The Small Magellanic Cloud

[gregbradley]

Finishing off the pair here is the Small Magellanic Cloud.

Ha LRGB Apogee U16M camera, Baader filters, Tak BRC250 at F5.

About 2.5 hours.

I used Photoshop CS4 to process this one. It is an interesting upgrade from CS2 with a few improvements. Mainly for me, it would speed up time in processing images with a better layout. Plus you can see what the all various adjustments will do in combination before committing to them. Also a new vibrance tool which is subtle and useful.

http://jjd.pbase.com/image/105201653

Greg.

[KenGee]

Great image Greg, the sat looks a bit over cooked though.

[gregbradley]

Thanks Ken.

You're right. I toned it down a bit.

Cheers,

Greg.

[atalas]

Nice Greg.

[spearo]

nice
lots in there!
frank

[gregbradley]

Thanks for the compliments. It is a hard object to present aesthetically as it isn't the most glamorous of objects and doesn't really present that well compared to other objects.

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

No perhaps not your most spectacular work...but it is worth the post for sure, there are so many bloody stars in there :eyepop:

Mike

[Octane]

Greg,

Lovely work. :)

Regards,
Humayun

[gregbradley]

Thanks.

Focus was actually slightly off as well as I was a bit lazy and left the focus where it was last I used it. But the temperature when I took this one was a lot cooler so the focus had shifted.

I have not fitted a FLI digital focuser to the BRC (I checked its collimation in CCD inspector by the way Mike and it is spot on) to help get pefect focus more easily. It is a bit of a bear to focus out of the box with its awkward helical focuser setup (it is very strong and no flexure though).

Greg.

[jase]

Nah, the SMC is a fantastic target to image. It does however have quite a large dynamic range, but nothing careful processing can't manage. I like what you've put together here Greg. Its different and intriguing from a composition perspective. Sloppy focusing never helps the cause, but still a visually pleasing vista. Good work.