NGC 6514 aka M20 aka Trifid

[cventer]

My version of the trifid from burbs of melbourne over a few nights.

Image Data: 17 x 8 min Lum Bin 1x1, 8 x 5 min each R,G Bin 2x2, 10 x 5 min B, Bin 2x2
Camera: SBIG STF-8300 with FW-8
Mount: Paramount MX
Scope: Takahashi FSQ106 at F5
Processing: Image Processed with CCDStack 2, Photoshop CS 5.5.
Location: Inner suburbs of Melbourne Australia
Date: Taken on several nights between 22nd - 25th July 2012

Had some good seeing during some of the Lum frames and very oridnary during RGB but I think it turned out ok.

Large version is here (http://www.dslrfocus.com/gallery/M20RGB.html)along with link to full frame version as the postage tamps below give you only a small flavour

Hope you like it.
Chris

[RickS]

Very nice, Chris. You've picked up a lot more of the reflection nebula than most images I've seen.

Cheers,
Rick.

[Paul Haese]

Nebulosity looks great but I think the surrounding star field looks pink magenta to me. Perhaps it needs some work there.

Always look forward to opening your images now.

[cventer]

Thanks Paul

I rechecked and did notice some funky colors in background black area so cut down red and pink for a better black. The star field is a little red, but I think its faint nebulosity getting picked up on bottom left on right at 4 oclock.

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Hi Chris,

Man you went deep in that, don't think Iv'e seen an image shows the blue nebula right round the trifid.

Really nice!

Cheers,

Justin.

[gregbradley]

Beautiful Chris.

One of your best I think and the best of this object I have seen for some time.

Greg.

[Mighty_oz]

That's a real nice pic of M20 there :) Love the colour scheme and soft to the eyes, not harsh like u see some others. I'm amazed u can do a lum in the suburbs ( that's from Glen Iris right ? ) must try that out myself on day instead of Ha.
Keep'em coming.
Marcus

[Ross G]

An amzing photo Chris.

The detail is unbeleivable.

One of the best I have seen!


Ross.

[marc4darkskies]

Nice image Chris!

The dark halos around the stars are a little distracting though.

Cheers, Marcus

[alpal]

A bit of a red cast but the dark areas stand out nicely
& give the picture good contrast.

[strongmanmike]

Great result from the burbs Chris :thumbsup: Getting a good colour balance on this is hard expecially from light poluted skies but I think you have done a fine job :)...I note nobody has commented on the "Fairy Floss" pink :whistle:...I think I may have broken the ice for you there ;) :P

Mike

[allan gould]

Really faint detail in a really nice image. A great capture.

[cventer]

Thanks. Yes I was surprised how much of the reflection nebula showed up given it was from burbs.



Thanks Greg. Was easier to process than some of my recent attempts.



Thanks Marcus. Yes was surprised I could go 8 min Lum from burbs. The RGB binned 2x2 was 5 min. I got the horizontal blooming though on the chip which was annoying as it played havock with star color and alignment. I also was very gentle on the sharpening to keep it natural looking.



Thanks for lookign and the compliment.



Marcus, Not sure which halos you refer to . In the attache dones I had to set quality to like 48% to get it to fit in under 200k. If you look at full res image you dont see these jpg artifacts.



Thanks. Im not sure I see the red cast on my screen. There is a fair bit of faint red nebulosity in this area.



Thanks Mike. I did not give the pink a second though. Its just how it came out when I color balanced it and processed it and it went nice with the blue so I left it. I like this object pink. My wife and daugther especially love it becuase it has a pink hue.



Thanks Alan.

[marco]

Imaging from the suburbs? Congratulation for the dramatic colors you got on M20. However there is something strange on the stars, apart form the color issue pointed out by Paul all of them look like they have an halo, kinda of artifacts from a star reduction algoritm.. Perhaps would make sense a redo on the luminance to cointain this effect?
Clear skies
Marco

[iceman]

Beautiful image Chris, one of your best I think. I love the saturation :)

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

[DavidTrap]

Definitely a great shot Chris, especially with the light pollution.

DT

[cventer]

Woohooo. Thaks Mike. A great honour indeed.

[cventer]

Thanks, the LP certainly makes processing challenging, but fun to see what you can get out of the burbs.

[cventer]

Thanks for the feedback.

I will look into the stars a bit more. I did some mild deconvolution but did not push it too far to cause the rings. I will take another look though.

[Leonardo70]

Really nice image. Congrats on the IOTW...

All the best,
Leo

[RickC]

Great effort Chris and congrates for IOTW

Richard

[Jo41]

beautiful shot. I have a thing about The Triffid nebula lately so i'm looking at any pics I can of it and this is perfect. cheers :)