Key Hole Nebula

[ejcruz]

Managed to sneak in a few shots between scattered clouds and haze of the Key Hole. Believe the bright star in the middle is HD 93129A and is estimated around 7500 light-years away with a solar mass of 200, does this mean it is 200 times the size of our solar system.

- QHY9 mono ccd as main camera
- QHY5 mono ccd as guide camera
- GSO RC 8" f/8 main scope
- SW 70mmx500mm guide scope
- MPCC Flattener
- Ha 7nm (6x20min), Oiii 8.5nm (1x20min BIN2) subs
- EQ6 Pro mount
SRGB processing
Small version
http://ejcruz.smugmug.com/Photography/Nebulas/Astrophotography-Narrowband/CVNGC3372SRGBCropAdj/798823695_vjRvv-L.jpg
Large version
http://ejcruz.smugmug.com/Photography/Nebulas/Astrophotography-Narrowband/CVNGC3372SRGBCropAdj/798823695_vjRvv-X2.jpg

C&C welcome, thank you for looking.

Cheers
Eddie

[Remus]

very impressive indeed!

[telecasterguru]

Eddie,

That is an extraordinary image.

A solar mass is the mass of our sun so a star that is 200 solar masses is 200 times the size of our sun. (I think)

Frank

[AlexN]

As Frank said, 1 Solar Mass = The mass of our sun. Whether or not that means that the star in your image is 200 times the size of our sun is a different question all together. It has 200 times more mass. but with mass comes gravity, with gravity comes compression... it may only be 10 times the physical size of our sun, but be 200 times the mass. A neutron star the size of our sun would have about 10,000 solar masses. Its a matter of density.

Nice image - Looks a little overcooked to me, but I'm viewing on my laptop screen as my desktop computer decided to take a dump last week :(

[ejcruz]

Thank you for the comments.

Thank's Frank and Alex for the explaination.

Cheers
Eddie

[strongmanmike]

Hmmm?...certainly a LOUD image Eddie :scared:

The guiding looks spot on and the stars are good to the edges but the prosessing you have chosen looks a little harsh to me and the colours while bold are also very stark and lack any soft tones.

Lot of good things about the image though, these are just my impressions, so if you like it well that's all that's important really :thumbsup:

Mike

[ejcruz]

Thank you Michael for your comments, as Alex also mentioned it's overcooked :lol: so I've toned down the heat.

Small version
http://ejcruz.smugmug.com/photos/799735610_vzU4D-L.jpg
Large version
http://ejcruz.smugmug.com/photos/799735610_vzU4D-X2.jpg

Cheers
Eddie

[jase]

Bold Eddie, really bold. The details grabbed me first with their punch contrast, but I'm finding it difficult to absorb the scene with the presented colour palette. It doesn't do it justice I'm afraid. Personally, I think you've produced better work before so know you're capable of putting it all together for the knockout image. Keep at it mate.

[Octane]

Eddie,

I'd have to concur with Jase and Mike on this one.

The processing looks like as if it's been put through Photomatix on a light smoothing value of 1 or 2.

Perhaps a reprocess might be on the cards?

H

[ejcruz]

Thank you Jase and Humayun appreciate your feed back, maybe it's been too long since I really processed an image, back to the drawing board.

Cheers
Eddie