Happy New Year with...a bang!

[strongmanmike]

Well a 10 000 year old bang anyway :P

After what seems like bluddy ages since my last image, I thought a nice object with a bit of fireworks about it would be appropriate to bring in the New Year so I stared at a small piece of the large Vela Supernova remnant for some 6 hours or so on Wed/Thur night. While most people were drunk and/or looking at real fireworks :lol: (I did manage a 6 pack and a couple'a glasses of wine throughout my imaging night though :D) I, and I am sure many on this forum, was bringing in the IYA very appropriately :thumbsup:

Would have been better with more exposure (as always!) so I didn't use any sharpening in this image, this is the native resolution provided by the scope, camera and conditions.

Sized to fit nicely on a 21"-22" screen (40%/2meg)
http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/107699449/original

Sized to let you have a look at all the intricate detail (60%/4.5meg)
http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/107699254/original

And those who want to really have a close look at the amazing structure in the filaments here is the full size full fres image (10meg)
http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/107702440/original

If you haven't the patience or band width try these under 1meg crops of the interesting bits in the original full frame image:

1) http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/107709482/original

2) http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/107709527/original

3) http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/107709542/original


I was trialing a new moderately dark site too...proved pretty good

http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/107700957/original

although some fog rolled in and out from about 3am (large 7acre dam nearby) but didn't hamper the imaging too much, not sure how it will be in winter though:

http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/107700984/original

Cheers and ahhhhhh....I feel much better now I have done some imaging, so you shouldn't have to endure another repro for while now :D

Mike

[richardo]

Yes happy new year there big fella!!:cheers:
Our band had a late one on the night, ah morning I should say but managed to pull my carcass off the lounge on the 1st to get a last bit of colour to my M78.
Clearish and blowing it's guts out, typical:doh:

Man this is a great start to the year for you Migel!
Shizen, that field is sooooo big with so much to see.
Looks great on my 24" Dell I must say.
This is one hell of an extensive object that small chipped folk like me still dream about even with a 60c..:P

Very impressive.

Hope this year will see you able to get out more than last.

Thanks for sharing your, well, almost sober evening out:D.

I'm working on some lum on Herschells Ray at the mo but don't hold no candle on this:sadeyes:

All the best for now:thumbsup:
Rich

[iceman]

Stunning image, Mike. The new location looks great too. Where abouts is it?

Bob and Pat should be congratulated ;)

You also must've been busy to take and process and present that image in only 2 days.. you must've rushed the processing.. Surely there's a repro coming in the next week or so.. :)

[strongmanmike]

If you haven't the patience or band width to down load the full res version, try these under 1meg crops of the interesting bits in the original full frame full res image, like having several telescopes really:

1) http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/107709482/original

2) http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/107709527/original

3) http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/107709542/original

Close ups just for Fred :)

Mike

[rat156]

Hi Mike,

Yes, very nice indeed.

Looks a little too blue on my laptop screen (Which is not 21 or 22"). Did you do this to accentuate the different colours of the SNR? Not saying it's bad or anything, just different.

This is taken with your still relatively new camera isn't it? You certainly seem to have mastered that beastie. I just want enough clear nights to complete an NGC1532 image I've started.

Cheers
Stuart

[renormalised]

Nice piccies, Mike. Good work:D:thumbsup:

[Tinker]

Excellent picture Mike, tonnes of detail to get lost in.

I only found out about this SNR a few weeks ago, it's a biggy, suits your camera nicely!

Do you have the coordinates of where you centred you shots? Trying to work out the best way to shoot this one too.

Good start to '09 :)

Joe

[multiweb]

Looks great Mike! :thumbsup: Way to go. That's a huge field for sure. Did you do a mosaic?

[Bassnut]

Gee, thanks for the custom zoom ins Mike, much appreciated :D.

Very nice ofcourse, and even better close up, but the levels are all over the place :P.

Im guessing you do that on purpose for that soft natural look, with a sight blue background, and it works quite well, but you lose a bit of punch.

This tweak was simply level shift to the start of each histogram curve. Its very subjective of course, cant say its "better".:thumbsup:

Come to think of it, the way you handle levels seems to have worked to advantage in this case

[Peter Ward]

Nicely done Mike.

Not teaching you how to suck eggs, but have you used CS3's "save for web and devices" option?

Makes .jpg files much smaller. Even at very high quality, your full res image saves down to 3.9 meg.

Cheers

[Phil]

If you don't mind i downloaded the photo and set it as my desktop.
Love it.
Phil

[RB]

Beautiful work Mike, lovely colours and detail.

The new location looks like a beautiful place too.

HNY.

[Hagar]

Very nice very fine filaments in this area captured very nicely.

[bluescope]

Unusual target captured very well Mike ... although I too think it's a little strong on the background blue ... not a criticism just a matter of opinion.
Happy New Year !

:thumbsup:

[Garyh]

Ah , very nice Mike! totally enjoyed it! :thumbsup: Well worth staying up NYE to do!
Beautiful clear sky here as well but all I could do was a star trail!
cheers

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Richard glad you liked it :thumbsup:

WE have similar frustrations it seems? Think we need to move inland a bit further :shrug:



Yes nice spot some 6km North West of Kurri Kurri, not as dark as Wiruna but much better than Newcastle city suburbs and still convenient(ish) so I can get there on a Friday after work and setup before dark and have two days available without taking leave...still a pain packing, seting-up, pulling down, loading car, unpacking car, drying out dew, putting away....:sadeyes:...:scared:



Dunno Stu, seems I like the blue glow/misty look it created, seemd to fit the region better than other settings of levels and colour balance..? My processing is like cooking from scratch ie I do it very much by feel, I am very untechnical in my processing approach compared to some. I add a bit of this, stand back, chop a bit of that, taste, blend a bit of that, stand back, stir, taste, blend again then bring to boil, taste again....and voila! :P

I have been using the big black FLI Proline 11002 for over a year and a half now and it really is a great easy to use beast. On new years eve it was stiull 22 degC at 9.00pm and the camera slammed down to -35C in a few minutes and held it there all night without budging with no buckets, pumps and tubes etc :D. The raw images are very clean at -35C for a KAI chip and calibrate perfectly with a set of darks and flat darks I took over a year ago now (I pretty much only use 10min exp)



Hi Joe, I knew roughly were the region was, pointed at the area then slewed around at bin 3X3 for a bit rotating the camera until I framed it just the way I liked it...it's in Vela, does that help? :D :P



No moazaic Marc, thi is the native 1.8deg X 1.2deg FOV very tiny amount of cropping after registration of channels.



Yep, always thinking of my mate Freddo :thumbsup:

Yeh, like I said to Stuart, I work until I'm happy with it and then let it be (well until the occassional repro seems necessary :D). I did various tweeks like yours but didn't like them, I like the soft natural glow revealing the blue gives the region, seems to fit an old tenuous supernova superimpossed on other emission and refection nebulosity to me..?

Also depends on your moniter and room lighting, right now in a semi naturally lit room it looks ok to me..? Your eyes change too...boody crazy really. As you saw at the Sydney Observatory, it is in the "printing" that it truly counts in the end though... ;)



No worries Peter, cheers, only just found out about that function yesterday on the ASNSW imaging list :doh:will use it in future.



Ah, that will be..?..$3.95...thanks. :D or a working 12" F3.8 astrograph will suffice instead if you are short of cash? :whistle:



Yahsu Andrew



Yes Doug they are beautiful, a faster bigger aperture and true dark skies would be great!



No worries Steve I tried other combo's but kept coming back to the soft natural blue glow..? perhaps I have gone blue raving :screwy:...? :whistle:

[strongmanmike]

So gald you enjoyed it Gazza, going through the rigmaroll I have to, getting a beautiful region like this and processing it to do it justice is hard but rerwarding when you get it right (well basically) :P

Mike

[leon]

Excellent stuff Mike you were a busy boy then, and the fireworks you have captured certainly out shines the others that only last a few seconds, well done indeed.

Leon

[jase]

Well errr...'bout time Mike. At first glance I thought this could have be another repro. I think we're all pleased it isn't.:lol: Have to agree with Stuart and Fred, blue cast does nothing but reduce the emphasis on the delicate Ha tendrils you've worked hard to acquire. Its almost as though you've use the Veil nebula as a colour reference. Though Gendler's mega mosaic of the region does display some blue hues, but these are the finer details not the background. Still, if YOU like it, thats all that counts mate...but don't stop now, how about a mosaic of the area? Good to see you make a grand entrance to 2009, hope to see some killer images in the near future - need to keep the momentum up. All the best to you and your family for 2009 too.

Cheers

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Leo

Had a nice time at the property actually, drinking beer while recording 10 000 year old photons - ahhh...hic!



Thanks Jase

After using fresh daytime eyes - was processing the image until 3.30am or so :rolleyes: I agree with you guys (thanks again) the light blue cast was a bit too overpowering so I have removed some of it, tweeked and tried to keep the emphasis on the HII and OIII tendrils - cheers and have another look :)

Yes a mozaic would be grand (couldn't top Gendlers Michelangelo like effort but unless I get out a few times in the next few months no cigar I'm affraid :sadeyes:

I am hoping the more accessable dark skies will encorage me to image more :help:

[strongmanmike]

Here's the Luminance frame I used for the colour composition, always intersting I find = 30min Lum + 60min Ha + 60min Red

http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/107730624/original

Again no sharpening used, this is the raw resolution of the system

The fine details always seem more obvious and vivid in B&W particulartly when Ha is involved.

Mike

[gregbradley]

Just gorgeaous Mike well done.

Greg.

[atalas]

Sweet work Big Mike ! as always.

[Bassnut]

Gee Mike, very nice. I dont want to get overly picky with this, but.... I understand the mucking around with hi levels in the RGB version for effect, but the high level in Ha doesnt look as good, it just gives a washed out look. I tweaked the levels (wont post it, you know what I mean) and the filaments fair jump out. Perhaps you could get the background down a bit, just for the Ha version?.

[marc4darkskies]

Very nice mate - great to see a new image from you! :thumbsup::) Does this mean no more repros?! ;):D

Can't help feeling though that bumping up the black point / adding some contrast / removing just a teensy bit more blue would improve the rendering of the filaments.

Cheers, Marcus

[strongmanmike]

Thanks guys for your feedback, appreciated :thumbsup:

After much mucking around and fiddling throughtout the day (going away and coming back a few times) and taking some constructive critisism on bard...I have now settled on this rendition. Of course I have done the latest tweeking at night in a darkened room so who knows what it will look like in the morning?

The Vela Supernova remnant is an amazing area of the sky, it is huge and this 1.8 X 1.2 deg FOV only takes in a small bit of it so I selected an interesting bit with lots of HII filaments with plenty of amazing intricate detail in them ala the Veil Nebula in the northern sky, similar colouring too.

** Full image details can be found below each image

Small 1500 X 1000 (1.7meg)
http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/107699449/original

Large 2500 X 1700 (3.5meg) - good if you want to see all the fine details
http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/107699254/original

Luminance only 2500 X 1700 (2.7meg)
http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/107730624/original

Hope you like 'em and I better have a rest from this now...I think I am now seeing things...? :screwy:

Mike

ED: Ok yep, looking at it in the morning again, with the sun up....it still looks a bit blue...sigh, didn't during the night, doh!.......ah well se la vi, it's not that bad I guess but I better leave it for a few days now :rolleyes:..funny if I work on it for a while it starts to look less blue and I keep slowly coming back to pretty much the same look..MAN I'm going crazy! gotta be an eye-brain over time thing..?

[strongmanmike]

Not quite sure what you mean Fred?

Are you talking about my Luminance shot? If so it is not just Ha it's L+Ha+R so there aint much sky background left in there, it's literally full of heaps of gas, dust and stuff.

This image is basically a black and white shot with a red bias rather like using red sensitive film, still get all the colour photons (from the Lum component) but it's really picking up the red, but all displayed in B&W.

Post your version, I'd like to see it, the "original" size Lum shot at my web site is 2.7meg and 2500 X 1700 so you should be able to do a good job, I'd like to see what you think looks good :)

Mike

[strongmanmike]

Thaks boys, this image has driven me mad more than most I've done, while I tweek and process I keep coming back to a blue cast without knowing it. My eyes seem to adapt to the blue emphasis and it starts to be unoticable, then when I come back and look at it after a few hours or during the day after processing at night it looks too blue again...hmmm? Perhaps it's an eye-brain thing ie the blue cast becomes less noticable over time after looking at it for a while and each reprocess tweek session arrives pretty much back where I was :screwy:. I have come to the conclusion that my brain favours blue and finds it appealing, I see it at first but then it becomes normal after some time and I can't see it anymore. This has been a hallmark of my processing and nearly always it's blue that does it to me.

Oh well I'm gunna leave it for a few days and then come back to it and see what I come up with.

Either way it is indeed a beautifull region to image none the less and basically I am happy with my New Years Eve effort.

Mike

[gregbradley]

Hi Mike,

I think you have it just right in my opinion. I consider myself well informed on the Vela SNR as I have taken several images of it last year and just finished taking 15 hours of it myself yet to be processed fully. So in total something like 30 hours of imaging this region.

The area is primarily an O111 region not a Ha region hence your blue.
The Ha areas are more the 2 gum nebulas a fair way above and to the left of your image area and possibly the lower more solid areas below and to the left of your image area.

In my O111 subs the background shows extensive O111 gas as well as detail in the filaments that only come out with O111. Ha tends to be more vague in the SNR and a bit general although some structure. My images will be O111 LRGB.

So the reason then I conjecture that you are getting blue backgrounds is you have picked up the general O111 emission in your blue subs and they form a general blue background which is not a gradient but something your camera actually picked up.

I also wonder (I didn't actually test it) whether it is more productive to use 2x2 on the luminance and Ha or O111 as the area is fairly dim especially the luminance which picks up hardly any of these filaments.

The filaments jump out in O111 though and show good detail. Even a 60 second image shows some filament detail in O111.

Cheers,

Greg.

[Jen]

Nice work Mike :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Of course, you're right, the reason I don't seem to be able to change it to what my minds eye percieves to be correct is becasue..well...it is probably already pretty much ok.

:D

Mike
I had thought'a that but wasn't so pretentious to suggest it, so thanks :lol:

[strongmanmike]

Oh come on Jen!!!!..that was pretty tame from you for such a beautiful, even if too-blue, supernova remnant wasn't it? :sadeyes:

:lol:

[h0ughy]

wow nice result Mike.

[Jen]

:lol::lol::lol: Mike even if i could get a pic half as good as that i reakon i would be bouncing around the walls in here hahaha :lol::lol: