The Constellation of Scorpius

Octane (Humayun) · #1 21-07-2009, 01:34 AM

Hi all,

This is the first image I have taken since November, 2007, and, also probably the worst. But, it's good to be posting something new for the first time in over 1.5 years.

It was taken up at the Pony Club on Saturday night. First light for both the G-11 and my modified 40D (thanks, Eric).

I experienced all the woes, trials and tribulations on Saturday night, that comes with playing with new equipment for the first time. Levelling, balance, polar alignment, et. al., were a major pain in the you-know-what, but, towards the later part of the evening, things started to come good. Thanks go to Geoff (gmb_filter), Deeno and Andrew (Rocket Boy) for assisting me with my equipment.

I only managed 1 hour and 40 minutes as the bottom of the frame started to sink below the trees (thank you, sigma-kappa stacking for removing the trees). I am not impressed with my framing; the constellation should have sat higher up in the composition, however, I did manage to capture M8 and M20, so, that was a bit of a bonus.

The skyglow gradient was pretty bad, but, IRIS handled it well, with some minor work having to be carried out in Photoshop.

Anyway, enough rambling.

Read and view here.

Please be gentle.

Regards,
Humayun

glenc (Glen) · #2 21-07-2009, 05:14 AM

It shows all the nebulae well Humayun.

Alchemy (Clive) · #3 21-07-2009, 06:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Octane

Hi all,

This is the first image I have taken since November, 2007,

Please be gentle.

Regards,
Humayun

crikeys, i see you around all the time and didnt realize you hadnt been imaging......

lots of detail, i can clearly see the cats paw , all of the ophiuchus nebula, plus banding throughout the milky way.

nicely done Humayun, i hope its not another year before we see some more

gentle regards

clive

sheeny (Al) · #4 21-07-2009, 06:42 AM

That's a wonderful image, H!

Superb exposure and dynamic range.

Al.

dugnsuz (Doug) · #5 21-07-2009, 08:09 AM

Beautiful image - I love this one.
Images as wide as this can be difficult beasts to tame - you've done a great job with it.
Doug

jjjnettie (Jeanette) · #6 21-07-2009, 08:26 AM

It's a lovely BIG wide field.
And thanks for providing so much info on the capture and processing.

telecasterguru (Frank) · #7 21-07-2009, 08:57 AM

Fantastic work and wonderful processing.

Frank

leon · #8 21-07-2009, 09:02 AM

Wow H, that is spectacular,

nice shooting mate,

and all those stars, super shot.

Leon

toryglen-boy (Duncan) · #9 21-07-2009, 09:44 AM

Thats a great image fella, maybe you could put that, with some others to music, and show it at the next meeting ...

Jeffkop (Jeff) · #10 21-07-2009, 09:54 AM

Take it straight to the poolroom !!!!!

Great photo ... Fantastic !!!

Tamtarn · #11 21-07-2009, 10:39 AM

What a great comeback Humayan.

Having lost your years of data recently you must be "over the moon " to get back to deep sky imaging.

This is a stunning image and the composition as always is great.

More please

h0ughy (David) · #12 21-07-2009, 12:49 PM

Humayun, please dont take this the wrong way, BUT I feel as though there is a large proportion of gradient within the image from the lower right to the upper left. What you have captured is a ripper of an image with the colours of Scorpio and other nebulae’s, the dark lanes are there but I fear they are washed out a little by the gradient. I might be wrong, probably I am (must be medication time). Keener eyes than mine might interject here. I think it’s all there – just needs to be tweaked a little more.

TrevorW · #13 21-07-2009, 01:00 PM

I can see a darker background region at top left as compared to bottom right however I don't think IMO this really detracts from the overall image quality.

Well done

Benno85 (Ben) · #14 21-07-2009, 01:04 PM

Cracking image that, puts all of my efforts to shame

Well done!!!!!!

multiweb (Marc) · #15 21-07-2009, 02:18 PM

Yeah very nice. Colours are great. Good pic to swim around.

even see Jase's APOD on the lower right

Tom Davis (Tom) · #16 21-07-2009, 02:34 PM

What a vista! Beautiful!

Tom

mexhunter (César) · #17 21-07-2009, 02:41 PM

That's a very nice picture.
Congratulations!!!
Many grettings
Cesar

renormalised (Carl) · #18 21-07-2009, 02:49 PM

Damn nice widefield that!!!

Imperfections or not, I'd be happy with that

Nebs are a treat

sjastro · #19 21-07-2009, 03:09 PM

Very fine wide field Humayun.

Regards

Steven

Octane (Humayun) · #20 21-07-2009, 03:22 PM

Cheers, Glen! Took a little bit of coaxing with some slight saturation adjustment to make the red pop a little bit more.

Quote:

Originally Posted by glenc

It shows all the nebulae well Humayun.

Thanks, Clive. Appreciate the gentle regards.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alchemy

crikeys, i see you around all the time and didnt realize you hadnt been imaging......

lots of detail, i can clearly see the cats paw , all of the ophiuchus nebula, plus banding throughout the milky way.

nicely done Humayun, i hope its not another year before we see some more

gentle regards

clive

Al, thanks, mate. Glad you like it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sheeny

That's a wonderful image, H!

Superb exposure and dynamic range.

Al.

I've been really lucky with my widefield's Doug, they have been rather fun to process. Thanks!

Quote:

Originally Posted by dugnsuz

Beautiful image - I love this one.
Images as wide as this can be difficult beasts to tame - you've done a great job with it.
Doug

Jeanette, glad you like it, too! 24mm is a pretty wide field. I'd love to give this a go on the 5D Mark II, it'd be even bigger, albeit without the pretty red stuff.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jjjnettie

It's a lovely BIG wide field.
And thanks for providing so much info on the capture and processing.

Thanks, Frank!

Quote:

Originally Posted by telecasterguru

Fantastic work and wonderful processing.

Frank

Thanks so much, Leon.

It was so good to be back out under the stars, and, am so happy that despite the problems encountered on the night, I managed to capture one or two photons.

Quote:

Originally Posted by leon

Wow H, that is spectacular,

nice shooting mate,

and all those stars, super shot.

Leon

Cheers, Duncan. Did you like my slideshow?

I would need a lot of images to put together another slideshow. I've lost the originals of all my prior work in a hard drive crash, and, only have the web resolution JPGs scattered about the place.

Quote:

Originally Posted by toryglen-boy

Thats a great image fella, maybe you could put that, with some others to music, and show it at the next meeting ...

Jeff, thanks! I will prepare an 18x12" print at some stage.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeffkop

Take it straight to the poolroom !!!!!

Great photo ... Fantastic !!!

Thanks, Barb and David. I am literally jumping for joy that I've made a new image! Looking forward to getting out and doing some more as time permits.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tamtarn

What a great comeback Humayan.

Having lost your years of data recently you must be "over the moon " to get back to deep sky imaging.

This is a stunning image and the composition as always is great.

More please

David, I think you're right about there still being residual gradient even after letting IRIS have its way with the data, as well as my own masking in Photoshop. Admittedly, I did pass some very mild arguments to IRIS' gradient removal command. Perhaps it's something I can go back to and massage a bit further in pre-processing. I found that if I pushed the gradient removal layer in Photoshop any more, then it kind of made the bottom right of the image a bit darker and really screwed around with the already sort-of-OK composition. It might also have something to do with the fact that Scorpius was pretty low in the sky. It also needs a lot more exposure, too.

I appreciate the constructive criticism, and, so can not take your comments in a negative light.

Quote:

Originally Posted by h0ughy

Humayun, please dont take this the wrong way, BUT I feel as though there is a large proportion of gradient within the image from the lower right to the upper left. What you have captured is a ripper of an image with the colurs of Scorpio and other nebulae’s, the dark lanes are there but I fear they are washed out a little by the gradient. I might be wrong, probably I am (must be medication time). Keener eyes than mine might interject here. I think it’s all there – just needs to be tweaked a little more.

Trevor, you're right about the top left being darker -- it was also higher in the sky. I did darken it a little bit in Photoshop, but, I may have gone a teeny weeny bit overboard. Not to worry, as I'll be redoing this area again at some stage, no doubt. Thanks for the compliment!

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrevorW

I can see a darker background region at top left as compared to bottom right however I don't think IMO this really detracts from the overall image quality.

Well done

Ben, cheers, mate. Don't be discouraged by what you see. I am a newbie, too. I will always, however, push what I have (camera, lenses, telescope, mount, and data) to the limit. Keep imaging and keep learning. There's no stopping in this obsessive hobby.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Benno85

Cracking image that, puts all of my efforts to shame

Well done!!!!!!

Cheers, Marc. lol, I should take Jase's image and overlay it on my own Rho Ophiuchus region and then tell people to zoom in.

Quote:

Originally Posted by multiweb

Yeah very nice. Colours are great. Good pic to swim around.

even see Jase's APOD on the lower right

Coming from you, Tom, that means a lot.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tom Davis

What a vista! Beautiful!

Tom

Cesar, thank you, mate! Glad you like it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mexhunter

That's a very nice picture.
Congratulations!!!
Many grettings
Cesar

Thank you everyone!

Regards,
Humayun