LMC, Tarantula & SMC from Astrofest 2016

[multiweb (Marc)]

Here's my first pic taken Thursday and Friday night which were the best of the lot seeing wise. This is 51x5min, so around four and a half hours.

FSQ106N at prime with a QHY8 OSC and OAG + Lodestar on a G11.

I used PixInsight Bayer Drizzle for this one as my image scale is approx 3 seconds of arc per pixel. I had enough subs and drift to use it.

This is a crop of the original which is about six times bigger.

The 1:1 looks good but it's over 37MB so I did a few versions below if you're feeling lucky and want to pixel peep.

[70% full frame - 4256x2822 - 18.7MB]

[50% full frame - 3040x2016 - 10.1MB] Native format after drizzle 50% reduction.

[HD Crop - 1920x1737 - 5.17MB] So HD version of crop thumbnail posted.

[Small full frame - 1280x849 - 1MB]

Did the colour balance and stretching in Goodlook 64bit. Saturation in PS.
Probably too green for some but at the star 1:1 level, blue and yellow sand makes for the green tinge.

Enjoy the view.

PS: Added the SMC field shot the same nights. Same treatment in PI although a lot less data. 30x5min.

[70% full frame - 4256x2820 - 19.9MB]

[50% full frame - 3040x2015 - 10.6MB] Native format after drizzle 50% reduction.

[HD Crop - 1920x1909 - 6.4MB] HD crop.

[Small full frame - 1280x848 - 1MB]

[Retrograde (Pete)]

Very, very nice Marc. Fantastic detail in the hi-res versions.

[RickS (Rick)]

Love the rich colours and panoramic vista, Marc. I went for the biggest version, of course!

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Very rich colours. Tasty.

[Atmos (Colin)]

I just went for the small full frame as I am out on the run but it looks brilliant Marc! Appears to be very nicely resolved and sharp Love the nebulosity around Tarantula!

[atalas]

Beautiful...great colour and pops nicely

[Peter Ward]

A very tidy LMC indeed. Nice one

[gregbradley]

That looks great Marc.

Greg.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by Retrograde

Very, very nice Marc. Fantastic detail in the hi-res versions.

Thanks Pete. Lots going on in the high-res. Plenty of small clusters in the field.

Originally Posted by RickS

Love the rich colours and panoramic vista, Marc. I went for the biggest version, of course!

Thanks Rick. Not too green for you?

Originally Posted by jjjnettie

Very rich colours. Tasty.

Thanks a lot JJJ.

Originally Posted by Atmos

I just went for the small full frame as I am out on the run but it looks brilliant Marc! Appears to be very nicely resolved and sharp Love the nebulosity around Tarantula!

Thanks Colin. The bayer drizzle process dramatically enhances resolution and details, even colours.

Originally Posted by atalas

Beautiful...great colour and pops nicely

Thanks a lot Louie. Catch up soon mate.

Originally Posted by Peter Ward

A very tidy LMC indeed. Nice one

Thank you Peter.

Originally Posted by gregbradley

That looks great Marc.

Greg.

Thanks a lot Greg, glad you liked it.

[RickS (Rick)]

Originally Posted by multiweb

Thanks Rick. Not too green for you?

Chris Cox couldn't convert me to visual, Marc, but I'm developing a tolerance for green

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkZFuKHXa7w

[atalas]

thanks Rick...forgot how funny that show was.

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Originally Posted by RickS

Chris Cox couldn't convert me to visual, Marc, but I'm developing a tolerance for green

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkZFuKHXa7w

Green.....

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Originally Posted by atalas

thanks Rick...forgot how funny that show was.

There's a new season on the way

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Excellent, Marc! Lots of nebulosity there (colourblind Mike had fun swapping R and G around, so he could see the H-alpha), and squillions of sharp stars in another galaxy. That must have been fiercely difficult to register and stack, with all those stars. Well done!

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by RickS

Chris Cox couldn't convert me to visual, Marc, but I'm developing a tolerance for green

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkZFuKHXa7w

classic!

Originally Posted by Placidus

Excellent, Marc! Lots of nebulosity there (colourblind Mike had fun swapping R and G around, so he could see the H-alpha), and squillions of sharp stars in another galaxy. That must have been fiercely difficult to register and stack, with all those stars. Well done!

Thanks Mike. The bayer drizzle process takes care of that. The star alignment in PI generates *.drz files that are used afterwards during the integration step (stacking). As long as you have enough files and offsets (dithering) then it can fill in all the holes.

I will post a PDF with a step by step tut as another member is interested in Bayer drizzle as well.

[ozstronomer (Geoff)]

Great image Marc,

Love the colours and nice FOV

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

Beautiful Marc love the colouring.

[Dennis]

Wow Marc that is stunning. The 70% full frame is gorgeous, even though it overflowed my 2560x1440 monitor!

Cheers

Dennis

[troypiggo (Troy)]

Very nice. Was going to say something about green, but decided not to. Oh. Wait...

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by ozstronomer

Great image Marc,

Love the colours and nice FOV

Thanks Geoff. I've emailed you.

Originally Posted by Camelopardalis

Beautiful Marc love the colouring.

Thanks a lot mate.

Originally Posted by Dennis

Wow Marc that is stunning. The 70% full frame is gorgeous, even though it overflowed my 2560x1440 monitor!

Cheers

Dennis

Thanks Dennis. My monitor is even smaller.