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Old 10-06-2011, 08:40 PM
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marc4darkskies (Marcus)
Billions and Billions ...

marc4darkskies is offline
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Quialigo, NSW
Posts: 3,143
The Dark Tower - Finished!

This was a tough one! I fought clouds and poor seeing for 5 nights over 10 days (the other nights were completely overcast). The guide star was faint for Ha (mag 9.9). I threw out a whole night's data (5.5 hours worth) because of poor seeing (FWHM >= 4 pixels). The object is dim and demands a reasonably large amount of data so this is a record for me - nearly 14 hours all up. Processing was a hard slog as well.

Anyway, I'm quite happy with how it's turned out, but may tinker depending on the feedback I get. There aren't many renditions to compare with either. Colour rendition varies quite a lot among other versions out there and none, apart from Rob Gendler's LRGB and Don Goldman's LHaRGB versions, effectively render the reflection nebs at the top of the tower to their fullest extent. It's these refl nebs that make this image IMO, and to appreciate them you need to view at full res.

Hopefully I've done justice the raw LHa version I posted earlier too. Let me know what you think!

Small:
http://www.pbase.com/gailmarc/image/135434539/large

Large:
http://www.pbase.com/gailmarc/image/135434539/original

Cheers, Marcus
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