[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Originally Posted by SimmoW

Not much to say really.

'Benchmark'

Originally Posted by Atmos

Very nice work MnT, come back to it a few times and just keep coming back to the right side of the image. It's fascinating!

Thanks muchly, Colin. At first we misread you to mean that we should do longer exposure on the right hand side. But yes it is fascinating trying to work out what astrophysics might have generated such an image.

Originally Posted by Camelopardalis

What a beauty, well done M&T

Thanks, Dunk!

Originally Posted by cometcatcher

Blimey! Can really see the face in this one. ...1 hour subs!...

Hi, Kevin. One of the few things that looks like its name.

Originally Posted by marc4darkskies

Excellent in every respect M&T!

I'd of course opt for slightly richer colouring ... but totally respect your choices!

Thanks muchly Marcus.

Originally Posted by rmuhlack

Excellent work. (I like the colour palette BTW)

I am also working on this target and with very similar framing (albeit with far more modest equipment), so yours will be a key reference image as I progress the project

Thanks Richard. We eagerly await your version.

Originally Posted by Flugel88

Nice FOV i didn't know the Mistral dusty bits stretched out so far.
36 hours is a huge effort

Hi, Michael. It's an interesting trade-off, wondering whether to show the fainter outer bits and pieces, because making bits that would otherwise be black look interesting and colourful must reduce overall contrast and detract from the main show, but we thought the features in the background, (including the kingfisher and the teddy bear) were sufficiently interesting to bring out.

Originally Posted by gregbradley

I like it. Firstly it shows that its a bowl shaped nebula rather than a pancake.
Also what is that gaseous trail from the bottom bright star in the bowl? Its purplish so it implies the gas is coming off the star rather than nearby gas in the neb?

Great work. I like the tendrils off Eta Carina to the side makes the FOV more interesting otherwise this neb is a bit uninteresting.

Greg

Thanks, Greg. We guess that the true three-dimensional structure that you are referring to might be a big ball of gas that gave rise to the brighter stars within, and then the "front" wall between us and them was thinnest, and totally blasted away, whereas the right hand wall was very thick, and formed the hard shock front that delineates the face. Perhaps thinking about all that action adds to the interest.

The magenta zig-zag lightening streaks heading off toward 7 and 8 o'clock from the very bright star are most enigmatic. Can't recall any other instance of such a thing. What could produce such an assymetric effect?

Mike thinks it is the lightning bolts from the Emperor's fingers at the end of the original Star Wars.

Cheers,
Mike and Trish