Thors Helmet in bicolour slight repro

[gregbradley]

Nearly full moon last weekend but otherwise nice skies and good seeing.

I got out the narrowband filters and this one is a bicolour (Ha red + O111 blue plus (Ha+O111)/2 for green.

The O111 was shot 2x2 mainly with some 1x1 to see if I was missing out on much resolution. I seemed to get the lost resolution back through using deconvolution possibly thanks to the brighter image (higher signal).

Ha 90 O111 90.

TEC180mm fluorite triplet, Tak NJP mount, FLI ML8300, Astrodon 5nm Ha and O111 filters. From my dark site observatory.

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/120140813

I plan to produce another version of this as I have several hours of LRGB on this object from earlier in the year to combine with it.

Greg,

[strongmanmike]

Some excellent details in the helmet and wings Greg, good use of your imaging time too :thumbsup:

Mike

[TrevorW]

nice greg

[Paul Haese]

I like the detail in the helmet (bubble) and the overall colouring is quite nice.

Probably needs more data to clear out the artifacts in the back ground.

This object is on my list to do with the RC. I might have to take a look at it with the OIII blended with blue, Ha blended with red, and green. I am keen to see more data on the image you have here.

[drjcaron]

Hi Greg, really nice work. I tried an additional decon on the image and produced an improved result. There were artifacts due to the jpeg compression, but it shows that even more blur can be removed If you tweak your parameters on your decon, using the original data, you should get a show-stopper.
Best Regards,
Jim C

[multiweb]

Great shot Greg! :eyepop: The details in the bubble are very sharp. You can almost see it expanding. Ha/Oiii blends always bring those nice red and blue hues. Works well on a lot of DSOs. Top work. :thumbsup:

PS: Where did you get clear skies? I'll have to come and plonk my rig next to yours next time you image. :lol:

[RB]

Beautiful detail in the bubble Greg !

:thumbsup:

[renormalised]

Great shot there, Greg. Lots of detail in the helmet:D

[gregbradley]

Thanks Trev.



More data is always good but sometimes hard to get. I have now moved to a fairly dark sky location close outside Sydney and will be building an observatory in the new year. I have a Paramount ME waiting and intend to out 2 piers in so I can get twice as much data each imaging session. That will help.

I have about 6 hours of LRGB data from earlier this year I can add.



I used deconvolution to the point where the stars were starting to get whacked. I had to repair a couple of the bigger stars. So there is a point of diminishing returns on that. The better the signal in the first place the harder you can push it. I did some slight noise control processing so perhaps the extra decon took it back to where it was before that but it was a tad noisy without it.


My site runs reverse to Sydney weather as its on the western side of the Great Dividing Range. Its gone back to that pattern. For about a year it was the reverse where Sydney was clear and it was cloudy. Fortunately it seems to have gone back to the normal pattern.

Bicolour does work well on nebs. It gives you whitish stars which aren't too bad.





Its an intriguing object, quite dim in LRGB but strongest in O111 and next strongest in Ha. Same as Vela SNR and I presume other similar type nebs. I should check out Eta C in O111 to see what that looks like or The Rosette.

[Paul Haese]

6 hours of LRGB data will really sweeten up the image. Man I wish I had some data laying around like that too. Looking forward to seeing that when you get the chance Greg.

[telecasterguru]

Greg,

I just love the colours and the clarity of the image.

Frank

[bluescope]

Best helmet I've seen on this forum if not anywhere I believe especially as it is a work in progress ... well done Greg !

:thumbsup:

[marc4darkskies]

Very nice Greg! Excellent detail! :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Cheers, Marcus

[gregbradley]

Its worth keeping all your data. I have a bit of library of data now.



I was happy with how the O111 turned out which is the bulk of the clarity.



Wow, thank you.



Cheers neighbour.

[AlexN]

Stunning image mate.. Simply stunning.

Looking forward to LRGB data being added.

[TheDecepticon]

Absolutely awesome!:eyepop:It really is a great pic of an awesome object!:)

[Tandum]

WOW ... lots of arms and legs in that one. Shouldn't it be blue/green?

[Tom Davis]

Wow, that's deep! Great shot Greg!

Tom

[gregbradley]

Thanks Alex.



It is a great object isn't it.



Hehe blue/green can be arranged.



Thanks Tom. The O111 really brought it out.

Greg

[Ken]

Great work Greg plenty of detail and very natural looking colour for a bicolour
clear skies Ken

[gregbradley]

Thanks Ken. The formula is Ha (red) O111+Ha/2 Green and O111 blue.

You combine a Ha and O111 and then use the pixel math function to divide it by 2.

Greg.

[AlexN]

Greg, you could do something somewhat different with that data too, and use Ha O3 O3 as RGB. This will give a seemingly natural colour image, with slightly muted greens... Ha O3 Ha+O3, Ha and O3 blended say, 40:60 in screen mode in photoshop...

The joys of narrowband! You can just do whatever the hell takes your fancy! :D

[spearo]

oooooh
lots of very nice detail in there!
I'm jealous!
frank:thumbsup:

[gregbradley]

Thanks Alex. I may give that a go. There is also this link by Steve Canistra about bicolour. I did not go to that extent merely Ha is red, O111 + Ha divided by 2 was green and O111 was blue. I've used that before and it worked well on the Tarantula. I'll play around with it. The LRGB will need more deconvolution and remastering and that will take time.




Thanks Frank!

[gregbradley]

What parameters were you using with deconvolution?

I am not 100% sure how deconvolution works. I'll have to study up on it.

A bit like creating an unsharp mask that removes the blur?

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

Yeh, I too was iffy about the look of this dark art imaging when I had no NB filters but now I love it because of just like you say :lol: :thumbsup:

Mike

[gregbradley]

I took the advice to try to sharpen it even more. I am amazed at how much this image sharpened up compared to the original O111.

I used Focus magic Photoshop plugin plus selective sharpening on the helmet area only and it coaxed out even more detail.

I'm now beginning to appreciate the sharpness of the TEC180mm's optics. The seeing was good but its often that good at my site.

http://upload.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/120140813/original


Greg

[AlexN]

Thats real nice Greg! Real Real Nice...

Yes your optics are incredibly sharp.. I can see the beginnings of detail in the little dusty spots at the bottom of the bubble, texture in the wings...
Amazing... Definitely the most detail I've seen in this nebula..

It also looks like you might have coaxed a touch more nebulosity out of it too..

Fantastic.

[drjcaron]

Hi Greg,
I used my program Tria (full disclosure: I am a vendor.) to do the blind decon with the default values. My site does have a brief overview of blind deconvolution at http://www.quarktet.com/BlindDecon.html and there is a decent explanation of the unsharp at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsharp_masking .

Hope that helps,
Jim C

[troypiggo]

That's absolutely fantastic. Best Thor's Helmet I've seen. Planning to add SII to it?

[strongmanmike]

That bubble is positively bursting :eyepop:

Mike

[sjastro]

Excellent image Greg.

Steven

[gregbradley]

Thanks Alex. I am very happy with this scope. Its a keeper.



Thanks Jim. I've downloaded a demo of your program to try it out.



I took some S11 but not enough. It is pretty dim in S11. I can add some later.



Thanks Mike. I was surprised at how much I was able to sharpen it up.



Thanks Steven.

Greg.

[Paul Haese]

Nice shell showing there now.

[gregbradley]

Thanks Paul.

Greg.

[jase]

Impressive result Greg. An Ha:OIII:OIII combo would look equally pleasing, but probably not as natural as a synth green. Well done.

[gregbradley]

I may try that. And thank you for letting me know Thors Helmet shows up best in O111.

Cheers

Greg.

[Jeffkop]

Awesome as usual Greg ... the leaders in this field are truly in a league of their own. Everytime I see an image such as this Im reminded of it ... just as everytime I am humbled.

[gregbradley]

Gee whiz Geoff, thanks mate. How's it going with the BRC?

Greg.