Horse Head Ha

[wysiwyg]

Hi Everyone,

Well its been another long spell for me but finally I have something to share again. This was taken on a recent trip to Arkaroola.
Got plenty of data in all the channels but i thought I would start with my favourite.

Horse Head Ha Version 1 (http://www.pbase.com/wysinwyg/image/130312495/large)

Horse Head Ha Version 2 (http://www.pbase.com/wysinwyg/image/130312803)

A total of 4.5 Hours of exposures in Ha, comprised of 20,30 and 60 min subs.

Enjoy!

Cheers
Mark

[Astroman]

Like the first of these Mark, awesome amount of detail WOW 60min subs!
Thanks for sharing.

[Octane]

Mark,

The first one is the chops. Spectacular detail.

The second one looks like as if it has suffered from excessive unsharp masking or that dreaded HDR look. Or, perhaps just needs some slight contrast adjustment in the mid-tones.

60 minute sub-exposures, phw0ar!!!

H

[Exfso]

Links are dead wysi:shrug:

[wysiwyg]

Just checked them, they work fine!

[Sylvain]

OMG! Unbelievable shots!
I love the first one too!
This is a sick shot!! SO GOOD!

[wysiwyg]

Thanks guys!
No 1 is also my favourite.

[Paul Haese]

I am getting the links are dead too, invalid web address actually.

[Paul Haese]

Found the errors. You have two extra forward slashes just after the http: Removing two of them sorts the problem.

[wysiwyg]

Just checked again and no problems for me. Not sure why it's happening. Could be browser related issue.

Mark

[Paul Haese]

Love the second image, the first one looks over processed to me. The second one has so much detail it is amazing. How do I see a larger image than what is displayed?

[wysiwyg]

Thanks!

Just finished doing that actually. Safari has no problem but windows explorer did not like it.

Just click the "original" link and you will get the full size version.

Cheers
Mark

[Paul Haese]

Just one small thing really in both images. It looks like you are being a little heavy handed with your noise control or smoothing. More subs would make a huge difference to this I think. However it may well be the compression which is making it look plastic.

Still have excellent potential though.

[mill]

I like the first image the best, both images have loads of detail :thumbsup:
I dont know if it is my monitor but i see a black line running from about the middle of the picture near the bottom.

[wysiwyg]

Thanks!

No its not your monitor, its actually a column defect.
I could not get dithering working for some reason hence the column showed up. Otherwise it would have been taken out by the median combine.

Cheers
Mark

[wysiwyg]

I agree, I'm a bit rusty at processing, have not really done any in over 6 months so its work in progress at the moment. I will keep building onto this though over the next month or so. I have another 2 week astro trip coming up so I am hoping to get more subs then.

[iceman]

An amazing amount of detail, Mark! Wow!

Does look quite heavy handed on the processing, but a great comeback shot!

[multiweb]

:eyepop: Great field and a huge amount of data. Top notch scope and top mount so the processing lets the data down IMHO. Clipped and over sharpened but you certainly can see the huge potential of the rig. Looking forward to more. :thumbsup:

[Omaroo]

Top effort on the first one :) Love it! Such grand detail and nice, smooth, continuous tones. Is the dropped column in the original size version occurring in other images?

[wysiwyg]

Thanks!

Re: Dropped Column.
Havent got to the bottom of it yet, but I'm hoping to do some investigation. Its quite normal for Class 2 or even Class 1 chips to have these and the best way to eliminate them is through dithering your images which wasnt working for me on the night. So that's the first thing I need to sort out.

[wysiwyg]

Thanks for all your feedback guys!

I will do something about the overcooked look soon, some grain actually makes the image look more natural rather than plastic.

Cheers
Mark

[gregbradley]

Nice image. Perhaps oversmoothed but you got some fabulous structure there.

The column is a hot pixel that drags down the image during the readout process. There is a note about this on the Sbig site. These artifacts reduce with higher cooling. Although unless you can get to about -35C you'll have to deal with them.

Healing tool in Photoshop handles it.

There are also some black specks in the image. I often get these in Ha shots. Not with every setup. A bit elusive. I have been told it is mismatched darks and lights. Not sure that is true but they seem to enter somewhere in the processing. Its like a hot pixel or a cosmic ray hit that does not dark subtract out.

Anyone know for sure where they come from?

Greg.

[wysiwyg]

Thanks Greg,

I'm glad someone else noticed those. They appear quite erratically and not in the same place when doing a blink between images. So I dont think they are hot/cold pixels.
I used an old dark libarary at first which I thought was the problem, but even having used fresh darks I still get them.
They also appear in Luminance subs as well.....:shrug:

[Exfso]

Ok now wysi, lovely stuff mate.

[Hagar]

Very very very nice Mark, big exposures has paid a dividend in this image. I tend to like the first image, it looks a little more natural than no.2 which looks like mine, a little to sharp.

Great stuff.

[wysiwyg]

Thanks again for everyones comments!

Based on them this is what I have come up with.
This time no sharpening at all and no noise reduction. I think it has a more pleasant look, more natural and less plastic.

I'm happy with the outcome. :)

Horse Head Nebula Version 3.0 (http://www.pbase.com/wysinwyg/image/130354205/large)

Thanks for looking!

Cheers
Mark

[iceman]

Now you're talking!

[iceman]

This is now IOTW (http://www.iceinspace.com.au).

[multiweb]

Much better. Congrats on IOTW. :thumbsup:

[wysiwyg]

Thanks Mike, really appreciate it :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

What a great shot, detailed and quite deep, good improvement on the original too. Nice to see B&W images being displayed as IOTW too...brings back so many memories for some of us :thumbsup:

Mike

[TrevorW]

Yes the final repro does it for me too :thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Ric]

Great work Mark and congrats on the image of the week.

cheers

[wysiwyg]

Thanks Guys! :thumbsup:

[Jen]

:thumbsup::thumbsup: image of the week great stuff Mark :thumbsup:
Gorgeous pic :thumbsup::thumbsup:
I have been seeing a lot of Ha pics around lately and they are stunning :thumbsup:
Keep up the great work cheers :)

[h0ughy]

great depth- well done

[Octane]

Mark,

Bang on the money; the horse itself could do with a bit of sharpening. Otherwise, congratulations on a worthy IOTW.

H

[ballaratdragons]

Geez Wizzy, did you leave any Data up there for the rest of us!
Looks like your camera has sucked it all up :lol:

Top stuff mate. Absolutely stunning :thumbsup:

[wysiwyg]

Thanks Jen, David, Humayun and Ken :)

[atalas]

Beautiful!there's just no matching the contrast of Ha.

[danielsun]

Beautiful work Mark! versions 1 and 3 and congrats on IOTW.:thumbsup:


Cheers Daniel.

[wysiwyg]

Thanks Louie and Daniel :thumbsup:

[RB]

Well done Mark, beautiful image.
Congrats on IOTW too !

[wysiwyg]

Thanks Andrew!

[that_guy]

I LOVE Ha!!!!!!