Orion Sword reprocessed, wha tha???

[strongmanmike]

Yes weeeell just humour me :P...I thought that was that.... buuuuut Mr god dam bluddy perfectionist kept wispering in my ear :rolleyes:...I wasn't 100% happy with the last version as it showed some colour noise in the outer fainter nebulosity in the darker areas, particularly up around the outer Running Man and I hadn't managed to reveal the details in the very faint outer sections of the loop at the bottom of the frame very well, I also tweaked the colour balance slightly to get rid of teh slight green cast in a couple of areas and reduce the blue in the outer areas of the main nebula loop as I think this should be a little more grey. I was sure I could also squeak a tad more detail out overall too :question:.

I think this is now a little more polished with a more natural sky background, not that there is much visble through the huge amount of neb anyway.

This is the 2.3meg 60% size version (click on the image to see the other versions and crops etc):
http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/120372164/original

Main Nebula only (1.7meg) if you have a decent size screen this is one to look at in full screen mode (F11):
http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/120373542/original

Thanks guys, sorry to thsoe who hate repros :P... I think I am fully (99%) happy now :D

Mike
Long live the repro

[h0ughy]

all hail the king, he must be king there is no.......on him..... its a great image your highness

[Hagar]

Not the new Centaurus A.

Looks pretty darn good to me Mike. Although I quite liked the last version but I might not look as hard as you do.

[Tom Davis]

Looks good Mike! :thumbsup: Now be even more of a perfectionist and remove the coverslip halos around the brighter stars.

Tom

[DavidU]

Damn ! That's a stunner.
I'm always up for a Sidonio Mike.

[Paul Haese]

Could tell the difference, both are great.

[Garyh]

Like this color balance better than the orig one Mike! :thumbsup:
cheers Gary

[telemarker]

Stunning :thumbsup:

If they made a movie about you it'd be called "Repro Man":poke:

with apologies to Harry Dean Stanton and Emilio Estevez

[Jeffkop]

Just as pleasing to the eye as its predecessor Mike :thumbsup:... cant wait for the next version ... ya cant stop at 99% ... my house is on it !!!! :lol:

[strongmanmike]

Oh Jester of the court, you make light of my work, off with your head...and on with your dome :P



Ah yes...Centaurus A....I miss her :(...one to do again with the new camera perhaps? :D



Yeh that;s the remaining 1% dissatisfaction :lol:. Funny you should mention that though, I did consider doing it but it was just too hard to get right and look natural (well I couldn't work out a way of doing it well anyway), in the end I am not too adverse to optically induced effects in an image if they are not too objectionable and besides, the pending FLI16803 will have no cover slip and a CCD mask light shield ;)



On ya Dave :thumbsup: what would I do without the repro :eyepop:



Glad you noticed the change Mr Fastidious No2, most probably wouldn't :lol:



Thanks Gary glad you noticed the new interior decoration



On the subject of Repro man, I competed against a big Kiwi back in 1998,99 & 2000, Levi Vaonga, Levi was 6'3" and 173kg, super strong and powerfull too (lovely gentle man off the field). He had a nose ring and a mohawk the first time I met him :scared:...thing is you betch ya, he was a reprosession man :eyepop: but get this, he drove a Black high rise Toyota HiLux with a row of driving lights across the top and mag wheels, now I challenge anyone who's door he knocked on and asked them for their car not to give it to him :rofl: He was hard to beat and just taking the odd event from him over the course of a competition was enough at times, which I did a few times, but overall he was a monster.



Well the 1% left is the small star halos around teh stars caused by the chip cover slip...so who knows :D

[AlexN]

Looks good Mike, the difference in the dusty areas is the most noticeable. Agreed the halo's are a little distracting.. The CCD Cover slip causing those? I would have thought they looked like filter reflections? Is the CCD Cover slip replaceable? I know FLI offer a few options on the CCD optical window... Perhaps you should go for the Sapphire window on the 16803?

[gregbradley]

I am not 100% sure but I think the later FLI PLs have antireflection coatings on the CCD windows. I think mine has. The mask is probably standard now on the CCD and has been for a while. No cover slip is the way to go for that little bit extra QE and less tiny reflection spikes around bright stars. One thing to check is some early PLs had CCD window glass that had very slight radioactivity decay which the high QE of these chips picked up.
It was corrected early on though. Worth knowing about however.

When are you expecting your 16803? Are you keeping the 11002?

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Alex and Greg

Yes my impending ProLine16803 will be the latest beez knees model with all the extras, it will have the chip mask and the chip will have no cover slip :thumbsup:. The precise parts adapter should be here soon :D:D:D

I will be keeping the 11002 initially but then, well, who knows..? ;)

Mike

[gregbradley]

That's exciting Mike.

I think you'll love the extra field of view of the 16803 plus its extra sensitivity. Its quite a bit more sensitive than the 11002. But then the 11002 is such a legend of a chip with so so many fantastic images around.

Greg.

[bluescope]

Very detailed image Mike !

:thumbsup:

[Peter Ward]

Greg Terrance at FLI is undoudtedly a great sponsor. ;)

[strongmanmike]

Thanks for the comments on my Image Peter you are too kind, much appreciated. I work hard to get my images so kind words like yours make all the hard work worth it :)

Mike

[Peter Ward]

Ah the irony...and the image....yes well, very nice!....but I think I've seen you do better as:


there are several odd spikes at 5 o'clock across the entire frame...I say odd as these you tend to get with CMOS chips, not CCD's
chroma looks a tad over-cooked...but could simply be a monitor variation issue.

The rest of the technical aspects you've handled (as usual) very well. I'm sure you'll enjoy the 16803 chip. :)

[strongmanmike]

Oh yes, actually the PL11002 has a revolutionary Kodak emulsion based Silver Halide CMOS in fact ...the super cooling is just for my beer :P

Thanks for the critique :thumbsup:

Mike

[AlexN]

I thought it was cooled by its proximity to a 6" AP.. :) Im not to big to admit when I'm wrong :D hahaha

[strongmanmike]

Last night was the second night now in 2& 1/2 years that I couldn't quuuuite reach -35C :doh:....as it was still a balmy beer swilling 28C at midnight last night :eyepop:.

I decided that -34.6 was close enough and I started at 10pm, the camera eventually got to -35C but hopefully my set of -35C darks will still be close enough for the lights taken at -34.6C :question:

Mike

[h0ughy]

Mike a lot of people already think that you are super cooled ;), and some luke warm LOL, as for the comments by Mr Ward, I look forward to seeing the results. it would indeed be a wonderful gesture for you to offer Mike a case of super cooled beers while you allow his New camera to image through your scope, while you two chew the air, then plonk on your old beastie and see the difference through the same scope.


that would be the ideal test for the beer cooler;)

[Peter Ward]

Which one's?

Mike's experienced enough to take constructive criticism....and good enough to have some excellent sponsors.

I just call it as I see it....

[strongmanmike]

That's all very well Peter but could you please refrain from making accusations to this community about your perceptions concerning my private affairs, they are none of your business, do not belong in this forum and I do not apprectiate them, thankyou.

Mike

[Peter Ward]

Agreed.

Though I am puzzled why anyone would be sheepish about having a sponsor.

This is normal practice in many pursuits where a manufacturer/service supplier wants their name associated with the A-listers. I personally see it as a mark of success

The Australian (Tennis) open is currently full of them. :shrug: