Vela SNR HaRGB almost....

[strongmanmike]

Well you knew I'd do it...and I did :D

This is nearly an HaRGB but does have a bity of Lum blended in. I wanted to accentuate the expanding gas tenrils a bit more and give them a bit more body.

Here is the central 1 square degree or so of the full frame image:
http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/107896132/original

This is the full frame image 1500 X 1000 (1.6meg)
http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/107699449/original

This is the full frame image 2500 X 1600 (3.8 meg)
http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/107699254/original

This is my favourite section of the image, reminds me of a blue and red spider web: (1 meg)
http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/107709482/original

Here are two other close ups of the other interesting bits in the image (1 meg or less):
http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/107709527/original

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

Sorry to those who roll their eyes at a repro :rolleyes: but...I JUST CAN'T HELP MYSEF :screwy:

Mike :)

[Hagar]

All is forgiven Mike. The image is lovely. So much of the fine tendrills. Great Job

[gregbradley]

You made an excellent image great Mike.

I love it.

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Doug and Greg, glad ya liked the repro.

Reprocesses seem to be almost frowned on by some for some reason but ah well, just sharing on going fun with ma friends :thumbsup:

Mike

[h0ughy]

its nice to keep the hand in doing something - if for no other reason than to remember how to do something. I like what you have come back with Mike - quite nice! One day you must show me the ins and outs of Astroart

[avandonk]

Really nice Mike. I know how faint these tendrils are. Below is a stack of 20 min exposures at 1600 ISO with the canon 5DH and Canon 300mm F2.8 at f/2.8 with an Astronomik 13nm HA filter. It is because of the obvious noise that I decided to build my fridge. I hope to do a mosaic in colour (for stars) and HA and O3 (for tendrils) of this region. I have also put your image on mine with Registar to show how vast this SNR is. My images show 7.0 x 4.7 degrees.

Again an image that really shows this faint region beautifully. Well worth any number of repro's.

I would have posted earlier but I had to hunt down this image from my archives.

Bert

[multiweb]

Great pic. High-res is amazing. :eyepop:

[strongmanmike]

On ya Dave, I usually need a few tries before I am happy..you guys are just unlucky enough to have to endure the journey with me :P

Astroart is the only camera control, image calibration, pre processing and frame aligning software I have ever used since first using a CCD in mid 2003 (amazing huh?) I am currently using Astroart4. I have found it a very successful program :)



Great stuff Bert. I was aware that the main SNR was pretty huge not to mention the huge mass of other nebulosity in that area of sky. I look forward to your efforts. Gendler has of course trumped pretty much everyone with his million frame mozaic of the region at long FL, truly masterful work... sheesh and he doesn't even live down here, MAN! :rolleyes:



Thanks Marc, the seeing that night was only average but much better than my last trip to Wiruna though :windy: :scared: the optics and laser guided like autoguiding from the Tak NJP mount and Astroart4 do help here too of course :)

[atalas]

They all look great big Mike ! too hard to chose a favorite .

[richardo]

Hey Mike,
you just had to do it didn't you.:doh:

Well, I do like your repro better.
Little more neutrality to the background, through the wisps that is. Not as blue.
But I know you lean a bit on the blue side which is fine by me.:D

The 1500x1000 full page view fits just perfect on my 24" monitor, with a little space to spare.
Great just gazing at it.
There's even a tiny little galaxy to the bottom L/H corner.

Hope you can get away to a dark site soon... well after this moons starts to wane any way.
Not sure how me repros we can handle:lol:;)

All the best
Rich

[strongmanmike]

I like the close-ups of the wisps, they are so interesting and intricate



Actually the big file should look good on your 24"er too..? I only have a 22" , they say the extra 2" isn't really necessary....but you must have big feet too then? :P

Can't find that galaxy though...?

Mike

[richardo]

Actually the big file should look good on your 24"er too..? I only have a 22" , they say the extra 2" isn't really necessary....but you must have big feet too then? :P
Can't find that galaxy though...?

Mike[/quote]

I actually went for the dell because they are a true 8bit instead of most of the 22"er being 6bit with 2bit dithering. Plus the 3 year dead pixel warranty was pretty hard to ignore.

Yep you're right, I checked out the 2500x1700 version and the galaxy I thought that was, from the smaller version, is actually a line of redish/ mottled stars. :doh:
BTW at this size, pretty amazing I must say.

Waaaa, I want a big chip:sad:

All the best
Rich

[strongmanmike]

I was making a joke, "extra inches"...??? ;)...sorry:whistle:



Hmmm?...me thinks ya might need glasses :whistle: it is clearly 4 stars of different colours even in the 1500 X 1000 shot to me...?



Yes, only 1/4 of the number of viewers for the 2500 X 1700 version compared to the 1500 X 1000 version, ah well their loss :rolleyes: :)



Hang in there, you'll get one :thumbsup:

[richardo]

Aaaaahhhhaaa, not real quick on the uptake Mike, need to see a face to put some subtle jokes together :rolleyes:.. god I'm thick at times:P

Yes, I actually sometimes need to wear glasses.... from spending too much time staring at a monitor:sadeyes:
To me in the smaller version it did look like a little galaxy.... true :( jeeeezzz, I'm cracking up.. things are getting saggy and baggy and wearing out:rofl:

Ok Mike....

Catch you soon
Rich

[prokyon]

Hi Mike,

sharp, so many details, beautiful colors....great job!

[Craig_L]

Just a lovely image Mike. And how do you get such colour in your stars?

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Werner and Craig, glad ya like it :)

Craig: re the star colours...magic ??:D no seriosuly, I do a pretty basic LRGB combine process using Astroart4 then up the saturation in Astroart and again in PS at some stage in later processing.

CCD's do tend to show better star colour saturation compared to DSLR's I beleive?

Mike

[gregbradley]

Hi Mike,

Got a technical question for you. When you do your LRGB combine do you normalise the RGB or the LRGB first?

I have been finding using CCDstack and Baader and to a lesser degree the Astronomik filters that unless I do a normalise I can get weird colours.

With the Baader it is more pronounced and I have lost some images due to weird colour combines. Today I was processing the Vela SNR and I kept getting weird electric blue colours until I normalised not only RGB but the full LRGB then the colours were fine.

Its enough to make me go back to Astrodon filters and risk the reflections problem.

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

No, I do everything by eye really.

I do the RGB and LRGB combine in Astroart4 and I think in a pretty basic way. After preparing the aligned R, G & B frames (usually DDP and log stretch) matching them purely by eye I just use the RGB command to get the RGB then usually blur and up the saturation a bit. I then open the Lum and do the LRGB with a single click - pretty simple.

Mike

[Paul Haese]

Nice work Mike. I was sold on the other image personally but this one is great too.

[spearo]

Very nice!
amazing level of detail in the full frame shot
well done mate!
frank

[bluescope]

Much better than the first version Mike !

:thumbsup:

[Octane]

Mike,

Man, what a beautiful image -- as they always are.

Thank you for the reprocess. :)

Regards,
Humayun

[strongmanmike]

Hi Paul

Initially I was ok with blue cast in my first version (and it looks ok viewing the screen at night but then being more obvious in daylight it started to annoy me, so I composed a more Ha weighted version to give it more depth and drama, I thiiiiiiink I acheived this..? :shrug: :thumbsup:



Thanks...tent man :P yes the exploded tendrils are quite intricate.



Yeh..? Ok :)..didn't like the blue did ya? :sadeyes:.... :lol:



Thanks Humi, there are a few different colours in there huh? Really looks like a Kaleidoscope or a party right at Midnight on New Years Eve with streamers and fireworks shooting everywhere :lol:

Mike

[gregbradley]

Mike,

Having recently been working on my own images of this area I appreciate even more how well you captured this object.

I think I need to get more Ha as there is more in the Ha band than I thought. O111 pulls out the big loopy tendrils but Ha gets more of the detail.

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

Well thanks Greg :) not being an imaging machine like you I need to get the few images I do manage to get...just right, secret.?? REPROCESS :lol:

I look forward to seeing your version, did you use the small FLI or the big Apogee? Mozaic perhaps?

Mike

[gregbradley]

Mike,

I used the Apogee on both the BRC and the FSQ106. The FSQ with its reducer and the Apogee camera has a massive FOV. It looks great with O111 and Ha subs but the RGB was a bit bland. Still working on that one. I am planning a mosaic with the FSQ and I did the first 2 panels in O111 LRGB. But now I want Ha as well after seeing your image and what adding Ha did to the BRC Vela.

I finished processing the BRC one today - it took bloody ages. I redid it several times and wasn't making a lot of progress.

Thomas Davis gave me some advice - the weightings for the Baader filters - they are nowhere near 1:1:1 as advertised.

That cracked it and I am now happy with it. I'll let it sit for a day and check it over again to see if I still like it.

There's nothing wrong with doing repros!
:rolleyes:

Greg.