N44 complex and The Crazy Frog Mouth Nebula (and other strange things)

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Among several other things...to me this little nebulous patch in the LMC reminds me of a crazy frog with eyes on stalks caught in the midddle of a croak.........

This is a Bi-Colour image composed of Ha and OIII only, taken over two cloud interrupted nights. The seeing for the Ha was quite good but very poor for the OIII, so this coupled with having only two colour sets meant getting the data to match and blend properly into a visually appealing image was a challenge. I played around with a few palettes and ended up liking this one (I may well get some SII and RGB yet?)

The Crazy Frog Mouth (cropped for composition)

Full Frame

Strange things in N44

Mike

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Hi, Mike,

Delicious. The "frog mouth full of stars (or gnats) and bulging frantic eyes" effect is somewhat reminiscent of the region around NGC 1760. Perhaps there is a heron that is doing the rounds of the lily-pads, and harassing the locals. Perhaps the astrophysics is broadly similar.

I like your rendition very much.

New year's wishes,
Mike

[Andy01 (Andy)]

I love that crazy little guy
Great rendition and a funky colour palatte, well done as always Mike

Cheers
Andy

[Geoff45 (Geoff)]

Nice pallette Mike. I think OIII and Ha are good enough in most cases--they give a similar pic to RGB. SII is usually pretty weak and just complicates the colour.

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

Looks like a crazy alien frog / spaghetti monster in outer space. Love the colours Mike.

[tilbrook@rbe.ne (Justin Tilbrook)]

Superb Mike!

The detail is amazing, I have to remind myself occasionally this is another Galaxy and how massive this nebula complex must be!

I think I'm right in saying if the Tarantula was at the same distance as M42 it would light up the sky brighter that a full moon.

Cheers,

Justin.

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Thanks for checking it out and commenting guys
Mike you have the mind picture spot on there (of course) and I tend to agree with you Geoff but I think I could see some improvement if I had some RGB, so I will likely collect some next new moon period (if I don't lose interest in it in the meantime )

Mike

[SkyViking (Rolf)]

Very impressive Mike. I really like the colour palette, and the entire nebula complex appears very detailed and intriguing. There certainly seems to be a lot of action going on in our neighbouring galaxies.
Thanks for the colourful vista and Happy New Year to you Mike!

[atalas]

Very cool Mike!

[gregbradley]

Nice one Mike. I like it.

Greg.

[marc4darkskies (Marcus)]

Mmmmmmm .... yeeahh ... can't say I'm thrilled with the orange. I reckon it needs OIII & RGB as you say. But what do I know - I've never done NB! Love the composition and naming though and detail looks good! Overall, not bad for bi-colour.

Cheers, Marcus

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by SkyViking

I really like the colour palette.

Originally Posted by marc4darkskies

Mmmmmmm .... yeeahh ... can't say I'm thrilled with the orange.

The Astroimaging Daily front page reports: "Narrowband colour choices continue to divide opinion"

Thanks for looking guys, I'm mounting this image and hanging it next to my green drapes

Mike

[Bart]

Very, very nice, Mike.

Great processing as always.

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by Bart

Very, very nice, Mike.

Great processing as always.

Ah! Bart! How the hell are ya? (ahhh hmmm? wait, are you the Bart that was on IIS in the past?)

Thanks for the comment mate

Mike

[Bassnut (Fred)]

Thats pretty loud for you Mike!. Nice to see you experiment with the asthetics, certainly vibrant.

[RickS (Rick)]

It's a very interesting object, Mike. Looks rather like the Flying Spaghetti Monster to me. Are you a closet Pastafarian?

Great detail and I like the colour palette.

Cheers,
Rick.

[alpal]

Hi Mike,
nice image - I'm not sure about the colours.
Maybe it will grow on me?

cheers
Allan

[multiweb (Marc)]

Top field. Love the colors and details.
If your crop is the crazy frog then I reckon it's definitely a lady frog.
I found the poor bloke looking the other way, saying: "not again...."

[DJT (David)]

Nope..the frog is toast, I see the head of a blue puddy tat right of centre eyeing it up.

Great image, lurve the colours

[Paul Haese]

The 12" has an advantage in resolution of the 4" refractor here Mike. I see detail in yours that the FSQ missed in mine.

RGB stars will make a huge difference to the overall look too.

I am uncertain about the orange colour too. I thought that about my version which has this object a bit orange too. I think it ought to be slightly more brown/red, but horses for course.