The Guardian of Forever

[Andy01 (Andy)]

Hey there folks,

Here we have NGC 3532 & NGC 3503, very near their much more famous and well documented neighbour the Eta Carina Nebula (NGC 3372).

When doing my research, it appears that there are very few HaLRGB type images of this composition online, less than half a dozen anyway.

As you know, it's a beautiful cluster to observe visually, but much more challenging to do it justice in a photograph!

I've taken this from my backyard with the little SV70T, during an unprecedented run of 5 clear nights during new moon.

(Physically taxing too as this meant meridian flipping at 3:30am each night by hand, who needs sleep anyway!)
This started off as straight narrowband, but while there is plenty of Ha, there is less O3 & S2, not really enough to make a balanced HST palatte image anyway.

So I've included the IDAS filter into the image train and attempted to blend all of the NB data with LRGB from light pollutionville at home in Melbourne's eastern suburbs.

Ha 8hrs - 30min subs
O3 4hrs
S2 4hrs

LRGB 6x20min subs ea = 4hrs
total Integration time 20hrs.

I was inspired to try LRGB from home by Peter Ward's marvellous Malin award winning Carina image from inner Sydney.

Processing the the LRGB was an interesting challenge to bring back the star colours, even when using the IDAS filter, so lots of photoshop technique was used here, any tips Peter?

I then added back the Ha, to make HaRRGB, then blended back in the O3 & S2 using traditional HST mapping for those two, borrowing techniques from both Starizona and Marco Lorenzi.

Finished off with NIK filters for overall colour aesthetics and seasoned to taste.

Big one HERE

Can't help but think it reminds me of the "Guardian of Forever" from the original Star Trek series episode, when Bones gets lost on earth during the depression, only to be rescued by Joan Collins who then of course falls in love with Kirk. All in all a great episode!

Thanks for looking, comments welcome!

Andy

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Andy, I love what you've done with the nebulosity - had no idea it was there at all. A very interesting image, nice composition, and a fresh approach.

Only comment is that all the stars have come out blue-white. Normally no objection to that, do it myself all the time with NB images. But this cluster is unusually rich in interestingly coloured stars, as is the field as a whole, and you do have RGB data on them. Is it possible to selectively replace the stars with RGB? The technique I would use would be to create a star mask, and use the straight LRGB wherever there is a star.

[Atmos (Colin)]

I don't think I've ever really seen the nebulosity around the Wishing Well cluster, wonderful image Andy!
Actually kinda surprised you haven't switched a colour channel or something to add someAndy flair

[Andy01 (Andy)]

Originally Posted by Placidus

Only comment is that all the stars have come out blue-white. But this cluster is unusually rich in interestingly coloured stars.

Thanks for the feedback M&T, it's nice to find a new subject that came up surprisingly well.

I don't have the original LRGB files here at home, so I've run a couple of actions over the image to shrink the stars & boost their colour a little.

Quite tricky this LRGB from Light Polluted suburbs business - I've done some reading that suggests once colours are filtered out with the IDAS filter, that's it, they're gone and no amount of PS trickery will recover them.
That said, Annie's Action - "boost star colours" does make a difference.

Revised version at the same link HERE

Originally Posted by Atmos

I don't think I've ever really seen the nebulosity around the Wishing Well cluster, wonderful image Andy!

Actually kinda surprised you haven't switched a colour channel or something to add someAndy flair

Thanks Colin, yes all the nebulosity present here surprised me as well - I was very keen to try something new so I'm delighted that you like it too!

I used Marco Lorenzi's wonderful image HERE as a reference.
There are very few others on the web that I could find and as mentioned, there's not really enough O3 & S2 to go nuts on the Andification

[markas (Mark)]

I am amazed at what you've got here from Melbourne - I've pretty much given up on it! At my home the SQM reading is 18.5 on a good night regardless of moon phase...

I also admire being conscious at 3.30 am

All in all a great result!

Mark

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Interesting piece of sky Andy, cool view I think the cluster and stars in this case do need to be represented as naturally RGB as possible though to make the image really shine.

Mike

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

Love it Andy well done!

[Andy01 (Andy)]

Hi folks,
Still having a really long run of cloudy weather over SE Australia so it's back to reprocessing recent data to keep myself sane.

Managed to pull out heaps more Ha detail and re-did the stars from scratch per input & comments given above.

Hope you'll agree it's an improvement

HighRes HERE

Cheers
Andy

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

We realized that were only looking at this cluster through Napoleon, our 16" DOB, on the night of the new moon, since Alexander (the 20" Planewave) had indigestion.

The nebulosity that you have so admirably captured, and of which we were unaware, must be faint compared with Eta or Gabriela Mistral, for example, which are really obvious in Napoleon.

Well done on several counts!

[Andy01 (Andy)]

Originally Posted by Placidus

We realized that were only looking at this cluster through Napoleon, our 16" DOB, on the night of the new moon, since Alexander (the 20" Planewave) had indigestion.

The nebulosity that you have so admirably captured, and of which we were unaware, must be faint compared with Eta or Gabriela Mistral, for example, which are really obvious in Napoleon.

Well done on several counts!

Thanks M&T, there's a surprising amount of Ha related targets out there that are rarely imaged. One just needs a reference to know where to look.

[topheart]

A very good take on this object Andy...I really like it!
Cheers,
Tim