M8 at 2900mm

[Peter Ward]

What can I say? ....a vanilla object at a decidedly Habanero focal length.... :)

The link is here (http://www.atscope.com.au/BRO/gallery105.html)

[RobF]

Looks wonderful to me Peter (as I sit here surfing hoping the clouds just might clear later).

Very subtle and natural colour processing too.

[Peter Ward]

Thanks Rob.

M8 is a bugger, as, like M42, overly imaged, with a vast dynamic range that is tricky to do justice to.

I think I can live with this one, but it is shouting out: "mosaic!" :)

[Ross G]

An amazing photo Peter

Great detail, sharpness, colour and composition.

Thanks.

Ross.

[Peter Ward]

Thanks for the feedback Ross. :)

[gregbradley]

A fantastic image. I love the colours - expertly done and the stars look great. A very sharp and engaging image.

Greg.

[Peter Ward]

Thanks Greg.

I don't use the RC as much as I'd like, as the sea-level seeing is rarely great in my part of the world... but it hasn't been to shabby this week. :)

[gregbradley]

Yes I know what you mean. I looked through the CDK last night visually for the first time and it really shows up the poor seeing. I get better views at my dark site through my TEC as the skys are relatively stable especially in winter.

Greg.

[multiweb]

Eye candy. Very cool on so many levels. Well, for a start it's M8 isn't it? :thumbsup:

[CoolhandJo]

Always a fan of your images! This one doesn't dissapoint! lovely natural colour processing and fine detail.

[DavidU]

A masterful image, very smooth. Well done.

[marc4darkskies]

A very fine image in every respect Peter (naturally!) :thumbsup:



Looks like you've done it justice to me! Overly imaged is the reason I haven't done it yet, but I think that's just symptomatic of my own pig headedness :D. I must give it a go I think! Besides, a good portion of the satisfaction I get is to find some uniqueness in my renderings ... it's a challenge!:)



You crack me up Peter! :lol: You never display your images close to full res (for us mere mortals to appreciate anyway), so why bother with a huge detailed mosaic? Then again, I suppose a huge print hanging on your wall is reason enough! ;)

Cheers, Marcus

[Peter Ward]

Glad to crack you up :) Well I do put some full res images on the web....for exampe: FULL res image here
:D
(http://www.atscope.com.au/BRO/gallery17.html)

[Peter Ward]

M8, yes. Well the middle bit anyway. Thanks.

[strongmanmike]

Maybe a little :zzz2: (not for Marc) and have-a-sleep easy for your rig but technically it's quite good, so I'll pay it :thumbsup:

Mike

[Peter Ward]

It was more a case of what can I image and make look reasonable, with just one night of data... before I have to live out of a suitcase for the next week.

The roulette wheel said M8 :)

Besides....com' on......M8 is hardly boring !

[iceman]

I reckon there's more of that field you're not showing us.. like the Uluru pic ;)

Nice one Peter!

[Tom Davis]

Perfect :thumbsup:

Tom

[Paul Haese]

Nice Peter, buuuuut, have you considered getting a flattener or reducer for that RCOS? The field curvature really stands out.

However, I do like the colour and the detail of the hour glass.

Mosaic would be great too.

[SkyViking]

Very nice and smooth, I like the natural feel of this one a lot. You've captured the dynamic range beautifully and the little hourglass looks great. Just awesome, thanks for sharing.

[Peter Ward]

Thanks Paul...but re:field curvature... are you kidding?

The edge stars look perfectly round to me :shrug:

[Peter Ward]

Ta.

Ok you got me, the frame has been cropped a tad (bottom right is the real edge...there is evidence of a teeny bit of camera tilt)...but no more frames exist yet....they are on the "to do" list. :)

[richardo]

Vanilla or not Peter, it still is a very nice image!
Good colour and nice defined detail along the HII ridges.
very natural.
Yes, it is a good pick of objects when you want to get a great object in in one night especially when the weather is fickle.

Jeez, some hard markers around these days LoL :D
I can see that on a whole there is a very slight elongation to the stars toward the 1 0'clock position but as you mentioned, camera tilt. (pretty much a nit pick though)
Stars look good right out to the edges that I can see.

Rich

[Peter Ward]

Thanks Rich....

....I guess there are times when a only a full-cream vanilla ice cream, (not some tasteless low-fat version) will do :D

[Bassnut]

At 1st was thinking, thats a bit WW for 3900mm, but its the big cam doing the damage of course ;-) . Excellent then. Cropped interesting bit pics for impact would be the go now, I cant always be bothered zooming in on a casual view.

[Peter Ward]

Thanks Fred, but it was 2900mm... The big chip is quite difficult to keep orthogonal but the self guide works a treat :)

[stevous67]

Hello Peter,

It is simply a beautiful image, a nice range of contrast and depth of colour.

Do you mind sharing your exposure break down for each filter including sub lengths? That would be helpful, especially considering saturation looks just right for this field size. I am terrible at over cooking things.

Bye,

Steve

[Peter Ward]

Glad you liked the image.

10 minute subs are my "standard" ( about 70:10:30:20:30 mins of HaLRGB ) The Ha blend was very mild...probably only about 15%.

That said you will find there is a vast range of difference between sensors. For example, DSLR's CMOS are notorious for saturating all stars to white if care is not taken to avoid burn-out (i.e use shorter subs as required). Hope that helps.

[stevous67]

Thanks Peter.

Steve

[Paul Haese]

Yeah maybe you are right Peter, was a little tired when I looked at this. One thing is for certain the image is very sharp. Maybe it was just tilt. Sorry, I am concentrating on stars of late. With all the stuff I went through to get my PME working properly I guess I am a little bit obsessed with star shape of present. Nice anyway.

[Peter Ward]

No drama Paul. Another effect that is easy to mis-read is close binary systems... There are more than you think and they often look eggy! :)

[gregbradley]

Peter does the STX have little thin shims under its faceplate like the STL?

Perhaps you can shift them around to compensate for the tilt or sag. I can push my Proline up a bit by about 1mm so there is a tad amount of sag there (I think its from the FLI adapter or the FLI filter wheel wall which is a bit thin). These cameras are heavy and they hang out there quite cantilevered.

Greg.

[Peter Ward]

No... but it's a moot point as the tilt changes with various scopes I use. Frankly I find the effect too small to really fuss over. That might change if an AO ever gets released for the STX ...

[Gem]

Wow! Nice to see a popular object still looking good! :)