A Smile, not a Prawn (NGC3199 narrowband)

[RickS (Rick)]

I captured the data for this image two years ago from home and have had a few goes at processing it. This is my best result so far though I'm still not over the moon about it. It's not a particularly crisp object and the distribution of Ha, Oiii and Sii seems to result in murky colours in typical narrowband palettes. I ended up basing the colour on a bi-colour Ha/Oiii combo with some subtle green additions from Sii.

NGC3199 is an unusual emission nebula created by the Wolf-Rayet star HD89358, described in one paper as an "interstellar snow plough" that has created a distorted bubble by moving through a uniform interstellar medium.

Data captured at St Lucia, 25 April to 15 May, 2014

Scope: Ceravolo C300 @ f/9 = 2760mm FL, Atlas focuser
Mount: AP900
Camera: U16M
Filters: Astrodon E series Gen 2 LRGB, 3nm HA, OIII, SII
Guiding: Lodestar / MMOAG
Image scale: 0.67 arcsec/pixel
Exposures: 19x1200s Ha, 14x1200s OIII, 16x1200s SII (16.3 hours)
Processing: PixInsight 1.8

Full res version: http://www.astrobin.com/full/251834/B/

Happy to receive constructive criticism as always...

Cheers,
Rick.

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Check that out!.. he he cool ...lots of nebulosity there. Always know a deep 3199 when the nebulosity forms a complete circle rather than just an arc, nice work colours?...wheel, they are 2 years old ..so not current dude, bit 2014's now ...nah, not bad

Mike

[RickS (Rick)]

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Check that out!.. he he cool ...lots of nebulosity there. Always know a deep 3199 when the nebulosity forms a complete circle rather than just an arc, nice work colours?...wheel, they are 2 years old ..so not current dude, bit 2014's now ...nah, not bad

thanks, Mike. Are pastels in this year?

[Stonius (Markus)]

Hope you don't mind, but I ran the image through Deep Dream to see what it made of the prawn / smile debate.

As you can see it's actually a dog, a victorian building, a couple of birds and a car. Obviously! :-)

[RickS (Rick)]

Originally Posted by Stonius

Hope you don't mind, but I ran the image through Deep Dream to see what it made of the prawn / smile debate.

As you can see it's actually a dog, a victorian building, a couple of birds and a car. Obviously! :-)

That's pretty cool, Markus Not sure the PI purists would approve

[ozstronomer (Geoff)]

Great image Rick, love the colours and plenty of nebulosity

Cheers Geoff

[janoskiss (Steve H)]

prawns, smiles, whatever, you guys are just too good! How dare you!?

@Stonius I'll have what you're having but then we both have to stop.

[gregbradley]

Very electric Rick. Quite an impinging image. A wild ride. It shows the violence of the area.

Greg.

[Paul Haese]

Nice detail and scale Rick. I really like the colours too.

[marc4darkskies (Marcus)]

Yep, a riot of beautiful colour, nicely done Rick!

[Atmos (Colin)]

Really nice Rick, I can see what you mean by many defined structures, just goes to show how energetic and turbulent the area is! Has some lovely colours though and is reminiscent of an airbrush painting in areas.

[RickS (Rick)]

Originally Posted by ozstronomer

Great image Rick, love the colours and plenty of nebulosity

Thanks, Geoff!

Originally Posted by janoskiss

prawns, smiles, whatever, you guys are just too good! How dare you!?

@Stonius I'll have what you're having but then we both have to stop.

Thanks, Steve

Originally Posted by gregbradley

Very electric Rick. Quite an impinging image. A wild ride. It shows the violence of the area.

Ta, Greg. There's some weird stuff going on in there according to the professionals.

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

Nice detail and scale Rick. I really like the colours too.

Thanks, Paul. I really struggled with the colour so I'm glad that it appeals to folks with more taste than me

Originally Posted by marc4darkskies

Yep, a riot of beautiful colour, nicely done Rick!

Thanks very much, Marcus, and I do take your point about narrowband colour offering greater freedom.

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Well done, Rick. You've captured some truly faint extensions there.

I agree that it's a difficult object to present impressively because the object seems inherently soft and diffuse, and there's not much SII either. You've come up with a good answer.

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Well done, Rick. You've captured some truly faint extensions there.

I agree that it's a difficult object to present impressively because the object seems inherently soft and diffuse, and there's not much SII either. Concentrating on the faint stuff that is there has done the trick.

[Retrograde (Pete)]

Stunning detail. Very nice.

[Andy01 (Andy)]

Best version of that DSO I've seen to date Rick, well done!
Looks very 3D and kinda organic - great use of the colour palette too

[lazjen (Chris)]

It's certainly weird looking. It's almost bioluminescent.

Looks good though!

[Stevec35 (Steve)]

Yep - I reckon that's probably the best ngc 3199 I've seen Rick.

Cheers

Steve

[mountainjoo (Jerome)]

Great colours, electric!

[janoskiss (Steve H)]

Originally Posted by lazjen

It's certainly weird looking. It's almost bioluminescent.

That's because he injected the nebula with fluorescent dye before taking the picture. Bloomin cheat!