No explanation needed, it's that bloody Running Chicken so many can't see... Except watch out those with astigmatism, the millions of tiny points may look elongated, put ya glasses on or look closely....they aren't
This is a true colour (quicky) image composed using narrowband emission line filter data
Really lovely Mike! I love have you been able to hold the naturalness of the tones within the chicken.
I wonder if capturing some OIII would help fix that with my burning chicken
Great wide field Mike. Much more interesting to get the full thing rather than the usual bits and pieces. Oh yes, the detail and colour are also pretty good, but I suppose that's a given with your posts.
This is gorgeous, Mike! I remember reading an article a while ago, I think it was by Tony Hallas about how to map narrowband colours into RGB, but this is easily the best execution of this process I’ve seen. Do you mind explaining a bit more about how you did it? Although I appreciate that good data helps!
Andrew, while the process is a little more convoluted with a few other tweaking steps, I make separate Ha, OIII and SII processed stacks and an RGB stack, I then blend each NB file into the R, G or B in various proportions to try and get some influence from each, usually the ha into the Red, the OIII and SII into the blue and green..obviously most of the signal comes from Ha but that is how it basically is in a true colour image anyway. I also make a combined SIIHaOIII and blend it in as a partial luminance layer and also use the RGB again to improve star colours. I make several blends until I am happy with the appearance...it's lots of fun..I look like Linguini in Ratatouille while I am going at it .
Certainly a nice rendition. Now boost contrast and pop those giblets! (Bok Globules)
Ah huh! Oui Oui Monsieur
I did do a few contrastier versions but I didn't like the look, bringing out the globules at my image scale and FOV just didn't look right. I was trying to keep it as natural looking and balanced as possible by keeping it bright where it is meant to be bright
Is it just me or are your star colours and star processing improved? The stars look fabulous. A great widefield image, I like it.
Greg.
Hi Greg,
I agree!! That's why I asked Mike about his processing with regards to his recent image....what ever is his finger lickin' recipe currently works a treat!
Cheers guys, thanks for the nice feedback I agree Troy, love the three open clusters framing the chicken and as for my stars, dunno, I think it is just easier to get'em right and glowing with this amazing legendary scope
Steve, this is only my 4th shot of this baby, I did one image of the chickens bum area with the 6" Starfire back in 2007, one of the whole Chicken with the 12" F3.8 and 16803 in 2011 and a close up of the giblets with the 12" F3.8 and H694 in 2015