Swan up close

[multiweb]

Here's one from last night - 1.5h RGB in 5min subs with a Barlowx2. I shot that waiting for the helix,... which I got absolutely no signal of... :confused2: Gee this stuff is super faint. :lol: First time I even tried to locate it. One for dark skies I guess. There's a bigger frame here at: http://www.multiweb.com.au/astro/M17x2_f.jpg [4.7MB]
My neighbourgs decided to have a BBQ at 10:00pm with flood lights on so it's a bit grainy in places but the flocking soothe the pain in these cases. :) That'll teach me to remove my Ha filter. :P

[dugnsuz]

2X Barlow! You're a brave man Marco!!
The High Res is pretty sweet - I like the composition.
Nice:)
Doug:thumbsup:

[RB]

Nice work Marc, the hi-res is lovely.
The colour looks a little dull but for 1.5h and through a barlow you've done a great job mate !
The detail is v.good.

LOL BBQ at 10pm huh? ..... doh !

[Robh]

Marc,

Great close up of the Swan!
One of my favourite visual targets.
Thanks for posting. :thumbsup:

Regards, Rob

[dugnsuz]

Andrew, sometimes..you just gotta eat!!!:P

[RB]

Reason I laughed was because that's the time I have breakfast. :lol:

[Nightskystargaz]

Marc,

:), you got a nice shot.

:thanx:,

Tom

[AlexN]

I just gotta eat now.. at 1.54am... Imaging makes me hungry... its all the waiting... :D

Great image Marc.. I bet the increase in focal length is an interesting new avenue!

[multiweb]

You guys all too kind! :thumbsup: I had another look at this pic and the colour does look like s**t. Must have been smokey or something else but I remember having a real hard time to get any blues through. Oh well, Ha it is tonight :)

[AlexN]

Go the Ha Marc! Thats where the real fun is anyway!! no worrying about pesky colour balance! :P

[multiweb]

I planned to do a lot of Ha tonight on NGC6188 but I'm not sure how it's gonna turn out. I'm all setup anyway. Anyone seen the skies in Sydney tonight? They must have been doing some backburning or there's a fire somewhere coz it's not pretty :shrug:

[AlexN]

Im going to follow your route from last week.. except instead of going further along to capture the nebulosity on the tail of M8, Im going wide to include M20 and do a wide field panoramic of M8/M20/M21 in Ha.. Hopefully add colour or OIII data to go with it... one day.. :P

[Bassnut]

Yeah, noticed that, smoke everywhere, and the traffic lights are out everywhere near here too, perhaps the worlds comming to an end.

re your pic. well.......... the data is there, as far as I can tell, but processings not too flash Marc :P:D:thumbsup:

[multiweb]

Yep. I'll redeem myself tonight hopefully with some nice Ha. ;)
Let's forget that one... never happened :lol:

[Octane]

Marc,

Pity about the smoke in the atmosphere as this could have been great.

Try boosting the saturation and increasing contrast, and play with colour balance for fun. You never know, it might just work?

Regards,
Humayun

[multiweb]

Thanks H. "Could have been" is right. Trying to forget that one. I tried to tweak the colours to no end, There's just not enough blues in there. Back to Ha from home. ;)

[CoolhandJo]

Marc, yep the smoke was a killer thats for sure. Good image anyway. As for your comment regarding the Helix, tell me about it! I shot some Ha of the Helix on the same night you did this swan, and was surprised at the faintness of the object. The smoke also gave me some reflection issues. Shot some Lum on the helix last night and guess what! The fog rolled in, dew everywhere, and anything over 30sec stuffed up with contrast issues throughout the image due to the reflection off the fog! Looking forward to seeing your Helix finished off eventually!

[Hagar]

Very nice Marc. 2X barlow adds to the complexity of capture and make every step along the processing run a bit harder.

Well done.