[iceman (Mike)]

Originally Posted by Phil

wow stunning shot Mike well done. I got to see the moon last night for about 2 sec. First thing i have seen for a while now with all the crappy weather we are having up hear.
Phil

Thanks Phil - I don't think we've had it quite as bad as you have, but it's been terrible here too. I think we've had a total of 3 imaging opportunities in 2008 so far

Originally Posted by Garyh

That is a very pleasing image Mike!
Nice colors and well composed even some dark dust lanes thrown in!
cheers Gary

Thanks Gary, I took some extra time on the colour balance and levels on this one, after my green background on eta carinae

Originally Posted by glenc

I like both the image and the subject Mike.

Thanks Glen - I was looking in SNP for something to image before the usual suspects rose higher, and was pleased to see that this pairing would fit nicely in my FOV *and* it was above the trees.

Originally Posted by EzyStyles

love it mike!. the objects looks abit 3d and great fov. !

Thanks Eric. I love the hot blue stars in NGC2451 jumping out from the background.

Originally Posted by Ric

Great image Mike, I love the colours and the clarity.

cheers

Thanks Ric, much appreciated.

Originally Posted by tornado33

Gee thats well composed, excellent contrast between a dense and sparse cluster, excellent colour too
Scott

Cheers Scott, it took quite a bit of time to compose them properly, having to rotate the camera 90deg and keep the cluster as far away from the seagulls I was getting near the edge.

Originally Posted by Matty P

A vey nice image Mike.

The colour and detail is amazing.

Thanks Matty, I really enjoy imaging open clusters and can't wait for Scorpius to get up higher.

Originally Posted by monoxide

looks good Mike,
nicely composed good colour and its good to see something different than those "better" objects

heh thanks.. given a chance I would've imaged the "showcase" objects because DSO imaging is so new to me, I still haven't imaged 75% of the popular objects. But it's nice to have a chance to image something different, too.

Originally Posted by theodog

Nice cluster poster shot Mike.
Colours look great.
Not all objects need hours of light to look good.
Well done.

Thanks Theo. I would've preferred to go a bit deeper to smoothen out the background a bit more, and bring out some more of the red in the background stars. I still remember Octane's brilliant shot of NGC2451 from Magellan Observatory. Seeing his shot made me target this cluster.

Originally Posted by Alchemy

Good to see you are persevering with the deep sky stuff...... at least until jupiter returns anyway

heh thanks C. I had actually planned to do an all-nighter, finishing with Jupiter in the morning, but clouds put an end to those plans (as usual).

I'm really enjoying DSO imaging and want to do it better, but slow steps.. still lots to learn but i'm finally starting to get a "feel" for DSO image processing.

Oh but of course I want a modded and cooled 40D, or a dedicated astro camera