M7 M8 M20 Mosaic

[avandonk]

Here is a mosaic taken with the 300mm lens and usual HDR method. FoV 16.5 X 6.7 degrees.

Small image 6MB

http://d1355990.i49.quadrahosting.com.au/2010_06/m7m8m20S.jpg


With just one more panel it would be 16.5 X 8.0 degrees. Once the clouds go away will try to get it.

Bert

[TrevorW]

Fantastic Bert

[jjjnettie]

Sumptuous and rich.
Reckon I put on weight just looking at this image Bert. :lol:

[DavidU]

Fabulous image Bert. So many stars.

[strongmanmike]

This is a sensational image Bert, one of the best like it I have seen for sure and certainly your best to date.

The contrast you have managed to show in the dark rivuletes is nicely balanced. Sometimes when trying to reveal these structures an unrealistic look is created, shadow highlights in PS can especially do this if you are not careful, but here you have handled it masterfully.

The Lagoon and Trifid area is perfect, they look natural and well balanced with perfect colour, in fact the whole image is pretty well perfect and most of all - believable. It looks like it is a snapshot in time taken in one go rather than a mozaic with high res, almost out of place, data blended in to show more detail in the good bits which some other attempts at this and nearby regions, have displayed.

This result lends weight to the argument of why bother mozaicing with a telescope when you can do just as good a job but much quicker with a good quality camera lens :thumbsup:

Mike

[gregbradley]

Terrific image Bert. I agree, your best to date. The thing I like about it is its nice and bright and great saturated colours.

Greg.

[CoolhandJo]

Text book stuff this. I mean it could easily feature in any major publication as an excellent reference of this part of the universe! As Mike said, very believable.

[danielsun]

Wow Bert! What an incredible mosaic! Absolutely Chock a block with stars cloud detail and color!
Brilliant work.:thumbsup:

Cheers Daniel.

[Insane Climber]

I don't feel qualified to comment. very inspireing

Cheers
J.Green

[avandonk]

It is not chocolate and caramel ice cream jjjenttie but merely a lot of dust and stars.



Yep! Lots of stars. Too many to image not enough time!



Glad you like it.


Bert

[avandonk]

Mike not one part of this image has been 'enhanced' any more than the rest of the image. That is why it looks natural because it is.

It is seven panels of eighty images each with exposures from 20X(15s, 30s, 60s and 120s) all at 1600 ISO at f/3.5. The original tiff is 632MB.

All the data was collected near the zenith.

All HDR's were produced with the same parameters. Registar was used to make the mosaic. The calibrate function is your best friend in Registar for this. I have worked out lots of tricks to stop or minimise distortion due to the old problem of a spherical image being projected to a flat surface.

I am really happy how it all turned out. It is the sum total of more than four all nighters. As you well know processing can be even more tedious.

The dark rivulets as you call them have structure and detail. You know you are winning when you image dust with detail. The HDR process I have been working on is the major reason you can see dim dark dust as well as bright stars that are not blown out in the same eight bit image.

Here is a crop of M20 from the original tif. 5Mb

http://d1355990.i49.quadrahosting.com.au/2010_06/M20cr.tif

Bert

[avandonk]

We can only get better by practice Greg. The good colour is due to the HDR process. If you are careful nothing saturates.

I used my old monitor and computer which was calibrated to do the levels etc. My new 27" is a heap of.. yet the images look fine when they are brought back????

Bert