This is image was inspired by a NASA APOD from 2018. My version was taken over many moonless nights through late July and early August as a 3 panel mosaic with 6 hours of subs per panel at 2 minutes exposure per sub. I used a Starizona Apex ED reducer on the Esprit 100ED to give me a relatively fast focal ratio of f/3.57 (after I finally got the spacing right!). My result isn't as good as the APOD I emulated but I'm not unhappy with the result.
But if I put on my nitpicking glasses, the highlights of the cluster are blown out, along with highlight detail in the reflection nebula.
Thanks Andy, good point. I was focused on bringing out the dust and wasn't watching what was happening to the highlights. It's difficult to bring out the dust without blowing out the brighter parts. Here is a second revision (also uploaded to astrobin for pixel peeping). Unfortunately the dust doesn't pop as much. Thoughts anyone?
Excellent image, it also confirms the colour profile I have been looking for as well. I have been struggling to find a reference that shows the brownish ting to the dust layer and it appears the SiriL Photometric colour module works great, were as Startools tries to change it. Excellent image once again.
Here is a second revision (also uploaded to astrobin for pixel peeping). Unfortunately the dust doesn't pop as much. Thoughts anyone?
Much improved, but those highlights are still gone.
Can you not mask the highlights in the original stretch or re-stretch again, but less & simply layer the highlight details back in?
Excellent image, it also confirms the colour profile I have been looking for as well. I have been struggling to find a reference that shows the brownish ting to the dust layer and it appears the SiriL Photometric colour module works great, were as Startools tries to change it. Excellent image once again.
Thanks Malcolm,
I use Pixinsight for processing and in particular "Photometric Color Calibration" to try to get the colours right. It seems to work well.
Much improved, but those highlights are still gone.
Can you not mask the highlights in the original stretch or re-stretch again, but less & simply layer the highlight details back in?
Thanks Andy. It took me ages to process and I probably should re-do it right from the beginning but if I'm going to start from scratch all over again that will probably have to wait until next weekend. I use PixInsight exclusively but when it comes to layering Photoshop would be better, especially for this image.
For me this is an excellent image Kevin, well balanced, believable, natural looking and just an all-round "Yeah..that's a great shot" image. The time and considerable effort and dedication shown to collect and put it all together was well worth it and a class image of one of the skies most glorious areas was the result
For me this is an excellent image Kevin, well balanced, believable, natural looking and just an all-round "Yeah..that's a great shot" image. The time and considerable effort and dedication shown to collect and put it all together was well worth it and a class image of one of the skies most glorious areas was the result
I really like that widefield.
It's quite a lot of faint stuff you've captured in that massive fov and the colors and balance are spot on IMHO. Sure the reflection neb and cluster are bright but that's the way it is. That brown dust is super faint so in the context of a widefield who cares.
I really like that widefield.
It's quite a lot of faint stuff you've captured in that massive fov and the colors and balance are spot on IMHO. Sure the reflection neb and cluster are bright but that's the way it is. That brown dust is super faint so in the context of a widefield who cares.
Thanks Marc,
I didn't expect to be able to catch that much dust from my backyard. I thought I'd need to go to a dark site but I'm pleased with how it turned out.
Fantastic image of a fantastic area, as Marc said within the context of the image as a whole, it works.
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Originally Posted by Paul Haese
Superb image, huge scale, great colour and well resolved dust. Composition is excellent too. I really like this.
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Originally Posted by Ryderscope
Excellent result Kevin. A dynamic field worth exploring and revisiting.
Thank you all. I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. I can't take credit for the composition though because I took inspiration from an old APOD which is worth checking out.
