Hi
got about 6 hours (L+RGB) of quality seeing on this - not enough to get a lot of halo, but sufficient for the dust region. It was very pleasing to see some of the bright stellar regions appearing in and around the dust.
Thanks for looking - grateful for any feedback.
Regards Ray
Ray...seriously dude, these last three images of yours are out of this world. To think you are using a el'cheap'o 10" Newt one wonders why one would bother purchasing a $30K long focal length RC, CDK, ODK, RDiK or any other bloody DK you like, with $20K camera and FW on a $20K robotic mount (NB: I would still love any one of those DK's of course )
In all seriousness, I can see that decon was your friend on this one, I can see it but you have still handled it very well. It is clearly your expert use of decon (or similar) that is as much the reason for your spectacular resolution results as anything else, friggin good work fella
Awesome Ray. I'm with Mike. I am consistently blown away by the quality of your images with modest gear. Sensational extraction of performance from your gear. Obviously that is as much a part of our pursuit as image processing is. Tuning our gear to sing.
That is definitely right up there with the best of 5128 I have ever seen. What I really like mor ethan the GX itself is the background field - just beautifully handled.
Weelll... as you asked...the core details look to have been locally sharpened, then heavily smoothed, ending up with a cartoon/posterised look to that region (to my eye at least) ... a minor quibble at best....
But...What a delightful Cent A! ....excellent depth and resolution that is pretty much seeing limited. This is a benchmark image that many will aspire to.
That's nice Ray. Smooth and great detail. Well done.
Hi Paul. thanks very much.
Quote:
Originally Posted by topheart
Well done, a good beginning! I guess you will process it bit more to reveal more when you have a bit more data....what is your plan??
Cheers,
Tim
Thanks Tim. Further data will depend on the weather, but I would be happy to leave as is for now. There are many other targets I want to image and at my age, not much time to do it
Quote:
Originally Posted by strongmanmike
Ray...seriously dude, these last three images of yours are out of this world. To think you are using a el'cheap'o 10" Newt one wonders why one would bother purchasing a $30K long focal length RC, CDK, ODK, RDiK or any other bloody DK you like, with $20K camera and FW on a $20K robotic mount (NB: I would still love any one of those DK's of course )
In all seriousness, I can see that decon was your friend on this one, I can see it but you have still handled it very well. It is clearly your expert use of decon (or similar) that is as much the reason for your spectacular resolution results as anything else, friggin good work fella
Mike
thanks very much Mike. I continue to be amazed at how good this little scope is - a bit rough around the edges maybe, but quite capable of seeing-limited imaging at my site. Fernando also just posted a good image from his similar 250f4.
This image had very little processing. A little deconvolution while linear (or maybe none at all, not sure if this or M104 was the one that didn't need decon) and a moderate amount of local wavelet sharpening around the core after stretching to tighten up small scale detail - I did not mask the stars for this, which makes it a little bit obvious, but the process brought out faint stars better, so it was left that way - might need to rethink that bit.
Quote:
Originally Posted by multiweb
Top shot Ray! Love the colors on this one.
Hi Marc - thanks very much
Quote:
Originally Posted by gregbradley
Awesome Ray. I'm with Mike. I am consistently blown away by the quality of your images with modest gear. Sensational extraction of performance from your gear. Obviously that is as much a part of our pursuit as image processing is. Tuning our gear to sing.
Greg.
thanks Greg. Yes, I have a lot of fun squeezing drops out of recalcitrant EO hardware - I did this sort of stuff professionally for over 40 years and it is great to be able to relax and have fun with it in retirement...
Quote:
Originally Posted by IanP
Of course +1
Thanks Ian
Quote:
Originally Posted by LewisM
That is definitely right up there with the best of 5128 I have ever seen. What I really like mor ethan the GX itself is the background field - just beautifully handled.
Well done.
I hear the Deacon is your friend Mike
Thanks Lewis - appreciate the comments
Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter Ward
Weelll... as you asked...the core details look to have been locally sharpened, then heavily smoothed, ending up with a cartoon/posterised look to that region (to my eye at least) ... a minor quibble at best....
But...What a delightful Cent A! ....excellent depth and resolution that is pretty much seeing limited. This is a benchmark image that many will aspire to.
Nice one
thanks very much for the feedback Peter. I didn't use any smoothing at all on the core - only a little on the regions outside of the halo. The wavelet sharpening routine has some lightweight noise reduction built in, but I had that turned down, so am confident that the smoothness was inherent in the data. The sharpening contributed to the abrupt boundaries of the stars around the core - will modify that process in future, since I agree with you and Mike that it is noticeable.
regards Ray
Last edited by Shiraz; 21-06-2015 at 09:43 AM.
Reason: get rid of some "I"s
Marvellous image Ray. Colours look bang on. May be a little too smooth for my tastes but can't please everyone. I'm enjoying these few images you've posted, I've visited them a few times today. Keep them coming mate.
Marvellous image Ray. Colours look bang on. May be a little too smooth for my tastes but can't please everyone. I'm enjoying these few images you've posted, I've visited them a few times today. Keep them coming mate.
Thanks very much Jase - you helped me earlier on colour issues, so I really appreciate the feedback. Peter also commented that the image looked over smoothed, but I only did a bit of sharpening and didn't use any smoothing at all around the core (apart from a little that is built into the sharpening routine) - the sky was nice and dark and this is pretty much how it was when stacked.
a moderate amount of local wavelet sharpening around the core after stretching to tighten up small scale detail - I did not mask the stars for this, which makes it a little bit obvious, but the process brought out faint stars better, so it was left that way - might need to rethink that bit.
Ah ok, wavelet sharpening seems to have a similar affect to decon on the appearence of the detail, ie it tends to reduce everything to point sources and gives the detail a uniform dotty appearance, this does tend to impart a high res "look" but to me this is not natural (or even real) and stands out very easily, even if one is careful and light handed. The good thing is that the dotty appearance hasn't extended outside the main dust lane area or into the background as is often the case in other more heavily deconed/waveletted images. Of course you have heard all this palava from me before I know and as I said still a great image in all other respects.
Yes, now it looks finished indeed!! I thought the first version was a bit under-processed as there was so much detail obviously hiding in the softer version....this is wonderful, the sharper more pronounced core and the soft smooth outer areas...... wonderful tracking by your scope and good seeing obviously giving tight stars.
Your current version is much much better than my attempt about 5 years ago: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100313.html
Your stars are so much better - more colour, no artifacts and your processing more natural.
(NB: I would still love any one of those DK's of course 
)
