Well, here it is. My first image from my partially-automated exposed backyard observatory.
This image comprises 20.73 hours of data captured over 23 nights in June, August and September. 10 hours of luminance, and, the rest in red, green and blue data.
It's been a long time coming. I travel 1.5 hours each way to work and back and by the time I get home, I'm so tired I can't even begin to think about processing images. I still have my 8-panel Rho Ophiuchus mosaic data staring at me waiting to be processed. It's going to take me a year to get through it all.
Very happy to see dust surrounding the main dark nebulae. I haven't seen it before (or, if I have, I didn't pay much attention to it). I am hoping that's a result of the ten hours of luminance that has given it some prominence.
Great vista that H, the main dust and reflection neb really look excellent
Lot of work in there mate, great effort
One thing though, I note the bands of what appears to be broad swaths of faint featureless dust on either side of the main nebula, I haven't seen this before and after a scan of several wide field shots of this area couldn't find another image showing it do you think it is real or could it be a processing artifact or maybe flat field issue..?
Beautiful image H. Very detailed and nicely processed. I'd say those features are real. Most examples are shortish exposures and flats wouldn't create a dust colour look, more an uneven look. The dust colour is spot on.
Nice image H. Good colour and lovely field of view.
Re the dust. Do you mean the dark band that travels along the nebula to the left which also encompasses the globular?
I think this is just an absence of dust and hence why it stands out. There is dust over the entire frame in your image and where there is an absence of that dust it stands out.
If on the other hand you are referring to the dust just immediately left and right of the dark dust then, this is a common feature and seen in lots of images, though only those that are deep. It's well seen in my recent image of the area. Though I suspect this is not the dust you are referring about.
When I get a moment, I'll put up the full resolution image.
Quote:
Originally Posted by marc4darkskies
Oh yes! That's a keeper alright! Well done H!!
PS: C'mon now H, let's see the full res!!!
Mike,
Cheers! I initially thought it was dodgy flats, too. But, I used DBE in PixInsight to extract the background in both the RGB and luminance images. It removed the gradient that was there and it's left me with this. Perhaps it is an artefact? I'm not sure. Might need to reprocess and see if it pops up again? Having said that, these same sets of flats have been used on other images that I've been working on and they seem to be void of this... who knows?
Quote:
Originally Posted by strongmanmike
Great vista that H, the main dust and reflection neb really look excellent
Lot of work in there mate, great effort
One thing though, I note the bands of what appears to be broad swaths of faint featureless dust on either side of the main nebula, I haven't seen this before and after a scan of several wide field shots of this area couldn't find another image showing it do you think it is real or could it be a processing artifact or maybe flat field issue..?
Mike
Greg,
Thank you! The colour was largely due to PixInsight's ColorCalibration routine. I selected an area near the globular cluster that I knew was dark and used that for my sky background. I used the entire image as the white reference. It spat the colours out and my jaw dropped.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gregbradley
Beautiful image H. Very detailed and nicely processed. I'd say those features are real. Most examples are shortish exposures and flats wouldn't create a dust colour look, more an uneven look. The dust colour is spot on.
Greg.
Marco,
Thank you! Yes, the framing was a bit serendipitous. I had taken sky flat frames for my colour filters at that particular orientation for my Rho Ophiuchus mosaic and I didn't want to rotate the camera which would have meant taking more sky flats. And, because I was still capturing data for my mosaic, I didn't want to rotate the camera; I'd have to take yet more sky flats.
Quote:
Originally Posted by marco
Lovely wide field of this classic H, the framing is quite particular too, this way it resemble to me an insect of some kind, a fresh perspective
Thank you, so much. I still remember, the first time I imaged this region was with a 200mm lens, and, it was at the Paintball Place. You were there, all those years ago.
Quote:
Originally Posted by atalas
Looks great...good work H!
Paul,
Many thanks!
I was referring to the stuff on the outside of the dark band. I am happy to be corrected if it is processing artefacts (dodgy flats?), but, either way, I'm quite happy with the way this has come out.
The first thing I did when I finished processing was to look your image up to see how the colours matched up. I think it's pretty close.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Haese
Nice image H. Good colour and lovely field of view.
Re the dust. Do you mean the dark band that travels along the nebula to the left which also encompasses the globular?
I think this is just an absence of dust and hence why it stands out. There is dust over the entire frame in your image and where there is an absence of that dust it stands out.
If on the other hand you are referring to the dust just immediately left and right of the dark dust then, this is a common feature and seen in lots of images, though only those that are deep. It's well seen in my recent image of the area. Though I suspect this is not the dust you are referring about.
Thank you! It feels awesome being back in the saddle again.
I might have to start taking my MacBook Pro on the train to start working on Rho Ophiuchus. There's so much data just sitting there looking at me!
Quote:
Originally Posted by RickS
That's a stunner, H! A fitting image for your return.
Cheers,
Rick.
Geert,
Haha! You caught me out! I indeed did want to mosaic this area, but, between this and another project, I ran out of time. So, I decided I would just devote the 20-odd hours to this one panel. As it turns out, it's come out half-decent.
Thank you.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gvanhau
Very nice and a lot of work.
The framing is very particular, as of you were planning a 2 pane mosaic (continuing at the bottom)?
Geert
Peter,
Really appreciate the kind words -- thank you.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PRejto
Bravo! Your dedication has really paid off and the processing I'm sure also took a lot of effort and though. You seem to have nailed it!
Peter
Marc,
Cheers! When is your new scope going to be commissioned?
Quote:
Originally Posted by multiweb
Nailed it. Very deep shot H. Great field. That's dedication.
.
do you think it is real or could it be a processing artifact or maybe flat field issue..?
