Flower Power Tarantula - yes I've Sidonio'd it already

[strongmanmike]

Had some good weather this last weekend, Saturday night was near perfect, apart from the moon but I was doing narrow band so it didn't matter.

The region around the Tarantula in the LMC is pretty spectacular so recording and displaying it in Hubbles 70's wall paper colours was a lot of fun :P.

The seeing was only average (as usual) and I started with the LMC pretty low but the resolution came up ok considering..?

Here is a modest crop of the full frame image but as usual if you click on the image you will be taken to the gallery of other image versions to have a look at :thumbsup:

Low res jpeg attached for those on snail mail dial up but to appreciate it better the high res versions may be worth downloading..? ;)

Higher res version (1.7meg)
http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/118982242/original

Hope you like

Mike

[Octane]

Magnificent.

I am thoroughly enjoying your framing, as well.

Each section of the image is well balanced with some wisps or form of nebulae.

Truly remarkable work, Mike. You should be proud.

Regards,
Humayun

[javier alves]

Excelente Michael,very nice.
regards from argentina:thumbsup:

[troypiggo]

Yeah, that rocks!

[dpastern]

Super shot Mike - heaps of detail there and the core of Tarantula is well detailed. I like!

Dave

[AlexN]

POW! Awesome Mike... Awesome...

[gregbradley]

Very nice Mike. Nice colour, well framed, highly detailed. A beauty.

Greg.

[lacad01]

Certainly outstanding with detail, very nicely done :thumbsup:

[jjjnettie]

That would make a beaut poster Mike.
Love all that whispy stuff and the tarantula just jumps out at you.

[multiweb]

That's quite a treat for a difficult and messy area to image.. Beautiful and sharp. :thumbsup:

[Omaroo]

Fabbo Mike. One of the best. :thumbsup:

[suma126]

ITS AWESOME:thumbsup:

[h0ughy]

Do the blue pills make it look like that Man, like, awesome dude. hey try the red ones next man........... COSMIC MAN......!!!

Mike, you can be very creative at times, this one is a pretty good example

[renormalised]

On the spot there, Mike. Great shot!!:D:D

[Jabba]

thats crazy!!!

[marc4darkskies]

A visual treat Mike, an awesome image. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

Hmmm, I even like the colours too - maybe I'm showing my age ;).

Cheers, Marcus

[DavidU]

Spiftacular image Mike !
thanks:thumbsup:

[Paul Haese]

Nice Mike. I take it this is a combine from your previous RGB data with the narrow band stuff. I have not checked on your site to see. Just downloaded the image here.

Really like this use of both narrow band and RGB.

[Bassnut]

Very narly Mike, you balanced the neb extension well, too much and it becomes a mess. Just enough detail to provide a dynamic, 3Dish render.

[Hagar]

Nice image Mike.... Peter Ward will get up you for posting a pretty blue Tarantula. Love the detail in the fine whisppppppy bits of the nebula.
NB has some real advantages when it comes to detail and I am starting to appreciate it much more.

Lovely Mike.

[alan meehan]

Mike my favorite ,this is really beautiful the best i have seen of the tarantula, a true masterpiece
Alan

[Waxing_Gibbous]

Oh my.....!
Thats just incredible.
Well done!
Hope to see it published.
Peter

[strongmanmike]

First of all thanks everyone for taking a look at the image and I'm glad you all seem to like it :thumbsup: always gratifying to feel the joy an image appears to give :love: :P. I hope most of you had a look at the high res versions at my web site too as they are way better than what was attached to the post in IIS.

Houghy - Yes I was taking pills...Beer ones, he he

Paul - No I took 30min Lum and 10min each of RGB as well as the Ha SII OIII over the two nights (Fri and Sat)

Fred - I went for a tad more res just for you.

Doug - I grabbed 90min of OIII, which is plentiful in the region and asigned that to blue soooo it's gunna have blue in it I'm affraid he he


SIDONIO:
While I like the biological like glow and sparkle of the first version, I wanted to see if I could squeek a tad more detail out of the main nebula (just to annoy Fred given it is only a 1140mm FL instrument with a scant 6" of aperture :P) and produce a less green version.

Apart from the RGB I took on the night and used in the first compilation I did take some Lum on the night just before dawn too but didn't use it in the first round. I managed 30min and the Tarantula was just past it's highest point in the sky so I reworked the combination and re blended all the wavelengths.

It is not as sparkly and doesn't quite have that stellar glow like the first version and is just a tad two-toned for my liking but it has something..?

Here is the large version (3meg)
http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/119013487/original

Here is a close up of just the Tarantula showing the increased 3D like detail (800K):
http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/119013914/original

AND, here is my favourite little bit in the main nebula....Bugs Bunny!!
This is highly zoomed in - like it was taken with a 6000mm FL scope :P (380K)
http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/119013930/original

Thanks again everyone

Mike Repro :rolleyes:

[h0ughy]

mmmm too much LSD - cant see bugs Bunny Mike

[DavidU]

The 3meg is insane:eyepop:

[marki]

Clear as day Houghy, it's upside down. Nice pic Mike, not sure about the colours though :question:.

Mark

[strongmanmike]

I think it's the processors eye..but he's there :P

[DavidU]

LOL. Mike you are very clever and have a great sense of humour !

[strongmanmike]

He he, I love looking for strange things in images :screwy:...they are everywhere...

:lol:

[strongmanmike]

Boy! yeh? well I'm glad you think so big Al :thumbsup:

Mike

[multiweb]

The repro is even better. I agree with what's been said before. This the best tarantula I've seen in NB at this image scale and FOV to date. :bowdown: ... yoo dah man!

[DavidU]

The bunny is great but the "stubby" area is a fav:D

[h0ughy]

mean looking bunny - must be the over fertilised Oiii carrots;)

[dugnsuz]

Found another bunny Mike - they're breeding like err rabbits!

ps...ripper image

[multiweb]

Damn ... that looks like the playboy bunny logo alright... Mike, you're sure it's not a reflection from your bookshelf on the front lens of your APO? :confuse3:

[AlexN]

You guys all eat way too much Acid.. I see a big colourful spider, no rabbits and definitely no stubbies!! :D

Great Sidonio, Sidonio..

[strongmanmike]

:lol: good to see some fun can be had from an image

As I have said before having a nice wide field of view but still with good image scale does have its advantages, multiple images can be cropped from a single large one...even ones with bunnys, beer bottles and porno magazines in them :eyepop:

So glad so many had a close look at the images, there's a bit in them for everyone, this field is a bit of a "where's Wally" of the sky :)

Cheers guys

Mike

[jase]

I like the original Mike, but with a tad more saturation. With the richer hues and addition of RGB stars it would be a king hit knockout. Ah imaging...its impossible to please everyone eh... Top work as expected.

[strongmanmike]

It does have RGB stars (10min each RGB) but only the brighter stars, the fainter stars are still the traditional magenta one would expect in a 100% NB image.

I am still thinking narrowband images should have some purple stars in there or it isn't quite right...maybe I am just :screwy: :P..I'll come around, heck I never thought I'd do narrowband period :lol:

Mike

[Craig.a.c]

Nice. Should be blown up and framed over the fire place.

[strongmanmike]

As far as close ups go I like this framing, its a crop and rotated 180deg from the original, I think it looks retty dramatcic, wad a ya recon?

http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/119051137/original

Mike

[Jen]

:eyepop: hooley dooley Mike thats a nice pic :thumbsup:
but i couldnt expect anything less from you i love your pics ;)
Keep em coming
cheers :)

[Ric]

That's a pearler Mike, love the colours.

There's probably quite a few 70's hippies having serious flashbacks at the moment.

Cheers

[Bassnut]

Dunno if the crop is more appealing than the original in this case Mike, perhaps if the crop had been the original FOV you may have processed it differently :shrug:. As Jase says, saturation could be tweaked, but I know how you like the look of your images, so I dont think it was a mistake as such, you dont like crayon drawings. I like it anyway :thumbsup:.

I had a poke at tweaking (http://fredsastro.googlepages.com/MikesNBtrantD.jpg/MikesNBtrantD-full;init:.jpg) myself, not that its better by any means, and im sure youll hate it, just for fun Mike, only different :D

[strongmanmike]

No I don't hate it Fred, looks quite good :thumbsup: I have done so many variations already with this data and along the way various versions actually did look quite like what you have done but as you have recognised I do seem to have a certain "look" that I guess I favour, I like to show the outer fainter extremities and usually prefer a slightly softer feel over high contrast..? But then again it varies from image data set to image data set :lol: Take a look at my deep Helix for example :rolleyes:

Cheers Big ears :D

Mike

[avandonk]

It is all good stuff Mike. Here is an animated gif of your image with one of mine done with a 6" or 150mm achro in NB. As you can see your image has far better resolution. It is not just the fact your Starfire has nearly twice the focal length but the inherent quality of the optics.

Large animated gif 1.8MB

http://d1355990.i49.quadrahosting.com.au/2009_11/ms2070.gif

I am just pleased with the results I can get with a $1000 achro. The superb resolution you are getting with the same aperture just goes to show you gets what you pay for.

Bert

[multiweb]

Although Mike's optics are certainly razor sharp I think you're shot may be slightly out of focus Bert. I have a similar shot taken on a basic ED80 barlowedx2 which is much closer to Mike's rendition.

[avandonk]

Marc focus is as good as I can get it. I am using the achro with a FR/FF at f/4.25 to get a wider field. I don't think that a 150mm diameter F5 APO could be built. If it could I would guess it would cost a heap. Aberrations are far harder to eliminate at high convergence angles.
Below is the full FOV of the achro.

Bert

[multiweb]

Makes sense now. The image scale is way different. :lol: Very cool widefield btw. Lovely colors. :thumbsup:

[TrevorW]

Very dyanamic image but whats this Sidoino that keeps being mentioned,I assume is some processing tip but i must have missed the thread.

Cheers

[strongmanmike]

Cool stuff you come up with Bert :thumbsup: It's great to also have the wide field of view too though huh?

[strongmanmike]

Well ya'd expect that I guess given that they are operating at the same FL, have you shown this image before Marc? be cool to see.

Red Neck Mike :P :help:

[AlexN]

Sidonio - Doing a Sidonio - The art of reprocessing old data to attain different, and sometimes more pleasing results.



Mike - The tarantula at 480mm is a ridiculous little speck of nebulosity in a sea of stars! :) I will be doing a HST pallete image of it hopefully december at both 480mm and 1000mm just to show different perspectives..

[multiweb]

No worries - here it is: crop 1:1 - ED80 Barlow x2 with QHY8