M17 Omega or Swan nebula

[Paul Haese]

This image is not one of my best but I have spent a lot of time on it just to get this far. I had to learn a new technique from Rob Gendler's site to get the colour balance correct. Even with this in mind there are still some blue halos around the blue stars.

I am very happy with the detail though. Strong knots of nebulosity can be seen through the nebula and it has a strong 3D look to it.

Click here for image

comments and critique welcome

[rat156]

Hi Paul,

Nice picture, but it's a bit green?

Those halos around the stars are an artifact of the Ha luminance. I've tried blurring the colour layer, doesn't work. I think the best bet would be to remove the stars, then blend that back into the luminance. Then layer over the top some LRGB stars from shorter exposures (say 30secs). When I did the Eta Carina mosaic, the different scopes for Ha and colour stopped the halos from forming.

Cheers
Stuart

[Paul Haese]

Good man, you picked that one. I have addressed the green as far as I dare go.

The halos though are not on every star, just the blue ones. I followed Gendler's tutorial to the letter. I don't mind them so much only the purists would find them a problem. Quite a tough nebula to work on to reduce halos though.

Thanks for the feedback Stuart.

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Beautiful work Paul.
There's so much detail to explore.

[Hagar (Doug)]

Very nice Paul the detail in the body is great. I like the way you have sharpened and smoothed areas to bring in the 3D effect. Well carried out..
STARS!!!! Fred has the right idea, who needs them.

[gregbradley]

An impressive image Paul. You continue to turn out continually improving and great images. You really are on top of your gear.

Greg.

[allan gould]

Brilliant shot Paul. Love everything about it including the blue halos - makes it different.

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Yeh nice

The nebulosity has that molded plastic look which I am in two minds about whether I like 100% , certainly gives a kinda "solid" look to the nebulosity though........OK..... I like it

The blue halos are nuttin to worry about really

Top image

Mike

[Paul Haese]

Thanks all for the comments.

Doug. I have spent several nights just trying to find the right settings to get my stars good. Not prefect I might add. There is still a tilt or some other cause on the bottom right. I now know it is from the RC or focusor as this problem was not present in my Lagoon shot. With yours I would say it is purely from gjuide parameters. Are you using an OAG? or still using a guide scope?

Mike, like you I am sort of two minds about the plastic look of the image. This image is better than my first couple of processes. The first was almost a brilliant red colour. This version I blended the Ha with every colour in an effort to reduce the halos (which is did for the most part despite there still being some). I am thinking that at some point I will revisit this nebula with the narrow band filters I have and see what can be made of that.

Thanks once again for all your comments.

[Hagar (Doug)]

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

Thanks all for the comments.

Doug. I have spent several nights just trying to find the right settings to get my stars good. Not prefect I might add. There is still a tilt or some other cause on the bottom right. I now know it is from the RC or focusor as this problem was not present in my Lagoon shot. With yours I would say it is purely from gjuide parameters. Are you using an OAG? or still using a guide scope?

.

I am still using a separate guide scope for my guiding. I have fixed the guide scope to the top of the FSQ rather than using guide rings which tend to give some flex at these sort of focal lengths. I have an OAG but haven't yet got it fitted up and working. I have just bought a new 11002M camera and want to fit the whole lot up and test it if ever the clouds clear and I can get some time away from work to get it all working.

[multiweb (Marc)]

I like it! Nice! Loads of details in there. Colors are great too. Beautiful work.

[TrevorW]

Only problem IMO is the framing as surrounding nebula is missing because of this, the central region should be more towards white but overall quite a nice image

"The color of the Omega Nebula is reddish, with some graduation to pink. This color comes from the hot hydrogen gas which is excited to shine by the hottest stars which have just formed within the nebula. However, the brightest region is actually of white color, not overexposed as one might think. This phenomenon is apparently a result of a mixture of emission light from the hottest gas, together with reflections of the bright star light from the dust in this region. The nebula contains a large amount of dark obscuring material, which is obvious in its remarkable features. This matter has been heated by the hidden young stars, and shines brightly in infrared light"

ref SEDS

[seeker372011 (Narayan)]

impressive amount of detail, i like it quite a bit

[Paul Haese]

Taking Mikes and others suggestions I have reprocessed this so that at least it does not look like it is plastic. Well I hope so.

Click Here for image.

I appreciate comments.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

Taking Mikes and others suggestions I have reprocessed this so that at least it does not look like it is plastic. Well I hope so.

Click Here for image.

I appreciate comments.

Yes - even better. I reckon this one is spot on. Colours and details just pop out. Very natural. Excellent repro.

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Neb looks good Paul, I notice the stars are a bit green though..? Ah sigh...colour is such a speciallised art, hey, I often finish with a sky that's a tad too blue in my processing ....

Mike

[Paul Haese]

Thanks guys.

Mike, yes I cannot seem to get the red stars looking orange. I have tried and tried and yet they just seem to stay with that greenish hue. Quite irritating. My other recent work does not have this problem. Totally bizzare.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

I have tried and tried and yet they just seem to stay with that greenish hue.

When nothing works the ultimate green tinge killer is the HLVG plugin for PS. Be careful as it will absolutely kill everything green in your pic but sometime that's what you want. You can blend to taste anyway but it does a very good job in pics such as a the HH for example if you image from a light polluted site and you end up with green gradients everywhere. Give it a twirl.

[Garyh]

Didn`t see the original but what lovely detail Paul! Not plastic at all! Nice details and knots and beaut contrast!
Maybe you can select those greenish stars and do a little channel mixing?
Very nice work but Paul!

[anthony.tony]

Lovely.