[jase (Jason)]

Originally Posted by Tamtarn

Truely an amazing image Jase. Like the colour balance in this reworked version.

Lost count of all the clusters scattered about the image. We can understand how long you must work on your images to capture all the finer detail. It certainly makes it worthwhile with the amazing results you get.

Thanks for sharing your work and also for the time you spend helping other imagers on IIS it's much appreciated.

Thanks Barb and David. Somewhat an usual approach to colour balancing, though I usually balance the individual R,G,B frames with pixel math. It provides greater accuracy than automatic background equalisation. Pleased to help you out. You’ve certainly come along way since your original posts. Keep at it and thanks again for your comments.

Originally Posted by marc4darkskies

A spectacular result for a huge effort Jase. Nice image to sit and gaze at too. It's a winner on a number of levels!!

Cheers, Marcus

Cheers Marcus. I dwelled over this image for sometime. Possibly a winner, but who knows what the day brings. I hope to see some of your work presented.

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

I think Peter Ward will have one of those..?

I went to your web site and it was pretty easy for me to pick out the images I would have entered if I was you There were about 3 or maybe 4 clear stand outs for me....I'm sure there are a couple you have sent that don't appear on there though huh?

Good luck!.....heck the detailed and complicated processing you go through for your images warrants an award in itself!

He he he, love a competiton, it's exciting

Mike

Indeed Mike, competitions are a bit of fun. It’s a great time to reflect on what you’ve done and also admire the work of others. I’d be interested in knowing what you think my panel is… If you’re thinking M83, you’re wrong. This image was purely an experimental (combine different focal length data). Plus, Peter entered M83 last year if I recall correctly. Hahaha…you’ll have to keep guessing…I should mention that all images submitted for CWAS were reprocessed, so be careful on your selection. Also, I should add that I had access to a friend’s TOA-150 for two weeks. To my frustration, this turned out to be a nightmare. I didn’t have the right fittings to mount the STL11k so ended up using the 2” nose piece (vignetting was like tunnel vision compared to the 88mm image circle of the FSQ, absolute hell…not sure why, but didn’t have time to investigate). Struggled with balance on the Titan and by the time I took flats etc, all I collected 120min of Ha data. Still, it has significantly enhanced one of the images.

Good luck to you too Mike. I’m guessing at least an Eta image from you. The one you recently present is top shelf work.

Originally Posted by Bassnut

Excellent Jase, ittle be interesting to see how all those stars look on a 16x20 print. Do you incrementally upscale in PS, or use a dedicated app?.

Good luck

Thanks Fred. For this print, the image wasn’t upscaled. The final aRGB hi-res 16-bit tiff is 4769x3752 @ 2822 DPI (~18mp/102Mb). No need for upscaling there. Unfortunately I had to downscale it because of the CWAS print restrictions. The print turned out ok. You certainly don’t get the same impact of what I’ve presented online in the 3000x2400 resolution. The colours were subtly muted on the print due to the rip conversion of aRGB to CYMK. I should mention that all the prints aren’t the full 16x20…two reasons - Scaling can result in disproportion images if not careful (NGC104 would look rather funny shaped as an oblong) and you need to factor in mounting as well. The latter is optional, but it is my preference. To answer you original question…PS was used for scaling and DPI conversion down to 300. No entries?

Originally Posted by Peter Ward

Rest easy...No 9 frame mosaic from me....the 16 frame effort will have to wait till next year

Jase's SMC is one of the best examples I have seen.

As for CWAS, I can honestly say, I have not been very productive this year....between very poor Sydney weather and my work commitments I have done very little imaging due to sheer lack of imaging time.

That said, images such as this pearler....

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080310.html

.....I suspect is CWAS is also strongly about. Great composition, good colour, simple equipment etc.

CWAS is IMHO Oz's best Astrophotography showcase, and it's great to see excellent work from all around Oz converge at Parkes. I'm sure Images by Jase, Big Mike, Martin P, Eddie T etc will do well.

Peter

Cheers Peter. I look forward to seeing what you come up with. The theme of “Star trails in the landscape” for this year will be interesting. Shame it wasn’t last year as you would have had it “licked”. I agree, there are many talented imagers about. If I was a betting man, my money would be on Steve Crouch in ACT. I’ve been monitoring his progress with his newly acquired 12.5” RC. The first few images were sub optimal, but he’s really got the rig and processing in tune at the moment. His recent APOD image on the Running Chicken Nebula was a “king hit, knock down - remarkable” - http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080418.html

Thanks again

Originally Posted by RB

LOL Jase, I got vertigo, when I opened the full size (70%) version.

What a stunning image mate, what more can I say, except thank you for sharing with us and helping us with your concise advice and suggestions.

All the best in the competition.

Cheers

PS cartoon was a crack-er

Hey RB. Thanks for your comments. Hope you’ve entered some of your work with the 130. You’re up there with them… Its time to pounce.

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Thanks to all who have commented. I wish good luck to those who have entered the competition. This is probably the pinnacle of astrophotography in Oz. The event will certainly bring many more to our guild as we promote the glorious heavens above.

Cheers