Eta Carinae Nebula in HaRGB

[Brad Moore]

Hi All,<o:p></o:p>
<o:p> </o:p>
Well it’s now done! Here is the Eta Carinae Nebula in HaRGB Light.<o:p></o:p>
The Ha luminance channel provides the red/pinkish hue. (or maybe its my bad processing) :D<o:p></o:p>
<o:p> </o:p>
http://www.southern-astro.com.au/gallery.php?PhotoID=12<o:p></o:p>
<o:p> </o:p>
It’s a bit of a monster coming in at 28.5 hours of total exposure time.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p> </o:p>
I'm now working on the mapped colour version which is coming out really nice.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p> </o:p>
Cheers,<o:p></o:p>
Brad<o:p></o:p>

[Striker]

Worst image I have ever seen...Brad time to sell off all your equipment cheap....lol

Seriously this image is awesome Brad.....I cant stop looking at it, I keep looking and looking.

Great work.

[seeker372011]

wonderful..this most familiar of objects appears fresh and different...one sign of a truly great image

[2020BC]

A wonderful image Brad. Very well done.:thumbsup:

[Octane]

Brad,

Once again, mindblowing and breathtaking.

It just makes you wonder what's going on up there.

Congratulations and well done!

Regards,
Humayun

[acropolite]

Seriously nice work Brad.... Look out Eddie....:face:

[Jonathan]

Amazing shot Brad. You should be very proud of it :thumbsup:

[tornado33]

Yes fantastic. I can see many features there that are seen in HST images of the nebula, including the tiny dark globules.
I Bet the mapped colour image will take a long time to produce, how long will the subexposures of the SII and OIII filters have to be?
Scott

[Itchy]

Hi Brad

Awesome image. It has been interesting to watch this "develop". Your equipment is now showing it's true potential.

Cheers

[Brad Moore]

Hi Humayun,

God has been busy at work! :)

Cheers,
Brad

[Brad Moore]

Hi Scott,

I don't know about the hubble, I guess the only thing we have over the hubble is near unlimited exposure times, other than that I think its going to be hard to beat it. :thumbsup:

The sub exposures for SII and OIII are 1 hour each. I will shoot 4-6 hours of each. So far I've got 2 hours of SII and OIII. I just need another night to finish it off.

If you drop me a email I will send you what I've done so far.
brad.moore@southern-astro.com.au

Cheers,
Brad

[Brad Moore]

To everyone else,

Thank you for the kind words.

Cheers,
Brad

[ving]

someone has been busy, that for sure!

great pic brad :)

[Brad Moore]

Hi All,

These images are now locatated here:

http://www.southern-astro.com.au/imgs/gallery/nebulas/keyhole/attempt2/

Cheers,
Brad

[PhotonCollector]

Holy mackeral, 28.5 hours of imaging time - that's amazing and the image is equally rewarding - unprecedented detail and contrast. wow.

How do you work out what the correct color balance is ?

[Brad Moore]

Hi Paul,

Very hard. Near impossbile with Ha+RGB. It comes down to personal taste. I didn't like this version as it came out Salmon colour.

I re-did it as (R+Ha)GB. WHich means I blended the nice Ha detail into the Red channel.

I am working on a hubble pallet narrowband version. If you want to contact me offline I will show you a preview.

Your work aint too bad either. ;)

Cheers,
Brad

[RB]

Simply Stunning Brad.

[Daniel Beringer]

Truly amazing Brad,,,,Well Done:eyepop:

[Brad Moore]

Hi Daniel,

Good to hear from you! :) Hope business is going well for you.

Cheers,
Brad

[Harlequin]

Amazing image. Well done.

How much coffee does it take to produce images of this quality?

[Brad Moore]

Not much as you think, just a few clear nights. Image processing is the hardest part I spend anywhere from 2 to 5 hours on each image.

Most people don't call this real astronomy (and are sometimes disgusted) as my observatory (besides the roll off roof) is fully robotic and automated, however I have spent endless years cutting my teeth the hard way. I’m not particularly interested in setting up/tinkering/tearing down my hardware each night little alone the sleep deprivation. Don’t get me wrong lots of work goes into getting everything automated, it took me over 2 months to fully configure.

A typical imaging run is this:

1. I manually roll the roof off two hours before the suns sets (to start the cooling process).
2. Turn on the power.
3. Program the imaging run which is a few mouse clicks.
4. Resume my normal life which includes sleeping.

If it gets cloudy or rains the cloud/rain sensor will wake me from my sleep to close up shop.

http://www.southern-astro.com.au/php/hardware/cloudsensor.php

Cheers,
Brad

[iceman]

That's awesome Brad, a great automated setup. I don't know why people would find that disgusting - it's simply a different method to get a result.

The cloud sensor is great - all you need is an auto garage door setup for your roll-off roof, so it can auto-roll off and if it gets cloudy, the roof can auto roll back on. I'm sure you've already thought of it :)

[Brad Moore]

Hi Mike,

Trust me I've had some nasty emails from narrow minded people. :shrug:<!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype id="_x0000_t75" coordsize="21600,21600" o:spt="75" o:preferrelative="t" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" filled="f" stroked="f"> <v:stroke joinstyle="miter"/> <v:formulas> <v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"/> <v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"/> <v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"/> <v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"/> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"/> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"/> <v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"/> <v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"/> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"/> <v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"/> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"/> <v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"/> </v:formulas> <v:path o:extrusionok="f" gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect"/> <o:lock v:ext="edit" aspectratio="t"/> </v:shapetype><v:shape id="_x0000_i1025" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="" style='width:28.5pt; height:13.5pt'> <v:imagedata src="file:///C:\DOCUME~1\BRADMO~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\ msohtml1\01\clip_image001.gif" o:href="http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/images/smilies/shrugging.gif"/> </v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]-->

I found a small group of people who are anti-go to and automation, they think its cheating as I don't have to work hard, stay up late, tweak the hardware night to night. Sleeping and taking images!!! PLEASE!! That’s not astrophotography? Is it?<!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape id="_x0000_i1026" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="" style='width:13.5pt;height:13.5pt'> <v:imagedata src="file:///C:\DOCUME~1\BRADMO~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\ msohtml1\01\clip_image002.gif" o:href="http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/images/smilies/happy04.gif"/> </v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--> :D<!--[endif]-->

<!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape id="_x0000_i1027" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="" style='width:26.25pt;height:18.75pt '> <v:imagedata src="file:///C:\DOCUME~1\BRADMO~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\ msohtml1\01\clip_image003.gif" o:href="http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/images/smilies/helpsign3.gif"/> </v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--> Well I really am at a loss on how to automate my roof. If you have any ideas please share. :help3:I know the cloud sensor can close it for sure.

Cheers,
Brad