Quote:
Originally Posted by strongmanmike
Hi Allan
Interesting you bring this image up actually, although I don't review images of what I am processing before starting on my data, I do often look afterwards to compare. Of course I looked at RJ's work in this after the fact perusal and indeed I remember when he first did it, I was in back and forth direct email contact with him at the time about it even and I recall saying that I thought it was the second best NGC 253 image ever taken by an amateur ( THIS is the best IMO... the seeing quality is everything!) ...I can see them well in my image but how RJ revealed those rising streamers in the way he has is beyond me...quite spectacular.
On your instigation and for a more direct comparison though, I have zoomed in, cropped and shrunk my NGC 253 down to match the field of the GaBany version you posted, see it HERE. Now of course, remember RJ's image was taken using an awesome 20" F8 RC on a PME, in a dome, 7000ft up in the Sacramento Mountains of New Mexico in the US....mine was taken using a 12" F3.8 from outside Canberra at 2000ft in a completely exposed environment..although the wind wasn't really a problem during the data collection for this image and the seeing was quite reasonable too (compared to Newcastle  )  
Like you say I really think it comes down to personal preference and what the imager is specifically trying to reveal or display. I was really shooting for the very faint outer halo around the galaxy which is so seldom visible in images of this galaxy (inlcuding RJ's), in fact I can only find a couple of others that reveal it so obviously, I wanted to show the background galaxies and the galactic cirrus in the region too (not noticeable in this tight crop FOV) then I wanted to give the galaxy itself some colour impact...remember I do love blue  and highlight the plethora of HII regions . Of course, as you say not everyone will be 100% happy with my colour choices but that is the nature of the game we are in
It is an interesting discussion, and good on you for taking it beyond "nice image" or even "Too Vegas" 
Mike  |
Mike
I was quite aware of the image by Volker Wendel and Bernd Flach-Wilken but personally I would place it behind yours for detail and a third behind Gabaney's image, which I placed at numero uno. And thats because I liked his detail combined with colour processing.
Its fine as I realised you were trying for the faint halo of NGC253 but I think you got that better in a deep refractor image some time ago (if my memory serves correctly). If its faint detail - you are starting to catch the Gabaney streamers but of course a bigger scope and better seeing will make all the difference. Take your present scope to altitude and it would scream.
You certainly achieved the emphasis of Ha and outer young stars
and its still better than anything Ive done.
Its a "nice Vegas image"
Good on you for doing it your way
Allan