I started imaging this object last year before the first camera died and before I obtained my AOX.
The hard part about this object is processing the detail so it looks natural. The galaxy is so busy that it is easy to over cook it. I have spent a couple of days going over several detail layer images, trying to take a look after I have rested my eyes. I think this image appears sharp but not over sharpened, though I am still not totally convinced.
In any event I will welcome any comments that people might have about the image.
What we notice most is that you've achieved very high contrast and saturation, allowing the details of the "galactic fountain" plumes to really stand out, without any grittiness or colour noise, and no glassy sharpening artifacts.
Very tough one Paul. Cheers for the lovely view, as yet I haven't either looked at or attempted to image it this year- my imaging train isn't quite there yet for fuzzies.
On my new PC the detail is superb but perhaps a tiny bit over in colour saturation? Yet to truly calibrate the monitor so that might influence things.
At any rate, are we ever 100% satisfied with any image we process?
It's a great image, beyond anything I will ever do. I'm sure you will get more experienced feedback soon.
Thanks Aidan, Andy, Mark and Fabio for your comments.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Placidus
Beyond superb!
What we notice most is that you've achieved very high contrast and saturation, allowing the details of the "galactic fountain" plumes to really stand out, without any grittiness or colour noise, and no glassy sharpening artifacts.
Best,
Mike and Trish
Thanks Mike and Trish. I had a good look around the net and there are only a few examples of this object that I thought showed good detail but not too much sharpening. Getting the balance right is tough I think. The tiny little hair like fountain dust lanes are pretty tricky.
Quote:
Originally Posted by astroboof
Very tough one Paul. Cheers for the lovely view, as yet I haven't either looked at or attempted to image it this year- my imaging train isn't quite there yet for fuzzies.
On my new PC the detail is superb but perhaps a tiny bit over in colour saturation? Yet to truly calibrate the monitor so that might influence things.
At any rate, are we ever 100% satisfied with any image we process?
It's a great image, beyond anything I will ever do. I'm sure you will get more experienced feedback soon.
Thanks Bob. It always seems to be a perennial favourite with imagers and can be over looked by more experienced imagers. That seems fairly evident from looking around the net at the world renown imagers galleries. It would appear from the examples on their sites they imaged this target some time ago and had not got back to do it again.
Not sure about the saturation but had thought it looked good on both monitors I have here and on my iPad. Perhaps your monitor might need a tweak but I am conscious that the saturation is up a bit from my more normal standard.
I haven't imaged NGC253 myself so cannot comment on the finer processing aspects of it, but to my eyes this looks very natural and pleasing, nicely done Paul! It's a great looking galaxy and a fine image of it.
I think this one just squeezes into my FOV so I better add it to my imaging list
Lovely. Enjoyed strolling through your image on the iPad. Great detail and colours . As well as the hairs rising out the centre, I thought the brown clouds of dust out to the edges hold a huge amount of detail.
Nicely done
Thanks Rick, David and Peter for you comments. Much appreciated.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SkyViking
I haven't imaged NGC253 myself so cannot comment on the finer processing aspects of it, but to my eyes this looks very natural and pleasing, nicely done Paul! It's a great looking galaxy and a fine image of it.
I think this one just squeezes into my FOV so I better add it to my imaging list
Thanks Rolf. I am tempted to go quite a bit longer on this image to get all the faint back ground galaxies and see how far that halo really does extend out. Your long duration imaging runs have me wondering how much depth could be achieved on some of the projects I have in the mill and planned over the next year.
Wow, if it just squeezes in you might have some interesting detail if you get enough nights of good seeing.
Nice picture Paul,
there is so much detail.
I would have raised the black point to about 25 instead of the 6 that you have.
That way more of the halo would come out too.
Yeah pretty happy but always striving for perfection H. I have collected another 5 hours of data now and will add that at some point soon just to finalise the image.
