[Paul Haese]

Thanks Russell and Tim for your comments.

Originally Posted by andyc

Ah dammit, that's good! Slightly mesmerising - if I look into that eye long enough I'll be hypnotised by the great astro-deity Paul!

LOL, I seriously doubt that. Thanks for the compliment though.

Originally Posted by RickS

Great job, Paul! As deep as I've seen...

Thanks Rick. Several dudes on CN seem to think otherwise. Funny reading some of the comments there. I think it is about as deep as an FSQ can go.

Originally Posted by Placidus

That's pretty definitive.

Just had a fun half hour comparing the two versions. The main change seems to be a slight change in the colour, with the iris bluer and the eyebrow noticeably more magenta/red, less orange. The stars are a tad sharper, but I wonder if some of the faintest filigree in the nebulosity isn't sharper in the previous version.

Noise level is utterly negligible.

You've done a great job in maintaining the details in the cometary knots in the iris, showing the faintest outer features, and somehow, magically, maintaining the feel of their mutual relationship. Magnificent processing.

There's an orange-red blob at about ten o'clock which I'd often thought might be a face-on barred spiral - it has that look in just about everyone's shot - but you've convinced me it's actually nebulosity. I wonder if it's a part of the Helix or if it's just line of sight.

Thanks MnT. Maybe I sharpened some areas slightly differently this time and hence the different looking nebulosity. The cometary globules need to be reduced in brightness a lot as the data builds. The integration inevitably brightens that region right up to the point of being burnt out. I don't know what that blob is, but I think it is part of the nebula. I suppose it is possible to be completely separate and distinct from the nebulosity.

Originally Posted by Stevec35

Another great megadata exercise Paul and as deep as I've ever seen the helix! It's amazing how 3D it now looks. One thing I noticed though is that the bright stars have dark centres in them. It's only a small point but I sometimes get told off when I do that.

Cheers

Steve

Thanks Steve, I think that might be a jpeg artefact with the stars. I just checked to see if there is any dots in the Tiff and there are none but I think I can see them on the web image. I did not apply any compression other than the format. Hmm not sure the cause.

I agree about the 3D look. Some of the processing tricks I use tend towards that look and more so with this vast volume of data. I have always wanted to create this sort of image for this object. It's such an interesting planetary.

Originally Posted by AG Hybrid

Fantastic as usual. I suppose now you've reached the point where diminishing returns on exposure time are not providing enough usable data?

Thanks Adrian. The main thing I noticed in the last 10 hours of data was that there did not appear to be vast improvements on the signal. The noise in the Ha and OIII was fairly static too. I could easily go on and continue to collect data for another 20-30 hours before the season is over but I figure it would only be an experiment rather than for improving the image.