaics.

Greg.

[Tamtarn]

Wonderful image Greg. Nicely composed very much look forward to your mosaic project.

[multiweb]

Love those widefields/mosaic shots. Tricky to do but the result is awesome. :thumbsup:

[sjastro]

Very fine image Greg.

Regards

Steven

[MrB]

Speachless...

[skeltz]

Nice one greg great detail and a real feel of depth to this one.m42 looks almost violent