Just another face in the crowd ... Finished my Eta

[marc4darkskies]

It sure is a crowded Eta field this year! :lol: Some lovely renditions floating around though!

I managed to grab some colour last night and did the first pass at processing today. Pretty happy with it at this stage ... but can't promise I won't tweak :D.

And let's not forget the trusty TOA-150 with a 645 reducer! A 2.5 deg FOV @ 2.21 arcsec/pixel = oodles of detail!

Small:
http://www.pbase.com/gailmarc/image/142259284/large

Large (Use Cntrl + and - to zoom in or out in your browser) Be patient- 4.0M download! :
http://www.pbase.com/gailmarc/image/142259284/original

Hope you like it!

Cheers, Marcus

[h0ughy]

lovely, nicely done

[Mighty_oz]

Very sharp, those 11k ccd's sure work well with a wide range of stuff. Love the colours and the details are amazing.

[strongmanmike]

Tweak! Tweak! Tweak! :lol:

Nice result Marcus and a refreshingly different framing too, juuust a bit more FOV at the top of the frame would have been even better but it still looks good. Lot of different interpretations of the colour with this baby huh?

Sometimes I find your 100% full frame posts a little unnecessary as it can show up any pushed processing until you shrink it in the browser but this work lends itself to the 100% full frame quite well and I imagine this is due to the large amount of signal you collected and because there are plenty of little details everywhere so it is cool to pan around, then when you shrink it in the browser and take in the whole image it looks good too.

Good job mate...now what else did you start on?...Just so I don't do the same thing when I eventually get back out there :)

I was unable to utilise either reasonable night here in Newcastle due to a slight family crisis...always the way :rolleyes:

Mike

[marc4darkskies]

Cheers Houghy! Going to SPSP this year?





Thanks Marcus. The with 4 hours of Ha and Lum on such a bright object it's easy to get detail & nuance out of this object !




Thanks mate - glad you liked it! It turned out very well and after looking at it this morning I'm still happy ;):lol: I'm not 100% happy with the framing but it will do.

Not sure what you mean about "push" processing though :question: I had a large amount of signal so rendering the detail was trivial and very little stretching was done. It has almost no noise reduction either (other than a small amount to the dimmer areas around the periphery). I.e. Nothing was "pushed" :lol:

I post at 100% because I want people to see the detail. Why hide it when it's there and it's real? Moreover detail doesn't detract from an image so presenting this image at 50% would be a total waste of solid detail!

[gregbradley]

That turned out great Marcus. Can't fault it, it looks fabulous.

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

You miss understood me I think? I said this image looks good at 100% :thumbsup:

It's not about hiding the detail, sometimes the processing doesn't lend itself to 100% IMO and it kinda looks better presented as a smaller image, that's all.

Mike

[Rigel003]

I must admit that eta carinae, despite its brightness and size, isn't one of my favourite deepsky photographic objects. Just a bit too bland and monotonal compared with M42 eg, it can come across like an enormous flat pink clover leaf. Having said that, this photo is a revelation, Marcus. Fantastic amount of tonal and textural variety. The lighter purple swathes against the pink background give a real 3D look. Interesting detail everywhere and I love the contrasting star colours. A major achievement.

[marc4darkskies]

Thanks Greg!. Nice to get a bit of clear sky in these parts isn't it!! Can't wait for the next drought (in Sydney only of course)!!



No worries Mike - appreciate that. I understand what you're saying. In fact my M78 image falls into that category (and I recall you mentioned it then) because it's quite faint (it needed twice the exposure) and I had to work hard to render the small amount of signal present. For Eta though, I almost had too much signal! :)



Thanks very much Graeme - high praise indeed! It was a revelation to me too - and it really shouldn't have been! I've been saying for a long time that there are no boring objects out there! Every object, when treated with enough data and effort will yield beautiful nuance. I proved that again to myself with Eta which, until now, I've tended to dismiss as a worthy target!! :screwy:

[h0ughy]

Marcus - as for SPSP its a waiting game - weather and brownie points. so far i have had no luck in either department

[Peter Ward]

Been away for a bit ....so missed this.

Top shelf as usual Marcus. Splendid rendition. As for the real colour of Eta...I frankly haven't a clue anymore, but DO like your treatment of the blue curve very much....thinking I may have to go back to the drawing board

Most excellent :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[marc4darkskies]

Thanks Peter - high praise - much appreciated!

[Stevec35]

Really stands out as a great Eta Marcus. You are certainly one of the top Eta imagers in this forum.

Cheers

Steve

[Paul Haese]

It's got everything I like. Great contrast too.

[RobF]

Wonderful image Marcus. There are clouds of material in there I've never really noticed before - quite thought provoking. :question:

Thanks for sharing :)

[marc4darkskies]

Thanks Paul - glad it struck a chord!



You're too kind Steve - thanks!



Thanks Rob! Yes, this seems to be a common theme in the responses so far and is the same as the feeling I got when I processed it! It was like finding hidden treasure!! :)

[DJT]

Hi Marcus

I am pretty new to this stuff and shot some ETA which I am quite proud of but I had no idea just how much detail was in there. I'm off back to get more data. A fantastic image. Thanks for sharing

[strongmanmike]

Tortally agree, along with M42 and a couple of other bright regularly imaged nebs, it's not until you have your own raw full scale data in front of you for a few days (or weeks :D) that you really notice all the little things that you perhaps glossed over or dind't notice in other well worn and web reduced data :thumbsup:
Mike

[RobF]

Hmmm. Does this mean where losing sight of our objective to do nothing but make pretty pictures. Sounds like we're crossing back over to observing if where taking notice of fine features in our data....:astron::whistle:
(where's the emoticon with the devil face?!)

[marc4darkskies]

You draw an interesting conclusion there Rob! :question: IMO, without detail you don't actually have a pretty picture! :P :D. Also BTW, when I'm imaging, I AM observing :)

[gregbradley]

Looking over your image again Marcus with the need to repro my own image I am very impressed with how you got that luminous bluey centre of Eta whilst retaining the outer red neb areas. The inner area is the colour you get with a non modified DSLR whilst the outer red neb normally only shows with extensive Ha.

Nice job. I'd write down that recipe. It could become a family traditional classic recipe!

Ha blending is a fine art.

Greg.

[Ross G]

A beautiful photo Marcus.

I love the colours.


Ross.

[marc4darkskies]

Thanks again Greg! I wish I could write down a recipe!! Every image needs slightly different treatment. The closest I came was in the PMs we exchanged! It's more like a pinch of this and a dash of that!



Cheers Ross!

[marco]

Duh, I almost missed this beauty! I agree with all other comments Marcus, this is one of the best ETA I have ever seen, very nicely processed and with excellent colors..

Clear skies
Marco

[marc4darkskies]

Many thanks Marco!

[alpal]

It's a truly magnificent photo Marcus.

Why don't you enter it for an APOD?

[marc4darkskies]

Thanks Alpal - appreciate the vote of confidence! :)

An APOD would be a thrill but it's a notoriously difficult nut to crack and I usually don't bother trying ... so the chances are remote to say the least!

[alpal]

Hi Marcus,
You have won many other awards -
I think an APOD is on the cards soon.

[iceman]

This is a brilliant Eta Carinae, Mark. I kept coming back to it.

The colours, the blueness (:)), detail, contrast - all great.

It's now IOTW (http://www.iceinspace.com.au).

[multiweb]

Great shot and congrats on IOTW. One for the pool room. :thumbsup:

[cventer]

Gee I missed this one as well. Thats brilliant.

[strongmanmike]

Yes, a rather eye catching Eta, well worth another look :thumbsup:

Mike

[prokyon]

I am a child of the northern hemisphere. All I can say is thank you for such a breathtaking view to the Eta Carina Nebula!

[marc4darkskies]

Thanks very much for that Mike!! :) Very chuffed here!!



Sincere thanks Marc - much appreciated!



Cheers Chris! Glad you liked it



Glad you think so mate! I must admit, I'm kind of proud of it myself. :) ... And a bit disappointed I didn't "discover" it sooner! :screwy:



Thanks Werner! Much appreciated! It certainly is the jewel in the crown of nebulae for us southerners :).

[rcheshire]

That is amazing. What an incredible image. Well done Marc.

[Martin Pugh]

Hey Marcus

a little oversaturated, but a fine image.

I would make one other observation though. In your want to satisfy the 'I want more blue in my ETA' people, the stars are showing a tad too much of it.

Regardless, its a fine image mate.

Martin

[marc4darkskies]

Thanks Rowland!



Cheers Martin! Interestingly, most of the images I see don't have enough blue stars! This patch of sky has a lot of them. I haven't deliberately processed blue into the image either, nor have I differentially processed the stars in any way. If you look closely, there are also a lot of other colours in the star field. Could I ease off the star saturation a tad - yeah probably - but I like how it looks :)

[marc4darkskies]

OK Martin - I eased off on the star saturation ... call it peer pressure! ;) :D

[alpal]

I often wondered how we should present H-Alpha information.

The logical choice is red but you could equally make it a white colour
as gray scale so that it looked like opaque clouds & it wouldn't be wrong -
since you can't see infra red anyway.

It gets down to personal choice.

[Leonardo70]

Congratulation Marc....a perfect image !!!!

:eyepop:

All the best,
Leo

[marc4darkskies]

I make it red. But I make sure it doesn't swamp other colour signal clearly present in the RGB. Personal choice has a lot to do with it but I think there's a baseline level of public "acceptance" as to what colours are best for an object. The trick is balancing the two!



Don't know about "perfect" :) but thank you Leo, much appreciated!

[alan meehan]

Wow Marcus what a beautiful shot congrats on iotw well deserved,the best photo of eta i have seen.
AL

[marc4darkskies]

Thanks Alan - glad you think so! :)

[alpal]

Hi Marcus,
I agree with your philosophy however it has got me thinking as
to how your pic would look if all Ha data was presented
just as gray scale & mixed with the colour?

I will try that one day when I have a CCD camera & an Ha filter.
At the moment I'm not buying anything until
this weather pattern ends.

[Tandum]

What ever your smoking, I want some :rofl:

[alpal]

Hello -
Marcus writes of


This is agreeing with me that my idea is not wrong
as we can't see Ha anyway.

[rally]

Alpal,

The Ha band is in the visible spectrum !

Is is bright enough to see ? - I guess that depends on aperture.

Rally

PS I think the image is in fact Ha in grey scale and mixed with colour
Its LHa RHa G B - I assume ?

[alpal]

I would assume that too.
Did Marcus say if he took raw luminance - no filter?

[risingmoon]

The picture is so unbelievably beautiful

[marc4darkskies]

Ha will appear a dark red to the human eye (if intense enough to trigger the eye's L cones). Our eye isn't very sensitive to it but we can see it. It's frequency is near the peak transmission of most red filters so it's typically combined with the red channel. Dark red doesn't really display well on monitors either so you can lose the contrast inherent in Ha signal if you don't render it with a bit brighter red tone. Personal taste creeps in here of course.



Yes. L+Ha, R+Ha, G, B+Ha in fact



Luminance Filter



Thankyou Sandra! :) Always glad when folks enjoy one of my images!

[Peter Ward]

Beg to Differ.

It's exactly the same wavelength as viewed through countless (H-alpha) solar telescopes. Easy to see...(and very red ).

[alpal]

Marcus,


Thanks - I'm learning all the time.

[midnight]

Enjoyable image Marcus. The contrast and expanse of the little side "treasures" away from the centre make this a treat - esp at 100% view.:thumbsup:

I found myself drawn more to the contrasting areas of dark "cloud" as the subject is a well known one. So congratulations for making this a lovelly image of a well known southern object.

Darrin...

[astronobob]

That is fantasic Marcus , it is now in my best of the best astro images folder :eyepop: Hope you dont mind, all your credit of coarse : )

[David Fitz-Henr]

Excellent image as usual Marcus! A good FOV too showing most of the nebula at maximum detail - well done!

[marc4darkskies]

Many thanks Darrin! Yes, the outer areas of neb have some interesting features that I was drawn to as well that aren't seen & appreciated very often!



Cheers Bob, that's very flattering! I'm glad you think it's worthy!



Thanks David! I'm pretty happy with the resolution I achieved at F5.5 (2.1 arcsec/pixel). Thankyou Mr Takahashi! :D