Celestial Snake (B72)

[jase]

Hi All,

This was another fill-in image while waiting for other targets to hit their prime imaging position. I know its had its fair share of 'show time' here, but I thought I'd post it anyway;

Celestial Snake (B72) (http://cosmicphotos.com/gallery/image.php?fld_image_id=237&fld_album_id=11)

Located in the constellation Ophiuchus the remarkable dark nebula known as the Snake Nebula slithers its way through a sea of stars. The nebula is more formally referred to as Barnard 72 (B72). In the early 20th century, astronomer E. E. Barnard catalogued 182 dark markings around the center of our Milky Way galaxy. Barnard's nebulae consist of interstellar dark clouds of obscuring gas and dust, blocking light of stars behind. B72 resides approximately 650 light years away.

This image with its subtle and bold dust areas was rather interesting to process. Again, I pushed the a few sequences through PixInsight. HDRWaveletTransform is what made the difference with this image. I attempted to replicate the same effect in Photoshop, but couldn't completely match the output of the PI HDRWaveletTransform routine. I really like what it has done to the mid tones displaying a good balance between the shadows. I'll need to use this more often - a new world awaits! This is a straight RGB composite which I enjoy doing for bright fields such as this. It provides for a super rich colour with no need to juggle colour shifts in luminance data. It was layered a couple of times using the vibrance tool in PS. It was tempting to push the data more but found the contrast wash too severe. Feel free to check out the annotated version on the page for the other Barnard catalogued features.

Anyway, thanks for looking. All comments welcome. :)

[RB]

Time to give the 'ol Apogee a good clean out with the Rocket blower Jase, look at all that dust !

Sensational my friend !!

:)

[midnight]

My goodness!

Just fantastic and studying the dark cloud makes this image very enjoyable.

Darrin...

[Peter Ward]

Expertly handled. I very much like the colour...you've achieved a silver/gold sparkle in the backgound stars that is very hard to master.

Just excellent! :thumbsup::thumbsup:

[atalas]

Wonderful work Jase.

[jjjnettie]

I'm really loving these dark nebs.
Stunning image Jase. :D

[jase]

:lol: Thanks RB. The Apogee U16M is prime at the moment, post its servicing in April. Plenty of dust on display. I actually though the different shade of gold toward the bottom was a gradient until I looked at a wide field image and realised it was natural...just as well I didn't remove it! Thanks again!



Cheers Darrin. This image has provided inspiration to mosaic the area sometime. May be next season. Pleased you enjoyed it.



Thanks Peter. Yes the colour in the area is difficult to manage. Its easy to over do it. I had a version where I pushed the red and green channel quite hard to introduce a brighter golden hue but it didn't work for this image. Thanks for the feedback.



Cheers Louie. Actually seeing your great image of B72 was one of the reasons I thought I should finally process this. So many renditions out there and so many that capture the imagination.



Thanks JJJ! Pleased you enjoyed the scene.

[Octane]

Beats the crap out of my rendition!

Just astounding. Love it, mate!

H

[desler]

Stunning jase, really well balanced throughout. Thanks for the view.

Darren

[jase]

Thanks H! I enjoyed the rendition you did last year. You really brought out the golden hue. This is an interesting scene to process. Thanks for checking it out.



Cheers Darren! It is quite interesting to see different parts of the scene which are of similar contrast, but were not catalogued by Barnard. Perhaps the photographic plate didn't pick them up. Thanks for the feedback.

====
For those interested, you can see Barnard's work here - http://www.library.gatech.edu/barnard/

Specifically B72 is located on plate 20;
http://www.library.gatech.edu/Barnard_Project_W/platechart/platechart20.jpg

====
Thanks all! :)

[strongmanmike]

Lovely result Jase (can't detect the shadow highlight tool use :thumbsup:).

There are a few presentation options as far as colour goes but this looks good.

A great field size, lot's of interesting little bits to find, there is even a mini-snake near the top just right of centre next to the little yellow GC :)

I am enjoying your fill-in images..looks like Greg has competition now for most prolific imager :thumbsup:

Mike

[Dennis]

I am struggling to find some new words to express what I think and feel about this Jase, your latest image, without sounding repetitive.:)

The processing and detail is simply exquisite and the view quite breathtaking. Thanks for the rich explanations and annotated image – whilst these represent additional work to the already lengthy process, they add another dimension that further illuminates what is already a stunning piece of work.:thumbsup:

Cheers

Dennis

[leon]

They just keep coming Jase, beautifully captured, crisp and clean, you would have to be happy with that one.

Leon

[CoolhandJo]

Doesn't get much better than that :)

[gregbradley]

That's a beauty Jase. The widefield view really suits this object.

I agree with Peter, you got the background stars looking very nice which is the make or break with images of this object.

Another ripper. You're on a roll. Thanks for sharing your knowledge of PI - that's very helpful.

Greg.

[multiweb]

Top stuff again Jase. I'm always amazed how well you control your blue channel. Every time. :thumbsup:

[troypiggo]

Gorgeous. You've been busy lately, loving it. As a novice, I wouldn't know what to look for, but after Peter's comment I re-looked at your image and see what he means. It does look very appealing.

[bokglob]

Wow Jase, what an amazing F.O.V:eyepop: This is the nicest rendition of this area I've seen for sure. Stunning work, seriosly well done!

[dugnsuz]

Another beautiful 'quickie' jase.
Like PW said - star colours are very nice. Do they come straight out of the FSQ like that or do they need a fair bit of processing?
I love star fields like this, but my attempts fail to have that 'pop' due to lack of those jewel-like stars - any tips?

Cheers
Doug

[richardo]

Hey Jase,
pretty amazing fov and detail obtained.... ah the lovely Q..
Great to see you back..
Missed your images and constructive expertise.

Didn't realise how much of an extent these little dark do dads go on for... like a galactic snakes and ladders.
The wide dynamic range would have been fun to process.
Looks very good.
Lovely golden stars and not over pushed so it looks like an indistinguishable soup.

I must revisit Pixinsight. Used it a bit years ago when it was first around.. I'm sure there's a heap more handy routines...

What filters are you using here Jase, Baader?

Great short snap !

All the best
Rich

[Ross G]

Amazing detail and colours Jase.

I love the wide FOV.


Thanks.

Ross.

[jase]

Cheers Mike. No, I don't use the shadow/highlights tool in rich star fields. Masking out all the stars is near impossible in the scene like this. As mentioned in the original post, the use of wavelets ceased the need to mask and improved the contrast on the dust structure. One more fill-in to come once I get around to processing the data set. This week looks to be a good week for data collection too with a few clear nights predicted. Will see how far I can get with other projects. Thanks again!



Thanks Dennis. Always appreciate your feedback. If the field of view warrants it, I enjoy producing an annotated version. I normally do this at the very start once I've initially stretched the data to see what's its capable of and determine what features I'd like to emphasise. So in many ways its a natural extension of the finished result. I like to study what I'm imaging as it provides me with more insight in keeping the processing real. Everyone has their motives. I'm pleased you enjoyed it.



Cheers Leon! Yes, I'm quite pleased with the way this one turned out. I've got two other renditions which didn't work for me. Thanks for checking it out!



Pleased you liked it Paul. Thanks!



Thanks Greg. Agree, wide fields are the go here. A moderate focal length mosaic would be rather grand though with more resolution around the dusty features. Am still learning PI so far from proficient at it. In fact there are some things that down right mystify me. One in particular is when the output of certain routines flip the image. Weird. Also, probably a given, but I've found most wavelet style function work best on moderately stretched data, but not stretched to the end result as you need histogram flexibility to finish an image off. Anyway, thanks for the feedback.



Cheers Marc. I don't do anything particular to manage the blue channel. Understanding the RGB colour space helps. I don't use levels to set any initial white point. Always curves from the start. Depending on the data set, I'll use a very lightly DDP stretched image which assist in managing the stellar profiles, but its always finished of with curves. Everyone has their own method, providing it works for you - stick with it. Thanks again.



Thanks Troy. Yes, making the most of the clear nights. Its rare that I don't have data, the issue is more the time to process it. Not an easy area to work on. Pleased you liked it!



Cheers Darrell. Thanks for the kind words.



Thanks Doug! The FSQ delivers colours like any other well corrected APO. Regardless of the set up, they're not delivered like that 'out of the box'. There are a combination of items that help with star colours. Good focus, camera well depth versus exposure time, colour balance are a few, but for the most part they are influenced by processing. If you want to bring out the rich golden hues, adding red and green in the additive RGB colour space will do it but such an adjustment in curves must be very small and only to the highlights (top right of the curves line), so you'll need a few anchor points to not mess around with the mid tones or shadows. Its very easy to stuff up the colour balance if not careful so experiment until you get a feel for what is happening to the data. DDP is great for managing stellar profiles, thus maintaining colour. You can simulate the style of stretching DDP does in Photoshop using curves whereby the curve in the shadows (lower left of the curves line) is aggressive, then tappers to a straight line from mid tones through to highlights. Keep in mind this image is a straight RGB composite - no dealing with luminance colour shifts. Hope that provides some insight. Thanks again for positive feedback.



Cheers Rich. Good to hear from you again. Not an easy scene to do justice on, but it works. Much of the nebulae present appears to have been missed by Barnard. Goes to show how far amateur imaging has come. Re, the filters. Full set of Astrodon Series II, including 5nm Ha, 3nm OIII and SII. They balance extremely well with the 16803 chip. Thanks again.



Thanks Ross. Pleased you enjoyed it.

====
Thanks again all. I appreciate your support.

[iceman]

Beautiful image, Jase. Lovely black snake. Love the star field.

[multiweb]

That's interesting. So you don't use DDP much. So I assume you import FITS straight in PS and not scaled TIFF files. Do you start curving from the whole FIT dynamic range? Sound like hard yakka.

[jase]

Darn right Marc, but its not as much hard yakka was you would think. I manage each stretch carefully. Any scaling performed is very light as I much prefer photoshop to manage brightness/contrast.

[Hagar]

Nice one as usual Jase. I can't get over the huge field with this setup. You definitely don't need a reducer with a field this big.
Great image as always.

[JohnG]

Only just caught up with this one Jase......

Fantastic FOV, just love the star colours, top shelf :).

Cheers

[SkyViking]

Wow, that's simply breathtaking. And you call it a 'fill-in' image? LOL
It's definitely one of the most beautiful images I have seen of this area. The background stars just sparkle in all their glory and the dust is so sublimely rendered. This is a masterpiece in my opinion. Thanks for the view!

[gbeal]

Wowsers, love it.
Gary

[jase]

Thanks Mike! Pleased you liked it.



Cheers Doug! Yes, no need for a reducer. I'm not too keen on images produced with the FSQ reducer, especially with a camera that has a 9u pixel size. Looks too coarse/undersampled. Thanks again.



Thanks John! Appreciate you dropping in to check it out and make comment.



Cheers Rolf! Yep, still a fill-in image. Hey this one is only 3hrs worth of data too. Not an easy field to process, but the result works. Thanks for the kind words.



Thanks Gary! Appreciated.

===
Thanks again all!