For us quite exceptional seeing of 1.5 sec arc most of the night.
We've only done the Prawn in H-alpha before, and were most surprised to find that it is rich in SII while weak in OIII. That is most unusual. Given that both OIII and SII emission require the presence of relatively high vacuum, and very hard UV, but SII emission has the added requirement of the presence of material dredged up from deep in a stellar core, it's hard to think of a good explanation.
The good seeing meant that we've captured lots of very fine filigree dust lanes.
Processing was fun: we used our new Asus 8 megapixel monitor which can display 100% of sRGB, and has a viewing angle of 170 deg, so the picture doesn't change as you move your head around. (We haven't figured out how to make it display its native 10 bit colour depth yet).
One can see why it's called the prawn: general shape, two buggy eyes, and even that groove you get down the back when you remove the vein. But it also looks quite convincingly like a yellow sheep going for a swim in a blue billabong. You can see the head toward bottom left, both front legs, the rump and near hind leg, wet matted fur, and a very sheepish expression.
Green: H-alpha 4hrs, Blue: OIII 3hrs, Red: SII 3hrs. Astrodon 3nM. Aspen CG16M at -30C on 20" PlaneWave CDK on MI-750 fork.
Heaps of detail Mike and Trish. Yes it is interesting that this object contains very low OIII. I imaged this last year and found it to be an interest target to image even with a wide field setup. At some point I think I need to have a go with the RC.
The colour is not really to my personal taste but I know you like to represent the actual levels of gas and so this is I take it how it should really look.
It's just my opinion but honestly that's the nicest colour palatte you've done to date. It's rich, bold and beautiful - not dominated by green - it's just stunning.
Not sure about the sheep though, (or seafood, what were the people who named these things smoking?)
Detail is fantastic and colours are very intriguing - overall very fine art
Stars are a bit funky but that does not interfere with my joyful appreciation of your composition while listening to Beethoven. Well done Mike and Trish!
Thanks very much indeed for the encouragement, and gentle steering.
Paul,
Had a look at your widefield shot. Wow! That is splendid. Makes us want to do a giant mosaic. We've got two overlapping panels now. Only about six or eight more to go.
Nice image M and T. Quite a few "smarties"in the background that need to be cleaned up. I find doing hot and cold pixel rejection when doing my data reject gets rid of most of that but the healing tool in Photoshop clean the rest up if any.
I don't mind the colour personally. I usually dislike green though.
Wow Mike and Trish, been away for a few days and away from internet posting abilities, so I had to decide which of the great images posted I should reply to first....and you won :
The colour palette here really is superb, colorful, vibrant and energising without being garish.The details are also very good - a real hallmarks of your fabulous setup (err?..have I mentioned, that I.....ah ok )
The only things leaving it short of being essentially perfect are the colour noise flecks Greg has already mentioned and the prominent colour removal rings left around stars, by what I assume is your MBJ magenta halo removal feature..?
All in all another enjoyable piece of work from you guys
..and you won 
: 
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