M78-light and dusty

[richardo]

Hi all,
well I think this is my final object from Orion.

I don't usually gem flip to the west side of my mount, but on this occasion to gather more colour it was a necessity.
Had one red and blue leds from a couple of devices that caused severe gradients (they will now be covered up!) so I really had no idea until I combined the colour channels:(
Thank goodness for Gradient X :)
Have kept this fairly light to accentuate the dusty area... had to do some nose reduction to the background, which I try to avoid generally.
Always is a nice object but hard to gather good crisp data not getting above around 50degs where I am.
Could use some more time on it, but now the weather is stinking hot 44*c and will be for the next week so imaging will be a no go.. heat haze:rolleyes:

Hit the thumb on my front page if you'd like a look
http://www.baytop-observatory.com/

All the best
Rich

[mill]

I love the dustyness in this image, very well executed with nice colors :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Superb image Richardo

All round probably the best image of M78 posted here this season :thumbsup:

Yu look to ahve sorted the stars out, is this a crop at all?

As good as it is, could I suggest tweeking up the contrast and shadowhighlights juuust a tad? Maybe do a contrast enhanced version, smooth the noise out where it has increased and then blend it in to this version to get just a little detail in those larger featurless areas.

This is only a Sidggestion (:P) to try.. it may make this image pop a little more?

Really great job.

Mike

[richardo]

Thanks very much Martin for the comments.



Geezzz, thanks Mike:D
No, I'm very happy with my stars now. Since I've started on the 'Orion' run.. previously I had to do a lot of work with squaring the CCD face plate (once again) using CCD Inspector. And, made a replacement compression ring that was wider for my focuser as well as re-tapping the screws to wider gauge.. seems to have sorted every thing out.
I only cropped some off the edges as I had some misalignment from the lum to the colour channels.
I actually did do a couple of runs of layering extra contrast to selective dark areas but steered away from the featureless areas as they contained the most noise... mmm might give it a go and see what I can do Mike..

Any way, something to do tomorrow... another stinking hot day, will be back up to 46*c again... at the mo it's a balmy 34*c and it's 11pm.. :eyepop:man what happened to the sea breeze:shrug:
Cheers for the.. Sidggestion:lol:

Cheers guys.

All the best
Rich

[Hagar]

Great image Rich, The flip seems to have worked very nicely. The background is as smooth as silk. Really nice processing job.
Well done.

[marc4darkskies]

Yes, lovely rendition Rich. Well done! Colours are a teensy bit understated for my taste but still a rich and smooth image. Can you tease any detail out of the cores of the two nebs?

Cheers, Marcus

[Garyh]

Awesome result Rich! Nicely processed like mentioned and well composed!
I really like this one.....:thumbsup:

[richardo]

Thanks Doug!
I was wondering how the background was looking on other folks monitors. I generally check things after stretches and sharpening from 200-300% in PS on my 24" mon to make sure I haven't pushed things too far.



Hi Marcus, and thanks for the comments.
I've actually done quite a lot to the data and especially around the reflection, little bit of sharpening, quite a bit to contrast but alas, this is all I can do with what I had to work with.
Yes the colour has been saturated to the max without introducing colour speckles to the overall image.
Really need to perhaps add more colour and maybe extra lum to smooth that out a bit, then I would find processing a lot easier.



Hey there Gaza, nice to hear from you and thanks there mate!
It is quite an interesting object and this is my widest field view of it to date. For me it's like doing something new, rather than going over the same old ground with the same old gear, going ho hum.

Thanks a lot guys for your assessments and nice comments.
Appreciated.:thumbsup:

All the best
Rich

[Stevec35]

Very nice Rick! I think a bit of extra colour saturation wouldn't be out of place but then I do like colourful images.

Cheers

Steve

[richardo]

Thanks Steve!!
Yep, I've look at it and looked at it and gone, bit more saturation... but then I look at it at full res on my 24" and think, no, I don't mind it like this.
Still, I did do a more saturated version.
Not sure I like it better than this though.
Might have another look when my brain is desensitized.

All the best
Rich

[multiweb]

Wow! Nice one Rich. Real smooth. :thumbsup:

[richardo]

Thanks Marc!
I had to do a bit of noise reduction to the outer areas but the prominent areas were left untouched.
She's definitely a faint area and probably needs more than I've had the chance to give it.

Cheers for that Marc:thumbsup:
All the best
Rich

[gregbradley]

A very pleasing M78 there Rich. Nicely done.

Greg

[richardo]

Thanks Greg!!
No real high dynamics to it but am happy with the way it turned out.

Cheers mate:thumbsup:
Rich

[atalas]

Nice and smooth mate,well done!

[dugnsuz]

Beautiful Rich - 'thumbs up' emoticon!

[richardo]

Thanks Louie!!



Cheers for that Doug!

All the best
Rich