The mother of all nebulae - added OIII, see messages for details

[marco (Marco Lorenzi)]

Hi all, I post one picture of an object that will bother most of you, so please be kind with me

It is the perhaps the most imaged nebula of the sky, this time with more than 15 hours of light collected with HaRGB filterset. Here is the link:

http://www.glitteringlights.com/Images/deepsky/13667287_7Mtr58#!i=1735031770&k=xdQ 9RZs&lb=1&s=X3
edit: added OIII data, see message #18

I suggest the view at full resolution. I tried to push the image to show all details and colors of the area, there are some blue and yellow nebulae that I didn't noticed before. I hope to have been able to keep balanced resolution and natural appearance..

Core's details are courtesy of Angus Lau, an amateur that has a dome next to mine in Australia that took the short exposures for me with his TEC180. If you want to know more of his work, his website (very nice) is here:http://anguslau.smugmug.com/

I hope you will like the image, comments and critiques as always are both welcome

Clear Skies
Marco

[multiweb (Marc)]

Best I've seen Marco. Really superb!

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Wow Marco, that's....different?

Certainly very deep

I looked at this for a while including at high res and to me it looks like a bunch of different images all kinda mixed into one

For me the variation in smoothing and sharpening and colour and blur is somewhat unrealistic but at the same time looks quite amazing...this is art baby

I think this may polarise opinions a bit...I think David Malin would positively hate it

Marco Picasso

Yes, Angus has a some great shots on his pages for sure....TEC 180 huh? niiiice

Mike

[h0ughy (David)]

looks a great image. Carnia is larger so it must be daddy
i like the dust and other detail

[Screwdriverone (Chris)]

Geez Marco,

I wouldnt be apologising for posting THAT!

WOW!

Cheers

Chris

[astrospotter (Mark)]

First of all it is an amazing image and great processing (as usual Marco)

Now the question: So why did you leave off OIII???

Not being critical because I too have left off OIII for this object but I have seen in the past your amazing Vela SNR complete with OIII so it leads me to ask this question on such an OIII rich area.

Again, amazing image and range-compressed nicely so as to bring up all the activity all about this wonderful area.

Nice!

Mark Johnston

[mill (Martin)]

Plenty to see in this image and very good detail

[Lester]

Very nice deep view Marco, thanks. Did you image this from within Shanghai? As I presume the light pollution there would be astronomical.

All the best.

[Ross G]

A beautiful photo Marco.

The detail is amazing.

Ross.

[gregbradley]

Oh man that is just soooo good.

Love the colours especially that deep maroon. How do you get that colour from Ha? It must be your blending methods. Its wonderful.

Angus has a TEC180 also. I thought mine was the only one in Aussie.
Tht's good and his images are also spectacular. Obviously the skies there help and must be very very good.

Greg.

[TrevorW]

Nice

[Rigel003 (Graeme)]

Stunning photo, Marco. The stars are so sharp and beautiful colour throughout. It really makes an dramatic impact.

[Kevnool (Kev)]

Superb, Its so good.

Cheers

[marco (Marco Lorenzi)]

Originally Posted by multiweb

Best I've seen Marco. Really superb!

Thanks Marc!

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Wow Marco, that's....different?

Certainly very deep

I looked at this for a while including at high res and to me it looks like a bunch of different images all kinda mixed into one

For me the variation in smoothing and sharpening and colour and blur is somewhat unrealistic but at the same time looks quite amazing...this is art baby

I think this may polarise opinions a bit...I think David Malin would positively hate it

Marco Picasso

Yes, Angus has a some great shots on his pages for sure....TEC 180 huh? niiiice

Mike

I was some how expecting your comment Mike Actually this is not a patchwork, the whole frame is coming from single images with the only exception of the core. What you are noticing (and perhaps finding a bit disturbing ) is the higher resolution (i.e. tighter stars) of the central area, I have been thinking for a while to reduce the resolution of Angus image applying a little gaussian blur, this just to better blend the stars' sizes of the core to the rest of the image, but, hey, I have some high res data for the core, couldn't be so brave to throw this detail away

So Picasso had to trade the perfect blend for the sake of thinner details

Thanks for the comment

Originally Posted by h0ughy

looks a great image. Carnia is larger so it must be daddy
i like the dust and other detail

you are right Houghy, forgot about it, should I change the title to "Queen" otherwise will have to make Carina a transgender Thanks for the appreciation

Originally Posted by Screwdriverone

Geez Marco,

I wouldnt be apologising for posting THAT!

WOW!

Cheers

Chris

Thanks Chris!

Originally Posted by astrospotter

First of all it is an amazing image and great processing (as usual Marco)

Now the question: So why did you leave off OIII???

Not being critical because I too have left off OIII for this object but I have seen in the past your amazing Vela SNR complete with OIII so it leads me to ask this question on such an OIII rich area.

Again, amazing image and range-compressed nicely so as to bring up all the activity all about this wonderful area.

Nice!

Mark Johnston

Thanks Mark! Well, the point about the OIII is quite relevant, also because I actually collected some OIII data (so far a couple ours). I still have to collect some more ( as conditions allow) and than see how to blend it in. However it is very difficult to blens OIII in this area without color shifting the whole nebula.. let me see what can do as have all the OIII available..

Originally Posted by mill

Plenty to see in this image and very good detail

Thanks Mill!

Originally Posted by Lester

Very nice deep view Marco, thanks. Did you image this from within Shanghai? As I presume the light pollution there would be astronomical.

All the best.

Yes mate, form the city center with a limiting magnitude of about 2 and foggy nights Just kidding, image taken from Coonabarabran, usual sky brightness there is around 21.7 mag/"
Thanks for the appreciation!

Originally Posted by Ross G

A beautiful photo Marco.

The detail is amazing.

Ross.

Hi Ross, thank you!

Originally Posted by gregbradley

Oh man that is just soooo good.

Love the colours especially that deep maroon. How do you get that colour from Ha? It must be your blending methods. Its wonderful.

Greg.

Thanks Greg! Blending of Ha was done in PS, 2 layers, one with lighten and another (differently processed) using screen.. Not too bad, even if perhaps a bit too intrusive..

Originally Posted by TrevorW

Nice

Thanks Trevor!

Originally Posted by Rigel003

Stunning photo, Marco. The stars are so sharp and beautiful colour throughout. It really makes an dramatic impact.

Thanks Rigel!

Originally Posted by Kevnool

Superb, Its so good.

Cheers

Thanks Ken, appreciate it!

Marco

[matty84 (Matthew)]

Beautiful work Marco, love the colours good work mate.
Matt

[marco (Marco Lorenzi)]

Originally Posted by matty84

Beautiful work Marco, love the colours good work mate.
Matt

Thanks Matt, appreciate it!

Clear skies
Marco

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Stunning Marco!

It's images like this that make me angry when people tell kids that space is empty!!

Here's more proof that space is FULL!

[marco (Marco Lorenzi)]

I took the suggestion of Mark and tried to add to the image some OIII I had (120m). I was not expecting much, since the brightness of the other data is overwhelming the OIII.. well, I was wrong

In fact the OIII is not contributing at all to the external side of the nebula but it is quite relevant in the core, in particular for all those "floating" gas and dust lanes. I don't actually believe that these details emits predominantly in the ionized Oxygen line, surely however this filter kill the Ha emission and permits a very high contrast of these details that I believe have a green-blue broadband emission.

Below is the version with OIII added:
http://www.glitteringlights.com/Images/deepsky/13667287_7Mtr58#!i=1735031770&k=xdQ 9RZs&lb=1&s=X3

Again, the view at full resolution ("O") permits to see these details at full glory. I am not sure which version is more pleasant in terms of overall color balance, for sure the new one has more details, so I believe I will keep only the latter. What is your thought?

Marco

[RickC (Richard)]

beautiful image Marco, amazing amount of detail
Richard

[LucasB (Lucas)]

Thank you for posting Marco. Always a pleasure to look at your images!
Lucas