The Mermaid

[Paulyman (Paul)]

This is a center crop of a HOO Rosette image I'm working on. Last night was the first nights in at least a month maybe two that the smoke haze cleared enough for some decent imaging. Our local group went out and spent the night at our dark sky site. I had some major gremlins in the system, so only managed 2 hours of imaging

This image is very much a work in progress and needs much more data but I thought I'd show it in its early unrefined stages. At present the lack of data has produced a water color effect that I'm not actually entirely disliking but it would be nice to not need so much noise reduction.

Andy mentioned in the big kids forum that he had it pointed out to him that there was a Mermaid within the Rosette. Once I saw it I couldn't unsee it.

The Rosette is such a complex region of space, its likeness to a rose is obvious but when oriented right and imaged in mono it takes on an ethereal sheen and appears as a skull. Now it turns out it also has a mermaid that swims within the heart of the rose!

https://astrob.in/j0z7fn/0/rawthumb/...t.jpg?insecure

Acquisition Data:

Ha - 48x300s
Oiii - 24x300s
WO Star 71 and ZWO183MM-Pro at gain 111 and -15C
Cem40

[RyanJones]

What an absolutely beautiful image Paul. My imaging style leans towards more soft natural look so this to me is perfect. It’s a beautiful balance of colour. I’m a big fan just the way it is.

[Paulyman (Paul)]

Thanks Ryan.

[casstony]

great image, but I'm having trouble seeing the mermaid.

[Paulyman (Paul)]

Thanks Tony,

I've circled the mermaid. She is facing to the right, head at the top and her tail curves around under her body ending in the fin at the lower left... Or I am suffereing from the lack of sleep after pulling an all nighter last night .

[Nikolas (Nik)]

Sometimes it's good to look deeper into nebulas like you have. food for though. great image!

[Startrek (Martin)]

Paul,
Super image with great detail
Well done !
I spent 4 hours last night imaging Rosette with my 8” f5 newt and Canon DSLR. Unfortunately it was a warm night , sensor temp running at +32degrees so I knew that the outcome wouldn’t be good. Guiding was excellent, I dithered heavily , took 50 odd 3 minute subs but couldn’t process a half descent image worthy of posting due to noise ( especially horizontal banding )
Definitely not a summer object to image with a DSLR !!
Sometimes we forget it’s a mag 9 object too
Cheers

[Paulyman (Paul)]

Thanks Nicolas and Martin.

PS: hope your dark sky house down the coast was okay during the south coast fires Martin.

[casstony]

Originally Posted by Paulyman

Thanks Tony,

I've circled the mermaid. She is facing to the right, head at the top and her tail curves around under her body ending in the fin at the lower left... Or I am suffereing from the lack of sleep after pulling an all nighter last night .

You haven't been at sea for the last few months?
I thought that might have been it.

[Paulyman (Paul)]

Originally Posted by casstony

You haven't been at sea for the last few months?
I thought that might have been it.

[Startrek (Martin)]

Paul
We were lucky, just thick smoke and the odd ember , the fires didn’t jump the inlet from Conjola to us
We could see Conjola on fire from our backyard only a kilometre or so away, very worrying though at the time
Thanks for enquiring

[Andy01 (Andy)]

...and like a siren she calls to us amateur astronomers to swim in those dark celestial seas!

Nice image, maybe add a touch of contrast to boost it up a tad?

[Paulyman (Paul)]

Originally Posted by Andy01

...and like a siren she calls to us amateur astronomers to swim in those dark celestial seas!

Nice image, maybe add a touch of contrast to boost it up a tad?

Cheers Andy, I will definitely go back and work this one. First I need to gather more data I think.

[LostInSp_ce]

Looks like a purple storm is brewing. A very clean image with tight stars all round. Beautifully captured and well processed. Top notch!