Horsehead - Deep & Wide (ish) Field

[Bolts_Tweed]

I dont know how this is going to look but here it is anyway. I am working on a cheap View Sonic Monitor plugged into a laptop with a buggered monitor (only internet access I have at the moment) and it is calibrated to my laser printer output so who knows?. I have kept it (the image) pretty subtle with low colour saturation so it shouldnt look like a neon sign outside a bordello - If you could let me know if it appears the calibration is out a heap it would be appreciated - maybe even a tweak so I can match it here may bring this thing into line.

This is one of a mosaic I started at Leyburn Observatory over the weekend. Taken through a Televue np101is with a modded (thanks Eric) 350D. It is 8 x 15 minute subs and 3 x 30 minutes to get as deep as possible with a 4 inch f 5.4 scope. DSS, MaximDL Log Strech, Assorted CS2 including a Multi Layer Deconvolution Blend and High Pass Filter and background smoothing to try for some depth of field.

I know the colour above the horsehead is dodgy (pink) but it just saturates out when you expose long enough to get the brown faint dust cloud below it. Still working on it - but my aim isnt to get a bright red HII region but to bring out fainter dust clouds from here to M78. I have an idea for the final mosaic to make the HII red and the dust brownish.

Any advice re monitor calibration would be appreciated ( and you can rip this to pieces if you like too :)) but it would be good to get the monitor somewhere approaching right.

Mark Bolton

[DavidU]

Mark, I think that shot is just wicked ! Very different and VERY good.
Thanx:thumbsup:

[AlexN]

Mark,

Beautiful! Absolutely, Unequivocally - Awesome!

I agree, probably a bit pink above the horse.. other than that she's a ripper! the 30min subs have definitely done their job in pulling out the faint stuff around the horse..

Great work! Cant wait to see the final mosaic! :)

[Bolts_Tweed]

Thx guys - sounds like to calibration is close then.

Alex - the ST10 is still going great but I am waiting on some LRGB filters at the moment so I decided to go back to old failthful DSLR for the weekend. I am all narrowbanded out but I wish the 350D had the sensitivity of the ST10 - would make for much quicker images

Mark

[multiweb]

Wow! That's quite something! Superb! :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[AlexN]

You could do RGB as Ha OIII OIII.. would come out looking fairly natural as far as colour is concerned... Just imagine how deep this would have been with the same exposure durations with the ST10!! :D that said, you would have had to do a 2~3 panel mosaic to get a similar field of view... Horses for courses I guess! And lets face it, the 350D sure did you proud! Image came out great!

[dpastern]

Looks really nice to me Mark.

Dave

PS were you Andrew's friend from last months Leyburn that showed me Octans etc?

[Bolts_Tweed]

Thx guys again.

David - should have said gday - I probably spoke to you and didnt know who it was. It was probably Ray or Kevin that showed you Octans - Ray is short and grey and Kevin is short and bald :lol: (they're old mates so I will probably get away with that). Ray has the second last observatory on the left hand side (green metal one)and Kevin usually sets his Dob up outside Rays ob.

Mine is the WR Cedar observatory on the right when you come in. I will usually be in there or in the house (well ok - the house is an ATCO shed but you know what I mean :)).

Let me know who you are next time you are out - we'll have a coffee. You cant miss me - I reckon Tolkien modelled Bilbo Baggins on me - short, bald and hairy ears :rofl:.

Mark Bolton

[dpastern]

Nah, it was a Mark, Andrew's mate who turned up (his first time at the Leyburn site). Maybe we didn't meet - there's always next time hehehe. I must be a hobbit as well then, not short, but chubby and I love food. I don't think I met Ray, but I did meet Kevin and had fantastic views through his f4 16" dob. Amazing :) I met Glen also, and Mal (and his son), and Julian. Oh, and Nolene (and her husband briefly).

Dave

[Sarge]

As they say "absolutely fabulous." Great shot Mark

Rod

[Lester]

Fantastic depth to that image Mark. All the best for more.

[troypiggo]

That's a cracker image, Mark. Best of the season for me so far.



I think Bolts Tweed Mark has been to Leyburn a few times ;) :rofl:

[dpastern]

yeah :P I gathered that - now. :P

Dave

[h0ughy]

fantastic result Mark

[multiweb]

Had to come back and look at that pic. Mate it really does it for me. There's something about it. I don't know if it's the colors or details and framing but it just works as a whole. Inspirational. :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Lovely result Bilbo :thumbsup: :D

Lots of faint stuff pulled out there and the traditional framing is hard to beat. You've handled all the hard bits associated with this field quite well.

Nice job

Mike

[PeterM]

Mark is perhaps the most laid back astro imager you could ever meet. Fully supported by his wife Debbie in all his astro efforts.
He is his own biggest critic which he then follows with something like "mate I'm just givin' it a go"
He loves this stuff.
Mark, this is without a doubt one of the sweetest images of this area of sky I have ever seen. I'm sure you don't mind, I have saved it and I am using it as my desktop background (crawl).
PeterM.

[Bolts_Tweed]

Thx again guys.

Mr Marples is right - I am pretty critical with my own images. In fact I wouldnt have posted this until i fixed the HII but I want to look at the other HII regions in the mosaic before I go playing around too much and then if I didnt post it now I never would.

I just relaised now there is phrase you dont hear too often - 'Mr Marples is right - :lol:) - luv ya Pete nearly as much as my rottweiler ;)

Thanks for the comments guys

MB

[Bolts_Tweed]

I just thought I would give credit where required (can you spot the academic here). The idea for deep imaging in this region came from Rogelio Andreo

http://blog.deepskycolors.com/

He has some amazimg stuff on his site and what is even more amazing is if you look at his progression over 2 years if you compare his older images to new ones. Talk about going ahead in leaps and bounds

Thanks again for the positive replies but I thought I ahd better give this guy credit for the original idea

MB

[Jeffkop]

You'de HAVE to be bloody happy with that Mark. Its up there for me with the top images ive seen of this. Great picture to frame n put on the wall.
I will let the experienced guys tell you its pros and cons from an astrophoto point of view ... but from a purely visual approach ... it really does it.

[Bolts_Tweed]

Well its not really a repro cause its not even a full image yet but I visited Mikes site and saw the greyscale calibration image and calibrated this monitor hopefully to show it the way I was trying to process it. I saw it on a mates computer and it looked a lot darker than i would like. I know the pallette is strange but it is all experimentation at this stage. Also used the Colour Range selection to drop the pink a bit.

For what its worth this might be closer to how I originally processed it.

Mark Bolton

[AlexN]

Holy Bat Poop Batman!!

Yep, you sure got some data in there Mark.. Amazing work...

I might just link this for your viewing pleasure... After seeing Rogelio Andreo's Orion widefield, I thought to myself.. yep Mark will get a kick out of this....

LOOK AT ME!! (http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/OriondeepfieldL.html)

[Bolts_Tweed]

Gday Mate

yeah I know Mr Gendlers shot. Definately amazing. The contrast in the dust (I suspect from a Ha luminosity channel) is incredible. It was a combination of him and Rogelio Andreo that got me started on this faint dust hunt - damn them :).

What used to be sweet little 8 or 10 minute images of M42 have become all night marathons but what the heck - ya gotta push your previous limits I suppose.

My favourite saying to the mates at Leyburn is that Astrophotgraphy is more like Golf than Chess. The aim is to lower your handicap not to beat the other guy. Once you are a Tiger Woods then I suppose you can compete but I am still hacking around cow paddocks looking for lost balls at the moment.

What does amaze me but is how far we advance due to technology and I suppose a few skills we pick up. I had a look at my horse head from last season and I wouldnt even print it out now. But then if I had gotten last years image a few years ago on Fuji 800 I would have been sending it to magazines (and probably wondering why they didnt publish it :)).

Will keep you up to date on the Mosaic. No more now until next month (could have done some after the moon this weekend but I have to go to Nambucca for a funeral). I have 4 x 15 mintes of the next frame done and it looks promising but I need those 30 mins to bring out that faint dust.

M

[AlexN]

I agree completely regarding the Golf comment... I too did some comparisons just recently..

I started seriously imaging deep sky in September last year.. I compared my very first astro image from September 9 last year (M8) to my version of M8 that I completed September 8 this year.. There is just NO comparison... None what so ever.. I've been systematically imaging targets I imaged last year and doing comparisons, and I've found one thing is certain.. Im headed in the right direction! :D Its funny as you say... Last year when I did the first M8 image, I was SOO happy with it, I now get a giggle when I look at it.. its nothing in comparison to my current work, but at the time I was amazed..

I'm heading to dark skies this coming weekend and will be running some 30min exposures on the horse head to see what I can find.. :) I'll be happy if it comes out anywhere near what yours has! :)

[Hagar]

Very nice Mark, you seem to have lost much of the colour variation in the flame and much of the finer detail in the flame also. May be a little lighter on the stretch and you will keep this detail and colour but you may also loose some of the overall bright colour.
Nice image all the same. Love the mosaic idea.

[Bolts_Tweed]

yeah Hagar I agree. I cant get the hang of this monitor brightness calibration thing through my head. As I said - the original image prints good on my laser by looks too dark on the web.

I have adjusted brightness & contrast on this second image (as well as the pink adjustment - just not butch enough) but I agree the Flame now lacks variation.

I'm gathering tips for now and this comment is good as it is another check in the processing of the mosaic. I think the whole thing will need changing when I get more dark background in the image. I suppose I could just cheat and mask it through :).

Thanks for the input - all advice is welcome - especially at this stage of the process (well any stage really). Imaging this faint dust is all new to me.

Mark

[Octane]

Mark,

Spectacular. Benchmark for the season thus far.

P.S. Masking is not cheating. ;)

Regards,
Humayun

[Bolts_Tweed]

Thanks for the kind words H.

I agree mate regarding masking - it is just a bit of an in joke at Leyburn at the moment. There are about 8 or so masks in this as it is with the MLDB, HighPass and background smoothing.

I have actually done it (masked the flame) after Hagars comments (which i agree with) and it came out much better - amazing how I was concentrating on brightening the brown dust and losing the pink in the saturated part of the HII in the processing and didnt even notice the loss in the flame once I was happy with the rest. That is the attention to detail required and why these forums are an asset.

Anyway this first frame is printed now and it can go straight to the poolroom (if I had one)

Thx again

mark