The Blue Horsehead to Rho Ophiuchi 13 panel mosaic

[gregbradley]

This is one of the largest images I have done.

I got a good run of clear weather and imaged this every night for a few weeks.

This is a 13 panel mosaic for a total of around 34 hours.

FSQ106ED and reducer with FLI Proline 16803.

Assembled in PTGui Pro and processed in Photoshop CS2.

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/144038460/large regular size

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/144038460/original large size

This was my entry in the widefield section that won an Honorable Mention win in this year's Malin awards.

Greg.

[FlashDrive]

WOW ... The colors really show up in this ... just great ... and look at the number of stars in all of that ....innumerable to count. :astron:

Flash

[strongmanmike]

Well, you are a very brave and courageous imager Greg, I'll give you that, to take on this area of fairly faint stuff from a non dark sky site means you have gonads my friend :thumbsup:...and the result is pretty good really, I like the Lum version best actually...always love seeing fine detailed B&W wide fields, reminds me of the good'ol days of Tri-X and 2415 Tech Pan :)

Yeees, David loves this bit of sky, he has awarded an image of it on several occassions over the years incuding two versions in the same year..winning different categories ...must be love :love:

Mike

[gregbradley]

Thank Flash. It was an effort to process it but I was happy I got a result out of it.





Thanks Mike. My home site is reasonably dark really especially in the western half of the sky. I agree the luminance came out better.
I only submitted it because I was on a roll processing other images and kept going and it was almost an afterthought to submit it.

Its sometimes hard to pick which ones are going to be selected.

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

:question:...try impossible :lol:...although prior to the event, I predicted Jasons Pipe Nebula would take out the whole show (and I didn't even know if he would enter it)....I was close ;)

Nice work mate, massive effort there :thumbsup:

Mike

[Peter.M]

Only one way to describe this, MASSIVE.

[multiweb]

Very cool shot Greg and congrats on the HM. :thumbsup:

[CapturingTheNight]

Stunning work Greg :thumbsup: Congrats on the HM

[RickS]

Fantastic work, Greg! The full resolution version must be quite a beast.

[stevous67]

A very high degree of difficulty there Greg, well done indeed.

Steve

[Paul Haese]

I really like this area and especially the blue horse head. The image does have some minor join issues visible but very minor. I would like to see it with some more saturation too. Though it is a massive undertaking and the results are pretty darn nice. Your image prompted me to take on this area and I did a test shot last night with my D3 and a 135 f2 lens. I am going to use this lens with my QSI very soon. So after seeing the image on Saturday night I thought that very wide field is something I want to try. Thanks for the inspiration.

[Rex]

That is awsome. The blue horsehead is very well defined. Great effort, something to aspire to

[seeker372011]

A beautiful and stirring image.

[batema]

I think it looks stunning and the thought of spending that many hours would be great. Beautiful image.

[atalas]

Huge project!wonderful field...well done Greg.

[RobF]

A lot of people may not realise just how extraordinary the FOV you have there is I guess. Quite stunning. I'd sort of expected to be socked in the face with more red and blue saturation, but realistically this is probably a more honest treatment. Executed incredibly well for such a demanding job (13 pane mosaic) - I'm in awe really :) :thumbsup:

[h0ughy]

wow class effort there!!

[Tandum]

34 Hours on 13 Panels. Struth Greg, your an imaging machine, unbelievable :thumbsup:

[Garbz]

OH! ... WOW!

Phenomenal work.

[gregbradley]

Yes it was an awesome image Jase did. I am glad Martin's won though as it was clearly the best image of the last year.



Cheers Peter. It was a bit daunting and the processing has to be very very careful. Next time I would label the panels more carefully as some are quite nondescript and it becomes a challenge to work out where they go!



Thank Marc.



Thanks for that.



Cheers, Yes it is a very large file.



In some ways it is very easy if time consuming in other ways it is very difficult. I think I learnt more about how to do mosaics but I can see room for improvement and I will apply that to the next efforts.



That's great Paul. I look forward to seeing your version. Saturation was deliberately subdued for the competition but looking at it again it kind of looks somewhat natural and less of a processed look as a result.



Thanks Rex. The Blue Horsehead is a wonderful part of that area. Some Ha in key areas would be something that could have boosted it but that would be tricky processing-wise.



Thank you, that's a very nice compliment.



Thanks Louie.



Cheers for that.



Thanks Rob. It was a big undertaking and I had to learn to be able to process it at all.



Cheers Dave.



Thanks Robin!



Greg.

Thank you very much for the kind words.

[jjjnettie]

Superb!

[gregbradley]

Cheers JJJ!

Greg.

[alocky]

One more can't hurt. Absolutely magnificent.
You've set the bar pretty high for those of us who are just beginning on this journey!
cheers,
Andrew.

[gregbradley]

Cheers Andrew.

It was quite a project!

Greg.

[TrevorW]

Greg nicely done :thumbsup::thumbsup:

[gregbradley]

Thanks Trevor. It was an ambitious project.

I think I have an approach finally that works for mosaics.

Greg.

[Rigel003]

Great image, Greg. I've never been aware of the Blue horsehead and I just love this. What a mammoth project. Congratulations.

[Ric]

A wonderful image Greg

All the work you put in has paid off.

Spectacular

[Ross G]

Amazing widefield photo Greg.

The work you have put into it has really paid off.

Ross.

[gregbradley]

Yes its quite a pretty area. Also there is a wide patch of Ha to the right of Rho that is nice as well.



Thanks Ric. It was almost too much work at one point!



Thanks Ross. I've imaged just about everything now so I want to do the best I can on each object from now on.

Greg.

[cventer]

Amazing Greg, I dont know how you have the patience for these large mosaics. Such an beatifull area. I like the color balance. Well done

[gregbradley]

Thanks Chris.

The patience comes from the fact I have imaged just about everything! So rather than just doing another shot of the same thing I am wanting to do the best I can of a particular object or try a different approach.

Greg.