Hi all, hope you had a good and relaxing break so far. I managed to go to Wiruna for the new moon week-end. Out of 3 nights we had two clear ones with no clouds at all so I managed a couple of hours on the monoceros area. There's a lot of nice colorful stuff in there. Some very bright and some very faint so I might complete this with Ha data later down the road. I found it challenging to process and I'm sure it will improve over time.
Nice shot Marc. I tried this a week or so ago and it was very difficult to process - so much so I didn't post it - very chocolate/red colour and noisy. I like your subtle colours> It sure does look like a Christmas Tree.
that is a lovely well framed image Marc, doesn't look over processed which l find very pleasing.
Thanks Mick - glad you like it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Craig_L
Nice shot Marc. I tried this a week or so ago and it was very difficult to process - so much so I didn't post it - very chocolate/red colour and noisy. I like your subtle colours> It sure does look like a Christmas Tree.
Thanks Craig. True it looks real "chocoletty" and very faint considering I have over 4hours in there. I had to push the color saturation a bit during processing. There are a lot of dark black clouds as well on the outside. At first I thought it was black clipping but then I checked my histograms and I was well under the sky glow so this stuff is darker than the background sky. Maybe it would show up in Ha?
Yes very nicely done and well framed Marc
Very enjoyable to view
Thanks Gary. Framing was easy. I centered on the bright star in the middle. As it's around mag 5 I can view it to align on short 1s frames and it's pretty central so I had no problen with the meridian flip. The nebulosity is evenly spread all around so if you guys want to image it just watch out for that star.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RB
Very nice shot Marc !
Pinpoint stars and nice colours.
I agree.
Thanks Andrew. Yeah focus is nice with the new GSO. Much easier and less "clunky".
Good job Marc. You've portrayed the colours of the region exceptionally well. Feel you need to back off the sharpening a little. Other than that, very nice work. Well done.
Good job Marc. You've portrayed the colours of the region exceptionally well. Feel you need to back off the sharpening a little. Other than that, very nice work. Well done.
Thanks Jase. I tried to keep the stars soft but I had a real long way to bring out any nebulosity from the original.
There is a lot going on in that region...did you see Jay's APOD of this region a few days ago? Stunning wasnt it?
I am presently working on a Cone Nebula myself and hope to post that up in a day or two.
nice work.
cheers
Martin
Thanks Martin. Sure did. The APOD was amazing. That's what prompted me to chase that object. It was quite hard to image and process though. J.Gabany made it look too easy ...
Your image has some gradients in it. I used Gradient Xterminator, a Noel Carboni "increase star colour" action in Photoshop and a tad of levels and colour balance and the gradient was removed and the colour saturation was increased a lot.
I have found that despite imaging from a dark site gradients can still occur.
Exactly why I think varies. High cloud for one, moon, even perhaps a bit of light from a computer screen or a torch or flashing LEDs perhaps (although less likely).
If you want a copy of my subtle reprocess let me know and I can email it or post it which I don't want to do without your permission.
Looking at it again I thought it might stand a bit of contrast increase.
What I did was:
1. Gradient Xterminator (2 runs)
2. slide black point a bit to the right as the histogram had shifted to the right and this got rid of some noise
3. 2 runs through on Noel Carboni's "increase star colour".
4. Increased saturation a bit
5. colour balance a tad increasing red in the highlights
Looking at it again I thought it might stand a bit of contrast increase.
What I did was:
1. Gradient Xterminator (2 runs)
2. slide black point a bit to the right as the histogram had shifted to the right and this got rid of some noise
3. 2 runs through on Noel Carboni's "increase star colour".
4. Increased saturation a bit
5. colour balance a tad increasing red in the highlights
that's it. Total time spent - about 3 minutes.
Greg.
Thanks for the reprocess and the tips Greg. I'll have a play with it.
I had to push the color saturation a bit during processing. There are a lot of dark black clouds as well on the outside. At first I thought it was black clipping but then I checked my histograms and I was well under the sky glow so this stuff is darker than the background sky. Maybe it would show up in Ha?
