Milkyway Project Update

[multiweb (Marc)]

I have since updated my milkyway map with more relevant close-ups and a much nicer background map. It has a lot better resolution as it was show with a 50mm lens opposed to the 18mm original version, so very significant improvement. I've registered and blended the higher resolution part in the center of the original scaffold.

The download is here. [50% size - 6MB] For those how are interested in the 1:1 version it is a big file but it is here. [100% size - 23MB]

Hope you find it useful. I have annoted some of the objects I know but there's probably a lot more in there.

[troypiggo (Troy)]

Mate, you are an imaging machine of late! Love the presentation here.

[CoolhandJo (Paul)]

Awesome !

[Mighty_oz (Marcus)]

Speechless Might as well give up now, that bar is soooooo HIGH. lol
Keep them coming just love your work, speaking of work how do u find the time to do that ? Takes me ages to just get one pic to look so-so.

[telemarker (Keith)]

Sweet. Makes for a really great poster no doubt.
Now, how about a narrow band version.

[beren]

awesome work there Marc well done, cool project

[Tom Davis (Tom)]

That is fantastic! What a wonderful presentation!!

Tom

[Hagar (Doug)]

This is coming up to be a real treat Marc. It looks to be a very professional poster which would look good in any observatory.

Well done. The colour data gives it a real lift.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by troypiggo

Mate, you are an imaging machine of late! Love the presentation here.

Thanks Troy. Yeah I've been in an imaging mood lately. Comes and goes from times of completely not interest to a bit excessive like now.

Originally Posted by CoolhandJo

Awesome !

Thanks Paul.

Originally Posted by Mighty_oz

Speechless Might as well give up now, that bar is soooooo HIGH. lol
Keep them coming just love your work, speaking of work how do u find the time to do that ? Takes me ages to just get one pic to look so-so.

Thanks mate. Not setting anything mate. Just having a lot of fun with those lenses. I hope a lot of you guys get into it and realise how easy it is.

I work from home and I'm self-employed which makes time management very easy. I was able to pick and choose my nights well ahead.

Originally Posted by telemarker

Sweet. Makes for a really great poster no doubt. Now, how about a narrow band version.

Thanks Keith. Well I'm starting to do tricolor in some areas I shot with the 200mm lens so sort of widish close-ups. Still working on the palettes. Not sure if it works yet.

Originally Posted by beren

awesome work there Marc well done, cool project

Thanks for the feedback mate. I'll add as I get better quality data in some parts and sort out the pointers/coals sack area.

Originally Posted by Tom Davis

That is fantastic! What a wonderful presentation!!

Tom

Thanks Tom. Glad you enjoyed it.

Originally Posted by Hagar

This is coming up to be a real treat Marc. It looks to be a very professional poster which would look good in any observatory.

Well done. The colour data gives it a real lift.

Thanks Doug. It's getting closer to a final. When I have it all 100% I'll get it printed and make a file available online for print for whoever wants one.

[DavidU (Dave)]

One word. Magnificent.

[Mighty_oz (Marcus)]

Originally Posted by multiweb

It's getting closer to a final. When I have it all 100% I'll get it printed and make a file available online for print for whoever wants one.

Wow that's real nice of u ! Think this one will have to go up on my wall It's the thing i'd like to do too. this will give me a good guide to aim for.

Marcus

[RobF (Rob)]

Thanks so much again Marc. This is so educational seeing everything in context like this. Next best thing to having a 20" Dob and dark sky ranch for visual cruising while I'm imaging. I just love it all - and hope you'll keep it coming. Still some legends missing on the zoom in images?

[dugnsuz (Doug)]

Wow!!!!

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by DavidU

One word. Magnificent.

Thanks a lot David.

Originally Posted by Mighty_oz

Wow that's real nice of u ! Think this one will have to go up on my wall It's the thing i'd like to do too. this will give me a good guide to aim for.
Marcus

No worries Marcus.

Originally Posted by RobF

Thanks so much again Marc. This is so educational seeing everything in context like this. Next best thing to having a 20" Dob and dark sky ranch for visual cruising while I'm imaging. I just love it all - and hope you'll keep it coming. Still some legends missing on the zoom in images?

Thanks for the feedback Rob. Yeah I haven't got legends for all the inserts. I was thinking of having some kind of basic RA/DEC grid on the big map if that's possible to have that as a reference but there woud be some serious distortion. I have most of all the small inserts already platesolved here so maybe it's best to have the RA/DEC grid in the smaller fields?

I have no idea what would work best in practice. I mean the map and inserts are visually pretty and sort of functional for a basic lookup. Maybe have the RA/DEC info for the center of each insert in a caption next to its title? What do you guys reckon?

Ultimately this will go on line as a flash scrollable map and a white areas will be zoomable areas to the bigger fields which in turn will be platesolved and further zoomable so I have some kind hierarchy happening. Like a multilevel structure that will allow you deeper in the tree only if the field/DSO is available as a child in the database tree. I'll have it database driven so it will be very easy to maintain (or search) and add to as a resource even unrelated overlapping fields. I just need to find a good generic display system, recursive for lack of a better word that will work seamlessly on all levels and display a pretty layout regardless of how deep you search. Doing the main layout flat like this is good prototyping so I can work out spatial arrangement before coding the levels and the whole thing.

[RobF (Rob)]

I was almost going to ask if you'd eventually do a multimedia version. Would Zoomify help at all? Your knowledge WAY ahead of mine on such things.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by RobF

I was almost going to ask if you'd eventually do a multimedia version. Would Zoomify help at all?

Zoomify relies on breaking the highres picture in different tiles to render in the flash player. So you need to pre-process each high-res shot. Photoshop does that by creating directories filled with pictures for each (discreet) zoom level. The flash player renderer interpolates the transitions between the levels. I'll certainly work out some zooming levels but I don't think I'll use zoomify. It creates far too many files for each DSO and you end up with a storage problem not mentioning maintenance.

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Looking very cool Marc

Mike

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by dugnsuz

Wow!!!!

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Looking very cool Marc

Mike

Thanks a lot guys.

[gregbradley]

That's a big effort there Marc, well done.

Greg.

[Paul Haese]

Nice presentation Marc. I think the format works well.