IC2944 Running Chicken

[Paul Haese]

Imaging during moon light can have its risks but if you plan things out well you could be quite surprised. For this image I did my narrow band when the moon was above the horizon and the colour when the moon was below or just risen. The luminence I did last night for 105 minutes with 15 minute subs. All the other subs were 10 minutes long. Overall I am very happy with this image and so much so I have included a crop of the Bok Globules which show detail. This astounded me and I thought it might be a stacking error, however it is visible in the Hubble shot of the same globules; so it would seem that a very small scope can pull out detail of these region too.

IC2944 (http://paulhaese.net/IC2944RunningChicken.html)

Bok Globules (http://paulhaese.net/IC2944BokGlobules.html)

Your comments are welcome as always

[multiweb]

Outstanding! Gorgeous colors. :thumbsup:

[CoolhandJo]

What a beauty! Well done. :)

[TrevorW]

Another fine image

bok, bok, bok

[AlexN]

Nice mate... Its a bit of a dull area in visible light spectrum images.. Definitely presents better in narrowband, that said you've got some great detail in there!

There are little halo's around some of the stars, looks like a filter reflection but its hard to say...


Overall its a great image... You should be very happy with that effort!

[Paul Haese]

Thanks all, appreciated.

Alex several people have raised this halos issue and looking at it I see blue halos but not dark halos. I reckon this must have something to do with my blending of Ha with the red and the Ha with the luminence. Probably the Ha and red channels. That has got me bugged as I am really happy with the level of detail and the colour depth of the image.

[Jeffkop]

Another great result Paul. I recall reading your tribulations with this new gear over the last few months and admire your determination and skills. If this game teaches you anything its persistence what with all the different areas of relatively unknown to conquer to get a result of any description, I guess after awhile it becomes innate and you take it for granted. Then its our job to remind you of just how well you've done.
I said .. "halo halo" ..... "halo" :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[RB]

That is a beautiful shot Paul !

[iceman]

Another fine result, Paul. Lovely saturated reds.

[Paul Haese]

Thanks all.

Jeff, everything now seems to be coming together for this imaging rig. It took some time to sort out issues with everything and to work out how to get the OAG working correctly and as Alex has said I doubt I will never go back to a guide scope. Processing is slowly getting there, but the bottom line is the data must be good from the start to get nice images and that is what I am always aiming to achieve. Next image is likely to be M83.

[Garyh]

That is a beautiful image Paul! Love the saturation and contrast you put into your images..
You are sure putting out some beauties with the RC-8!

[strongmanmike]

Super shot Paul :thumbsup:

Some lovely colours there mate! Really great job.

As Marcus also found on this area, it is very hard to blend Ha into a colour image but you have aaaalmost nailed it here, the problem is the Ha stars are just so small compared to the LRGB. I just gave up when I tried this area a few years ago and simply displayed my (much wider FOV) HaRGB blend at a slightly smaller scale.... to hide the slight missmatch :D :lol:

After a close inspection of a some past Ha I had of this area with the AP, I can confirm that, yep, the detail you have revealed in the bok globules is deffinitely real. It is interesting to note that the largest of the globules isn't uniformely black at all but instead has quite a bit of luminous gas inside it

http://upload.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/110268657/original

Mike

[gregbradley]

Another fabulous image Paul. Only thing is the stars give an appearance of being oversharpened but as you say it could be a result of using Ha blends.

When you use Ha as a luminosity layer the cost is a weakening of the colours and it can affect the stars adversely. It usually shrinks them. The gain is increased detail.. Using the opacity slider then gives you some control.

I am wondering if it is best to select out the stars in a Ha layer and delete them leaving only general Ha in the blend without wrecking the stars. I haven't done that yet but just thinking about it I think I'll try that next time.

I usually run a noise reduction on my Ha layer as well, plus add maybe 10-15% of Ha in a layer set to blue to balance the H beta colour into the neb.

I find though that Ha blending essentially varies from image to image and no set routine seems to fit all. Some time spent experimenting with various approaches helps. Sometimes I find Ha only good for a bit of extra hue other times it adds a lot of detail. Its probably a subject for many to add their approach as I am sure there are quite a few ways to go about it.

I like the nice round stars you are getting so your off axis guider is a gem. I have a MMOAG and I'll have to have another go at getting it to work as I couldn't get the guide camera to focus with it.

Your scope seems to be punching above its weight and you really put to rest any doubts about the quality of the optics when they first came out.

Greg.

[Paul Haese]

Thanks chaps, very much appreciated.

Gary I love the RC 8, best money I ever spent. Some hiccups but now working just fine.

Mike I used your image and several others to confirm I had detail in the globules I had imaged. Yeah that large globule has a fascinating aspect about it and that is what excited me. I love the colours too. Trying to get it nearly correct took quite a few hours, my first sets were just not what I saw in the Ha image.

The stars are problematic that is for sure, but I don't mind the mis match too much. Maybe a SID later down the track with some hindsight processing perhaps.

Greg, funny how we think alike here. Used the opacity slider on both blends and worked something like 72% for Lum and 56% for Red.

You might be onto something with selecting out the stars and removing them. It might be a bit of a mission though.

Funny I ran both selective sharpening on the Ha and noise reduction to give it that pop. I must have read your comments so many times on other images that it is finally sticking.

Like you each image has a differing Ha application, some images none at all and some purely Ha for lum and some blended. Like you I find that there is no set rules, just trial and error. Mainly error I must admit on my behalf.

The OAG is working out real nice. I need to do some more work on Pempro to refine polar alignment and make it work better still. Some guide settings adjustment too.

Thanks once again.:)

[telecasterguru]

Paul,

This is a very nice image with fabulous detail.

Frank

[DavidU]

Fabulous image of KFC2948 Paul. Very detailed.

[Ken Crawford]

One of my Fav regions and very nicely rendered! I love rich colors and I can taste these!

I still can't see the chicken though...

Ken

[renormalised]

Nice shot Paul....excellent colours!!!.

Still can't see the chook, though!! (although my head's stuffed up with a cold at present!!!)

[gregbradley]

Greg, funny how we think alike here. Used the opacity slider on both blends and worked something like 72% for Lum and 56% for Red.

You might be onto something with selecting out the stars and removing them. It might be a bit of a mission though.

Yeah its the 72% luminosity probably that did it.
One way to wipe out the stars is simply using the eraser. Another way may be to use the colour range tool and then expand the selection 3 pixels. It may leave holes in key areas but that may not show up in the blend. I'll try it myself and let you know how it goes.

Greg.