The Eta Carinae Nebula (NCC 3372) in Carina - Mark III (higher resolution linked)

[Octane]

Well.

Here it is, proper first light for the SBIG STL-11000M and the Takahashi FSQ-106N. My very first ever hydrogen alpha + LRGB image. This is the first time I've ever combined monochrome images to form a composite. Wow, what a rush it was to finally see colour on screen.

Click here (http://scratch.hqphotography.com.au/ngc3372_.html).

It's only taken me, what, nearly a year to take my first proper image since purchasing this immaculate gear? I think the wait was worth it.

This image was captured over six nights, totalling 10.5 hours of data. That's right, I don't do anything half-arsed.

To say that I'm pleased would be an understatement.

Would love to hear from the seasoned monochrome imagers as to things that could be improved.

I ditched IRIS and switched to MaxIm DL 5 to calibrate, register, align and stretch. I really miss IRIS' stellar registration routine, as it's second to none, but, IRIS is really designed more for DSLR work.

H-alpha+LRGB; 160 187.5 93.75 93.75 93.75
H-alpha and L bin 1x1, RGB bin 2x2

H-alpha was blended as a luminosity layer at an opacity of 64% to help suppress the overwhelming star field and to provide further contrast/definition in the nebula. Slightly cropped to remove registration artifacts between frames and to maintain a 3:2 aspect ratio.

Dedicated to Frank (spearo) and his partner Lisa for all their hospitality and kindness. Thanks, guys.

Comments, critique, etc., most welcome.

H

[richardo]

Woo hoo, I feel your excitement H..... nothing like it when you put it all together and the colour comes back at you!

Looks really nice, can see the Gem cluster and Mistral neb which look outstanding...... but, could you publish a larger image H ??
This present one with the link I'm really only seeing 2/3 of it on my monitor..
be good to swim around in it some.:D
Go on, you've got the real estate, lets really see it:P

It's great your under way old chap;)
Talk about patience:rolleyes:

All the best
Rich

[alan meehan]

Top shot H,I got to agree with Rich needs a larger image,need to go for a swim with this one.
AL

[marc4darkskies]

Great result H!! And welcome to the club! :) You should be very pleased with that, it's tricky to do an effective HA blend and avoiding the salmon colours.

You definitely need to display a higher res version though ... full res would be nice! :D I want to see PIXELS! :lol:

The colour looks spot on to me but I'm suspecting you can tease out some more depth of neb from your HA (?) Did you blend some HA into your RED channel?

Cheers, Marcus

[gregbradley]

A beautiful image Humi. Love it.

You have gotten your stars to look nice. But as Marcus pointed out there could be more of the Ha neb teased out and perhaps a bit more saturation in the neb colours (at least to my taste which is subjective of course). That is the cost of Ha as Luminance. It tends to wash things out and it also tends to make the Ha areas more pinkish again that is fine but is a taste thing also. There are a few schools of thought about how to blend in Ha. I have tended to take some from both plus a bit of my own. I also think the approach varies a bit from image to image. I am happy to PM you some approaches. My current view is Ha is a beast that needs to be reined in otherwise it dominates the image too much. Yours is nicely controlled from that viewpoint.

How did you combine your LRGB? That can make a fairly big difference to the image as well depending on how it is done.

Fabulous first light.

Greg.

[jjjnettie]

hmmmmm yes, it's divine.....

[RobF]

Congratulations Humayun - so glad you've got it all off the ground. That doesn't look good enough for first light though. Please throw away 2/3 or your subs, apply some gaussian blur to what's left, then recombine, then excessively sharpen (to make it look like something the rest of us might have produced! :P)

Seriously though, that's just candy to the eye - pretty pretty please can we see a higher res?

Edit: Oops - you did of course link to a bit higher res - just drinking it in now.....:thumbsup:

[Hagar]

Very nice H, I am glad to see you have final lost your virginity with this rig. It has definitely been too long between drinks. I can say one thing. You have started with a bang and set the bar pretty high for your followup images.

Good stuff Mate. Keep it up.

[TrevorW]

Nice H but I'm with Marc, need a higher res version

thanks

[mill]

Excellent first light H :thumbsup:
Could you please post a full res picture?

[CoolhandJo]

Nice image. Great capture and FOV. I usually add Ha to L and also to R at different blends - I feel it tends to give a more "red" than "Pink". But, Eta tends to give the colours you have produced regardless (as can be seen in the blue stars also). Great excellent monumental first light effort!

[DavidU]

Beautiful H ! breath taking.

[DavidTrap]

Well done H - you are making it seriously hard for me to refrain from purchasing a monochrome CCD...

I like the higher res version, but an even higher one would be worth it for this fine image.

Cheers
DT

[troypiggo]

Wonderful result. I can understand the excitement after having the gear and finally being able to use it.

[Bassnut]

Very nice indeed H, well balanced, detailed. Pretty exceptional for a 1st time use of Ha, cam, software, it all came together well.

[Ken Crawford]

Outstanding first light!! I can hear the excitment in your post and your efforst were well worth it.

congrats!

[desler]

Oh H, what a ripper, must be pleasing afetr such a long wait. Can't wait to go swimming in the full res version.


Darren

[alexch]

Nice one, H!

[SkyViking]

That's amazing H, very well executed with beautiful framing and I very much like the soft colours in this image.
Now for some crops and a full res version :)

[batema]

That does look wonderful. congrats and have fun with the new toys.

Mark

[Paul Haese]

Nice image H. maybe just a little pink for my liking but each to their own. a larger image will show the image better.

[Octane]

Rich,

Thanks, so much, mate. :)

I can see a reprocess in my future. I had an earlier incarnation that I did, which I spent barely ten minutes on in Photoshop, and it has a lot more depth and colour in it. I will try and emulate that result. It has a 3-dimensional feel to it, too.



Alan,

Thanks, mate. :)



Marcus,

Woohoo, thanks! It's a great club to be part of, too! :D

I agree I can tease more out, it's due for a reprocess already (once my right shoulder stops hurting, haha!)

I didn't blend any hydrogen alpha into the red channel. I did an RGB combine in MaxIm DL. I might actually try just merging individual RGB frames in Photoshop. That way, I can experiment with blending hydrogen alpha into the red channel. At the end of the day, I don't care for scientific accuracy; I'm an artist -- if the image has depth and is aesthetically pleasing, without being /too/ funky, then, I'm happy.

Thank you, sir.



Greg,

Thanks so much for the advice (and your message, too; will reply to you soon).

Agree with you, it can be saturated more (as per my reply above to Rich).

As for how I combined: I combined RGB in MaxIm DL and stretched. I stretched the luminance and hydrogen alpha frames, as well. Then, saved as TIFFs and sent to Photoshop. In Photoshop, I processed all three data sets separately, with various curves iterations, and vibrance/saturation for the RGB set. So, my final image had three layers. One RGB, one luminance (set to luminosity) and one hydrogen alpha layer set to luminosity at 64% opacity. This seemed to strike the best balance between saturation and overwhelming the field with stars.

It is a learning process, and, one I'm not scared of embracing. I've got a fairly sound understanding of Photoshop (been using it since 1997!) and I'm sure it won't take me long to get to grips with it all.

Thanks, again, mate!



Jeanette,

Are you describing yourself there? :P

Thanks!



H

[Octane]

Rob,

Thanks! I'm glad I got it all working, too. Just waiting on my RoboFocus to be repaired/replace and then everything will be automated.

It is such a joy to work with data that is clean and free of perceptible noise. Although, this could just mean I'm not stretching aggressively enough. Time will tell in future reprocess jobs.

Cheers!



Doug,

Nice choice of words, lol.

Thanks so much, mate! This should have happened at Border Stargaze last year (on a different object, perhaps), but, anyway, the ball's rolling now!



Trevor,

Thanks!



Martin,

Thanking you!



Dr. Paul,

Thanks, heaps!

Have taken your advice on board and will be applied in a future reprocess.



Cheers.

H

[Octane]

David,

Thanks, mate. Glad you liked it. :)



David,

Thanks! Go on, you know you want to get a monochrome CCD. Despite the fact that it's been six months in between drinks for you (read your other post). I think I'd be happy if I'm able to produce a coloured image once every two months. I'm already thinking of doing hydrogen alpha mosaics for the moonlit periods.



Troy,

Thanks, heaps, bro. I think it came out alright. :D



Fred,

I still remember what you said to me at IISAC 2009 -- that I was ready for a monochrome system and that I'd find it easy to make images. It's taken a while, but, I'm there now. Here's to lots of clear skies this year and a few nice images. :)



Ken,

Wow, thank you so much, sir! :D



Cheers.

H

[Octane]

Darren,

I can't begin to tell you how happy I was when everything came together. When the RGB combine appeared in MaxIm DL, it was like a revelation, haha! Thanks!



Alex,

Thanks!



Rolf,

So glad you like the colour and framing -- you just have to ask Frank how much deliberation I put into the initial framing. The goal was to cover NGC 3293 as well as the veils on the right-hand side, and have it all set in a way which was aesthetically pleasing. Once the framing was done, PinPoint LE did the rest in between focusing runs and changing filters and shooting over the various nights.



Mark,

Thank you, mate, I am very happy!



Paul,

Thanks! That would be the hydrogen alpha washing through, I suspect. I am ready for a reprocess soon. :)



Thank you, everyone. What a blast!

H

[Octane]

You guys are such a pain! By popular demand, here's a high resolution version.

50% resolution (http://scratch.hqphotography.com.au/ngc3372_50pc.html).

Hope you like it.

H

[spearo]

H,
The high res wont all fit on my screen so lower res please (I'm only kidding everyone!).

I've just come back from a long weekend and just read this post with the dedication.

Lisa says thank you, how lovely (she was very impressed)
I say where's my 20% !!!
Ok for you 15% but final offer!
:]
kidding
pleasure always
great result on the image, I expected no less.
well done mate
frank

Thanks H

[richardo]

Now that's what I'm Talking about:thumbsup:

Been swimming around the hi res version and yes, very B<**#dy nice I must say.

Once again... great first light H!

All the best
Rich

[SkyViking]

Aah thanks H, what a glorious view at the higher resolution! Incredible for a first light really. I think this is one of the finer Eta Carinae images I have seen. Delightfully understated while full of details and, as you know, perfectly framed :) Looking forward to 2nd light, whatever it might be!

[strongmanmike]

Humi.....

Well, if you are going to image the boring'ol Eta Carina Nebula it had better be a good one, if you are going to post a first light it is good if it is a cracker image...and mate you have done both here :thumbsup:

Superb result, beautifully balanced and believable image. Your DSLR images were amongst the best now you can see this same quality but better with the mono CCD, top stuff.

It may have taken a year but it was worth the wait.

Thanks for the view t'was a real pleasure...I don't use this imoticon very often and it must be a cracker and reeeeeeeeeeaallly warranted so here you go...:bowdown:

;)

Mike

PS. The 50% image size should be your standard now, the first image size you posted was just a tease.

[TrevorW]

Thanks H for the bigger one shows up the detail really well

[gregbradley]

The larger version is fabulous. Great star colours and nice rich nebula colours. You got a great balance there.

Greg.

[atalas]

Ok H,It's a nice shot, well composed,good color, but over 10 hrs on eta.....It's time to tie your hair back,get out of safe mode mate and really show what you can do with this shot! a bit harsh? not for someone with your talent !!

[multiweb]

Real nice first light. Loved the higher res version. :thumbsup:

[danielsun]

Wow H, that is awesome! Truly stunning work mate!:thumbsup:


Cheers Daniel.

[Screwdriverone]

Hi H,

Oh no! That image just jumped onto my desktop! How did that happen?????

Absolute Zero Cool image mate, -273 degrees below!!!

Might have to start calling you Zero Degrees Kelvin....

Or perhaps just Kelvin for short.

Divine work :thumbsup:

Cheers

Chris

[Octane]

Frank,

Haha!

OK, for you, 25% :P

Cheers, mate. :)



Rich,

Thanks, sir. Glad it past the test. : D



Rolf,

You're far too kind. Thank you! I just need time to reprocess it; I know I can cultivate more out of it.



Mike,

Yikes, high praise, indeed. :D

And, yeah, I'll present 50% resolution images from now on as a matter of course. Not for my terrestrial/landscape stuff, though. People can buy that if they want to see detail. : P



Trevor,

Cheers, hope you enjoyed the fruits of my labour.



H

[Octane]

Greg,

Cheers, mate. Glad you like it! Itching for a reprocess!



Louie,

I know, I know. I can do better. I should perhaps have waited until it was a corker. But, that'll be round 2!

I appreciate the constructive criticism. Glad to know you think I can do better. :)



Marc,

Thanks, mate!



Daniel,

Cheers, sir!



Chris,

haha, lots of love!

More to come as time/weather allows.



Thanks, everyone, for looking and commenting. Glad to know I'm on the right path!

H

[iceman]

Beautiful image, H. Lovely first light.

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

[alan meehan]

:thumbsup:H got to be the best eta i have seen go to the top of the class well done.Larger image is awsome.
AL

[Rick Petrie]

Lovely work H. I knew you could do it mate.:P
One of my favourite areas of the sky and you have imaged it to perfection.
I wouldn't have expected anything less. Cheers and keep 'em coming.:thumbsup:

[Ric]

Just caught up with this one H.

What a beauty, you've done a fine job.

[Peter Ward]

Nice one H.

You've done some pretty snazzy work with some pretty snazzy gear...as it should be !

[shelltree]

Wow, this is just superb H. Such amazing attention to detail and colour, congratulations! :)

[astroron]

Beautiful Image H so clean and sharp :thumbsup:
Cheers

[luigi]

Fantastic level of detail! I'm amazed!

[Suzy]

A very beautiful image H, well done. :)

[spearo]

Kelvin H sounds nice,

Great stuff indeed but these amazing results don't just happen. It takes massive amounts of preparation, lots of Preparation doesn't it H?
Preparation, preparation, preparation....
:lol:
frank

[strongmanmike]

and don't forget, focus, focus, focus! :thumbsup:

[Octane]

Mike,

w00t, w00t! Thanks for that. That might be the third or fourth one, now. Cheers! :D



Alan,

Thank you so much. Glad you enjoyed it.



Rick,

Woohoo, thanks. :D

More to come soon.



Ric,

Thank you, sir. :)



Peter,

Thank you! And, thank you for your awesome service in getting me up and running. I'm not going to open the lid of the camera ever again. Will investigate getting the 8-position filter wheel at some stage. :)



Cheers, all.

H

[Octane]

Shelly,

You be too kind. Thanks, girly!



Ron,

Glad you liked it. : )



Luigi,

Cheers!



Suzy,

Thanks, heaps.



Frank,

Where's that sickly spewing green face emoticon when you need it? :P

Cheers.



Thanks, one and all!

H

[suma126]

nice work h. :thumbsup: i will be getting back in to some astrophotography next week when i get my new gear.

[spearo]

:lol:
frank

[trent_julie]

H,

another wonderful image, it appears you have treated the nebula so gently and with a great deal of care, well done,

Trent

[Octane]

Shane,

Thanks, mate. Glad to hear you'll be back into astrophotography. Here's hoping for a clear new Moon weekend coming up.



Trent,

Thanks, mate. I did take lots of care in not trying to blow it out or overdo it. I'm just lacking some inspiration at the moment to go through the rigmorale of reprocessing it, but, I know I can bring loads more detail out. Will post as soon as I get around to doing it.



Thanks, everyone.

H

[avandonk]

Lovely image H. There is potentially a lot of faint detail in the data.
Sent you a PM.

Bert

[Octane]

Bert,

Thanks for that.

The image is due for a reprocess very shortly.

H

[gregbradley]

Oh my God Humi you are nearly there at 1500 hits again. Perhaps I should click on it a few times for you and push over the magic 1500 barrier!

I think I will watch this thread and when it hits 1499 hits I'll make another comment about your image to be number 1500!

Greg.

[Octane]

Haha! I didn't mean for that to happen, sorry! : P

H