As far as cloudless and moonless goes Sunday night was a corker here in Newcastle (as was last night and tonight I believe?) but t'was a single night for me, in fact not even the whole night - just a 4hr HaOIIIRGB exposure actually.
Apart from the usual crap seeing , all went 100% without a hitch and I grabbed some decent colour data for a change (still only 6X5min each colour but that's enough with this scope) and here is a relatively deep image of the region around the Swan.
As I seem to do these days, this is an RGB balanced image using Ha and OIII data mixed with RGB
A small crop is attached to this post for illustrative purposes but here is:
Hi Mike, congratulations on another great looking image once again. Impressive how much colour you picked up with the relatively short exposure time. I like the 75% res crop the best I think.
I believe I can see what you mean about the seeing, the full res close up is nice but it does look a bit blurry. Do you know what FWHM's you get on a regular basis, and what can you expect in Canberra?
This is one that I'd like to image as well, it's an incredibly bright nebula and surprisingly a bit overlooked. I'm working on a couple of other images at the moment though, so it might have to wait until next season.
Your scope just reveals everything. It would be an amazing instrument at a dark site with good seeing. Even without that you are producing stunning images.
Hi Mike, congratulations on another great looking image once again. Impressive how much colour you picked up with the relatively short exposure time. I like the 75% res crop the best I think.
I believe I can see what you mean about the seeing, the full res close up is nice but it does look a bit blurry. Do you know what FWHM's you get on a regular basis, and what can you expect in Canberra?
This is one that I'd like to image as well, it's an incredibly bright nebula and surprisingly a bit overlooked. I'm working on a couple of other images at the moment though, so it might have to wait until next season.
Thanks Rolf
Arggg the seeing, the seeing, where for art thou seeing
Totally agree with you, I like the 75% version best too, starts to break down after that, nearly didn't post the 100% res version but hey, seeing is somthing indelibly attached to what we do, mine's just nearly indelible ink
FWHM...? don't really look at that, just the amount of real time star dancing around on the screen in both the main scope and the guide scope
We look to have a rural rental property secured at 730m ASL for 6-12 months in dark skies outside Canberra, compared to middle of a city at sea level on the East coast of Australia... so here's hoping
Quote:
Originally Posted by multiweb
Cool shot. I also really like the colors.
Cheers marc
Quote:
Originally Posted by gregbradley
Wow, high impact image Mike.
Your scope just reveals everything. It would be an amazing instrument at a dark site with good seeing. Even without that you are producing stunning images.
Greg.
Cheers Greg, yes it is a remarkable instrument, only really in 2nd gear at the moment too
Yes, if I can get her to experience good seeing - look out
Extensive image Mike. Covers a great more of the field than I have seen before. Colour is ok I guess but maybe a bit red for my taste, however that is your choice. I would have thought given the proximity of golden stars in that field part of the image would have been quite golden, particularly at the top of the image.
I really like the amount of sharp detail in the Omega, however on the outsides I am assuming you used a fair bit of smoothing to control the noise levels. The stars in the surrounding field look a little too blurred to me.
Overall I think it is a lovely image, thanks for posting.
Extensive image Mike. Covers a great more of the field than I have seen before. Colour is ok I guess but maybe a bit red for my taste, however that is your choice. I would have thought given the proximity of golden stars in that field part of the image would have been quite golden, particularly at the top of the image.
I really like the amount of sharp detail in the Omega, however on the outsides I am assuming you used a fair bit of smoothing to control the noise levels. The stars in the surrounding field look a little too blurred to me.
Overall I think it is a lovely image, thanks for posting.
Thanks for the feedback Paul The colour thing is very scientific with me, often referd to as the "as I feel it coming along..that's about right" approach . Actually no, I wouldn't consder that I used a lot of noise reduction at all, just a very mild low pass in Astroart after the stretch, most of the blurring is simply the seeing, it is that bad, the image scale is 1.57"/pix but the seeing is probably 4" (hence why it looks good at 50%) - nottin I can do about that but try my best, The sharpening applied to the main items of interest has probably set a slight sharpness differential across the frame. The 12" F3.8 with the 16803 sucks in the photons so simply doesn't need super long exposures for good smooth results ..I really notice the difference when comparing to my former 6" F8 APO and the KI11002 chip images of teh same things..like chaulk and cheese.
Mike
Quote:
Originally Posted by RickS
Very nice, Mike. You certainly have a formula that works!
Cheers Ricky
Mike
Last edited by strongmanmike; 18-07-2012 at 11:58 AM.
Great field and good detail Mike! Not completely convinced with the colours ... but what the heck! The stars have good colour and look pretty tight to me.
Very good image Mike. You must be bustin' for a dark site.
Yes, indeed I am David, indeed I am
Quote:
Originally Posted by h0ughy
never seen it like that before Mike - nice one and i look forward to the dark site version
Not sure what you mean? I didn't think it was all that different really..? I have gone for a vibrant look and emphasised the red a bit I guess
Quote:
Originally Posted by tilbrook@rbe.ne
Hi Mike,
Great image once again, and such a complicated nebulosity. How did you balance the inner region?
Cheers,
Justin.
Cheers Justin
Just a lot of blending, I think the lttle bit of OIII I collected helped when I added it in the mix..?
Mike
Quote:
Originally Posted by marc4darkskies
Great field and good detail Mike! Not completely convinced with the colours ... but what the heck! The stars have good colour and look pretty tight to me.
Cheers, Marcus
Cheers Marcus, so what's wrong with the colours? I was quite happy with the colour, too vibrant/saturated for you
---Quote (Originally by h0ughy)---
never seen it like that before Mike - nice one and i look forward to the dark site version ---End Quote--- Not sure what you mean? I didn't think it was all that different really..? I have gone for a vibrant look and emphasised the red a bit I guess
Mike i am used to a DSLR red version of this with no star colours - if you getthis from metropolis then you should get a lot better from dark skies
Mike i am used to a DSLR red version of this with no star colours - if you getthis from metropolis then you should get a lot better from dark skies
Actually not sure dark skies will make thaaaat much difference on bright objects like this where much of the depth is in the Ha or OIII, the real benefits of a dark sky will be for very faint extended dusty nebs, distant galaxies and getting good clean RGB that needs little or no gradient work
Well I guess I shouldn't criticize colour balance too much because I frequently get it wrong. This is Jay Gabany's version which most people think is pretty close to the mark. Should add that I've never got it to look like this myself.
Well I guess I shouldn't criticize colour balance too much because I frequently get it wrong. This is Jay Gabany's version which most people think is pretty close to the mark. Should add that I've never got it to look like this myself.
...most people ...would DM agree? I dunno?...then there was that time back in 06 and my M16 at the DM's remember ...which just goes to show, what is right and what is wrong, t'is what people are used to in many cases
, all went 100% without a hitch and I grabbed some decent colour data for a change (still only 6X5min each colour but that's enough with this scope) and here is a relatively deep image of the region around the Swan.
- look out 
...which just goes to show, what is right and what is wrong, t'is what people are used to in many cases 
