NGC2070 and LMC (now with colour adjusted)

Paul Haese · #1 10-01-2012, 07:32 PM

During the holidays I undertook another project which I am pretty happy with given the low amount of data collected. The green and blue are comprised of a single sub of 15 minutes each. I am not sure if I will gather more data on this object in the coming month.

What I really like about this field of view is seeing all the nebulosity present within the LMC and also the clusters of stars that can be seen in the arm of the LMC.

I am not sure I have the saturation correct though. It is probably not to everyone's tastes but I went with subtle over my usual saturation standard.

Click here for image.

Critique welcome.

Edit: colour changed.

RickS (Rick) · #2 10-01-2012, 07:49 PM

It's a different look to the usual but I like it, Paul

Bassnut (Fred) · #3 10-01-2012, 08:22 PM

Yes, was expecting thE usuAl, but pops right out, top work for little data, pleasure to view Paul, different.

SkyViking (Rolf) · #4 10-01-2012, 09:01 PM

That's simply superb, I love the colours! Very well done Paul.
It's interesting how the LMC is full of all these bubble shaped nebulae, and in this image they really pop, especially in the bottom half. I wonder if they are mostly old supernova remnants, or if gas dynamics of the LMC differ from our galaxy - I don't think the Milky Way is loaded with 'bubbles' to that degree? Very interesting!

Paul Haese · #5 10-01-2012, 09:29 PM

Thanks guys,

Rick, Fred my thinking here was to offset the nebulae of the region with the population stars of the central bar. A wider field of view would show the bar a lot better I suspect.

Rolf, I don't think I have seen images of those bubbles in the Milkyway either. It would be interesting to find out if they are caused from SN. I do find the whole area quite interesting because of these twists and knots.

marc4darkskies (Marcus) · #6 10-01-2012, 10:12 PM

Certainly is eye catching & different Paul! IMO though, nowhere near enough red. The left half of this field drips Ha signal. But then ... I'm a traditionalist!

Cheers, Marcus

gregbradley · #7 10-01-2012, 10:43 PM

I can get into that one.

I like it.

Greg.

Craig_L · #8 10-01-2012, 11:08 PM

Very nice Paul. Love the composition - nice and clean - unusual for this part of the sky for many images. I like the colours.

Paul Haese · #9 10-01-2012, 11:42 PM

Thanks guys,

I reassessed the Ha signal as Marcus suggested. I made a few comparisons to images on the web and I think this is more in line with other images.

Rigel003 (Graeme) · #10 11-01-2012, 12:07 AM

You have been busy during this cloudy stretch. Nice composition and love fine star fields and the richness of the colour contrasts. To my eye the nebulous bits themselves look a little unnatural, maybe a bit too smoothed out?

strongmanmike (Michael) · #11 11-01-2012, 12:15 AM

It's an amazing field that is always great to image, so much happening all over the place. I agree with Marcus, a little muted in the Ha but then you haven't used a lot of exposure either.

Mike

LightningNZ (Cam) · #12 11-01-2012, 12:16 AM

That's a great look Paul. Very clear and uncluttered looking. I'm really digging the subtle colour use that's been coming up lately. Get a little sick of having my eyes melted by over-saturated colours. Thanks for a refreshing (and beautiful) image.

Cam

gregbradley · #13 11-01-2012, 07:51 AM

That new version is an improvement.

Greg.

atalas · #14 11-01-2012, 09:28 AM

Nice shot Paul.

Although exposure time is low I would expect to see more body in the low to mid range.

This leads me to believe that lower mid range channels are clipped making good color balance and faint structure difficult to achieve....a little noise don't hurt mate.

Paul Haese · #15 11-01-2012, 10:26 AM

Thanks guys,

Graeme, I had this data and was just playing around with it really, and as you quite rightly pointed out it has been cloudy. The weekend is looking promising though. Not much smoothing on this data really.

Cam its probably melting your eyes time now. Colour saturation can be quite tricky and not every one is going to be happy with the results. I do wonder sometimes though what all this really looks like close up.

Louie, you are right, the data was a little clipped. I have addressed that a little since your critique. Being a hater of noise (yes some noise is ok

) I have to be careful to expose some noise sometimes for effect. What do you think now? Same link, different image.

Stevec35 (Steve) · #16 11-01-2012, 10:30 AM

Certainly an unusual view of the LMC Paul but I like it.

Cheers

Steve

TrevorW · #17 11-01-2012, 10:43 AM

Different unusual, I'll reserve my opinion on this one.

iceman (Mike) · #18 11-01-2012, 10:51 AM

Lovely image Paul, the colours really make it pop.

atalas · #19 11-01-2012, 10:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

Thanks guys,

Graeme, I had this data and was just playing around with it really, and as you quite rightly pointed out it has been cloudy. The weekend is looking promising though. Not much smoothing on this data really.

Cam its probably melting your eyes time now. Colour saturation can be quite tricky and not every one is going to be happy with the results. I do wonder sometimes though what all this really looks like close up.

Louie, you are right, the data was a little clipped. I have addressed that a little since your critique. Being a hater of noise (yes some noise is ok

) I have to be careful to expose some noise sometimes for effect. What do you think now? Same link, different image.

Too strong on blue and week on green Paul...something still don't look right in shadows,but this could be due too color balance. Still,I really like the detail in the spider Paul.

Paul,while where talking color,It's interesting note that certain detail can be lost because of too much this or not enough that....not surprising though.

Paul Haese · #20 11-01-2012, 01:25 PM

Louie, yes the green is clipped. Raising the level does push a green caste in the image, perhaps the blue is too strong but other examples of this on the net from prominent astrophotographers show stronger blue representation.

Ha is a great example of where too much of it affects the colour balance of the whole image. I used the Ha for luminence in this image and that is part of the problem with the colour balance in this image.

I will try to refine the balance a little more, any suggestions to control the green without having a green caste?