The mother of all nebulae - added OIII, see messages for details

[marco (Marco Lorenzi)]

Originally Posted by AstroAussie

Thank you for posting Marco. Always a pleasure to look at your images!
Lucas

Thanks Lucas

Originally Posted by RickC

beautiful image Marco, amazing amount of detail
Richard

Thanks to you too Richard..

Regards
Marco

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Hey Marco, had a long look at the full res version at your web site last night...and I have to say it has kind of grown on me ...it really is quite an amazing shot, different (bit like Rogelio's images)..... but still rather amazing

Mike

[marco (Marco Lorenzi)]

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Hey Marco, had a long look at the full res version at your web site last night...and I have to say it has kind of grown on me ...it really is quite an amazing shot, different (bit like Rogelio's images)..... but still rather amazing

Mike

Thanks Mike, I do agree it is somehow different than the classical look, to be honest I waited a bit before posting because I too had a mixed feeling with it, was happy about the details but was not sure if the overall look would have been appreciated or not. Eventually opted for keep it, at least I thought it was an interpretation of a classic more personal, kind of M42 remixed

Happy you like it mate

Marco

[allan gould]

The OIII data has added to the image and like Mike I'm coming around to a better appreciation of what you have done. It's bold to step away from the conventional and it's made a sparkling original image of something well trodden.

[iceman (Mike)]

Amazing image, stunning work Marco.

[Stevec35 (Steve)]

A treat to look at Marco - well done

Steve

[marco (Marco Lorenzi)]

Originally Posted by allan gould

The OIII data has added to the image and like Mike I'm coming around to a better appreciation of what you have done. It's bold to step away from the conventional and it's made a sparkling original image of something well trodden.

Thanks Allan, I am glad you like it! Sure stepping out the usual path is sometime a risk, as not always the result is appreciate (and appreciable!)..

Originally Posted by iceman

Amazing image, stunning work Marco.

Thanks Mike!

Originally Posted by Stevec35

A treat to look at Marco - well done

Steve

Thanks Steve, now this can be a teaser for you to squeeze your new FSQ and get a deep larger field of it

Clear skies
Marco

[gregbradley]

Still looking very good. Not sure how different it is as I don't fully remember the first version. But I think its got a bit more bluish grey whispy detail separate from the maroony red neb.

I got that you use Ha as red in lighten and also screen. Screen mode makes the reds brighter but that doesn't give you the deep maroon.
Do you use selective colour to add magenta to the red to bring out that deep maroon?

I was planning a deeper shot of M42 with an almost identical setup of the AP140/PL16803. It would be almost identical although I think the AP is a tad longer focal length.

Greg.

[marco (Marco Lorenzi)]

Originally Posted by gregbradley

I got that you use Ha as red in lighten and also screen. Screen mode makes the reds brighter but that doesn't give you the deep maroon.
Do you use selective colour to add magenta to the red to bring out that deep maroon?

I was planning a deeper shot of M42 with an almost identical setup of the AP140/PL16803. It would be almost identical although I think the AP is a tad longer focal length.

Greg.

Hi Greg, I didn't use any selective color. I believe you are referring to the color of dust areas. That is coming completely from the RGB data. In fact the Ha only added the "glowing" red in the background, I applied it as pure red. OIII is not contributing at all to the background (basically it only contributes to the core). All other colors you see (brown, green, blue etc) are coming from the deep RGB. If you interested in the processing, from the assembled RGB did it most of it in PI: background neutralization, DBE, color calibration, histogram transformation, HDR wavelet, multiscale sharpening and noise reduction.
Than moved to PS, enhanced the saturation (Lab curves), blended in the RGB core data (processed apart with PI in the same way), added the Ha and OIII (lighten+screen, setting the hue as Ha=255 and OIII=195) and than some final (very minor) retouching. I would say >70% was in PI and remaining in PS. I am still learning how to use Pixinsight at full power, for sure this package makes a lot of thing easier and faster than Photoshop..

I would expect you get very similar data than mine with your setup, scale difference would be very little. What would actually make a big improvement is using your TEC180 and do a mosaic of the area with higher resolution and deeper details..

Clear skies
Marco

[gregbradley]

Thanks Marco.

I saw a post on the TEC group where Percy Mui managed to make an adapter to fit his AP155TCC (a really high quality reducer/corrector - one of the best anywhere) to his TEC160FL.

I am thinking of making one. It probably would fit on the TEC140 as well.
That would give you F5.25 with perfect stars to the corners of a PL16803.

Greg.

Originally Posted by marco

Hi Greg, I didn't use any selective color. I believe you are referring to the color of dust areas. That is coming completely from the RGB data. In fact the Ha only added the "glowing" red in the background, I applied it as pure red. OIII is not contributing at all to the background (basically it only contributes to the core). All other colors you see (brown, green, blue etc) are coming from the deep RGB. If you interested in the processing, from the assembled RGB did it most of it in PI: background neutralization, DBE, color calibration, histogram transformation, HDR wavelet, multiscale sharpening and noise reduction.
Than moved to PS, enhanced the saturation (Lab curves), blended in the RGB core data (processed apart with PI in the same way), added the Ha and OIII (lighten+screen, setting the hue as Ha=255 and OIII=195) and than some final (very minor) retouching. I would say >70% was in PI and remaining in PS. I am still learning how to use Pixinsight at full power, for sure this package makes a lot of thing easier and faster than Photoshop..

I would expect you get very similar data than mine with your setup, scale difference would be very little. What would actually make a big improvement is using your TEC180 and do a mosaic of the area with higher resolution and deeper details..

Clear skies
Marco

[marc4darkskies (Marcus)]

An outstanding image Marco! Very striking!

Cheers, Marcus