Can you see the baby octopus with blue eyes staring at you?
IC 4685 is often overlooked by astrophotographers in favour of it's more famous neighbour, M8.
The signature dark river, (upper centre, B303) is very cool.
When stars form, pandemonium reigns. Visible above are red glowing emission nebulas of hydrogen, blue reflection nebulas of dust, dark absorption nebulas of dust, and the stars that formed from them. The first massive stars formed from the dense gas will emit energetic light and winds that erode, fragment, and sculpt their birthplace. And then they explode. The resulting morass can be as beautiful as it is complex. After tens of millions of years, the dust boils away, the gas gets swept away, and all that is left is a naked open cluster of stars. (text- apod)
Very challenging to image from light pollutionville, I had to use several advanced PS masking and layering techniques to create this final image.
Might have finally put a decent sized band-aid on the tilt in the system as well
Yep, an enjoyable image Andy but don't talk to me about tilt!! It's the bane of my existence!
Colour & composition look great! I'm going to have to comment on the overly smooth look though. I think there could be some tonal detail missing in at least 1274 and 4685 and you've got a bit of noise in there too in the darker star fields. I hope that isn't being too picky - at low res it's a very pretty image. I'm basing my opinion on other renditions including my own LRGB from 2010.
Last edited by marc4darkskies; 17-07-2020 at 08:16 PM.
A very fine effort from such light-polluted skies.
This has all the punch that was missing from my recent DSLR effort & is a reminder of what to aspire to. Very cool.
Very cool shot. Beaute colors. There is still a bit of funky stuff happening with your background stars but that must be processing induced.
Cheers Marc, what can I say? One can only process out so much LP from class 6 Bortle skies
Quote:
Originally Posted by marc4darkskies
Yep, an enjoyable image Andy but don't talk to me about tilt!! It's the bane of my existence!
Colour & composition look great! I'm going to have to comment on the overly smooth look though. I think there could be some tonal detail missing in at least 1274 and 4685 and you've got a bit of noise in there too in the darker star fields. I hope that isn't being too picky - at low res it's a very pretty image. I'm basing my opinion on other renditions including my own LRGB from 2010.
Hey thanks Marcus - not making excuses but the detail is there on the Ha but when blending and looking for an image to "pop", some of it was masked by the red hue depending on how much luminosity is applied, it then became a compromise between gaseous appearance and hard detail, or aesthetics & science if you prefer.
However, at your suggestion, I've selectively re-layered the Ha back over the top as Lum, and it has made a significant difference in those regions - Thanks! Edited Image
I also incorporated your critique from my last image - when you suggested using Lum to reduce noise - which helped enormously as I'm not under pristine dark skies here!
Anyway, I'm slowly learning to control Lp & working in HaLRGB so I'm pretty happy with this result from light pollutionville.
BTW, your image was in my top three when I pulled up reference images for processing this image!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Placidus
Immediately saw the (blue-ringed) octopus. BigToe will never look the same again.
Superbly photographed.
Stay safe down there.
Ha Ha, cheers Mike - thank my 11 y/o son for spotting octobaby first!
Quote:
Originally Posted by LewisM
That switch to Takahashi (FINALLY!) sure has done you well...
Cheers Lewis, almost there now I've just learned of Testar in Sydney - they have an optical test bench & can re-collimate Taks if the entire lens cell is tilted, which is I suspect the case here.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Retrograde
A very fine effort from such light-polluted skies.
This has all the punch that was missing from my recent DSLR effort & is a reminder of what to aspire to. Very cool.
Thanks very much for your encouragement Pete! I worked really hard on this one to get this result from my location - it's much better than my previous efforts - cheers
... Hey thanks Marcus - not making excuses but the detail is there on the Ha but when blending and looking for an image to "pop", some of it was masked by the red hue depending on how much luminosity is applied, it then became a compromise between gaseous appearance and hard detail, or aesthetics & science if you prefer.
However, at your suggestion, I've selectively re-layered the Ha back over the top as Lum, and it has made a significant difference in those regions - Thanks! Edited Image
I also incorporated your critique from my last image - when you suggested using Lum to reduce noise - which helped enormously as I'm not under pristine dark skies here!
Anyway, I'm slowly learning to control Lp & working in HaLRGB so I'm pretty happy with this result from light pollutionville.
Ah yes, nice! That looks much better Andy! The detail definitely pops more now so the image as a whole is much more compelling! There's no doubt that when incorporating Ha as luminance, it's very tricky to get the best from both the Lum and the Ha data without one swamping the other. My version was straight LRGB so it was much easier to process.
BTW, anyone who skips doing Lum for a colour image - even under dark skies - is mad unless their camera is one of those magical ones which doesn't produce any dark current & readout noise!
One tip I'd also share more generally is look at your master stack for each channel separately. Properly aligned you can blink between them to see where your colour & luminance detail is coming from. EG: If you see good blue signal somewhere that's not in your processed colour image then you know you've done something wrong and you need to either find the error or work the blue data back in (probably via masking).
Anyway, I'm starting to ramble. Thanks for taking my critiques in the spirit they're given - trying to help!
Fine work Andy. In lieu of on octopus I see a strange fish with a blue eye and a knobby jaw
Ha ha, Pareidolia rules again!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bart
Very nice Andy, lovely rich colour and golden stars!
Nearly as good as mine!
Cheers Bart, perhaps one day I'll get up to your image standards
Quote:
Originally Posted by pkinchington
Good one Andy. I am trying to get some blue back into my eta carina shot - Your blue looks great.
Cheers Peter
Cheers Peter, was not easy but I got there eventually!
Quote:
Originally Posted by marc4darkskies
Ah yes, nice! That looks much better Andy! The detail definitely pops more now so the image as a whole is much more compelling! There's no doubt that when incorporating Ha as luminance, it's very tricky to get the best from both the Lum and the Ha data without one swamping the other. My version was straight LRGB so it was much easier to process.
BTW, anyone who skips doing Lum for a colour image - even under dark skies - is mad unless their camera is one of those magical ones which doesn't produce any dark current & readout noise!
One tip I'd also share more generally is look at your master stack for each channel separately. Properly aligned you can blink between them to see where your colour & luminance detail is coming from. EG: If you see good blue signal somewhere that's not in your processed colour image then you know you've done something wrong and you need to either find the error or work the blue data back in (probably via masking).
Anyway, I'm starting to ramble. Thanks for taking my critiques in the spirit they're given - trying to help!
Thanks again Marcus, appreciate the constructive critique
Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter Ward
I have nothing meaningful to add, that has not been mentioned by other AP Sensei like Marcus.
It's a very good rendition. Nice one
Thanks Peter n- perhaps I should have entered it in the Malins, all my entries bombed this year!
Fantastic image Andy. I have always enjoyed your astro-images, but the last few in particular are a testimony of your skills as an outstanding astrophotographer. Please keep them coming
Really really well done on nailing the optical alignment - something I am still fine-tuning myself.
You should be very happy with that Andy, looks lovely .
Once again, it shows pretty clearly that good true colour shots can indeed be taken under big city skies. Hitting the brighter targets and utilising narrow band data to augment the RGB helps a lot of course. That said and certainly when it comes to fainter and more diffuse stuff like molecular dust and faint galaxy arms or outer halos etc, dark skies still rule .
So much so, I have changed my (first light) target from M8 to IC4685 (It is in my small window between the trees).
Then I can use your image as a reference :-)
And I love octopus...
Good job!
Cheers Peter, delighted to have inspired you with this little image
Mmm Octopus I once accidentally caught one on a line at Kangaroo Island - huge one it was too! Froze it in milk and brought it back to Melbs where a greek buddy of mine taught me how to BBQ it, then dip into olive oil, soaked with oregano, garlic & lemon juice - Yummo!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Slawomir
Fantastic image Andy. I have always enjoyed your astro-images, but the last few in particular are a testimony of your skills as an outstanding astrophotographer. Please keep them coming
Really really well done on nailing the optical alignment - something I am still fine-tuning myself.
Cheers Suavi, wish you were judging Astro photo comps!
Quote:
Originally Posted by strongmanmike
You should be very happy with that Andy, looks lovely .
Once again, it shows pretty clearly that good true colour shots can indeed be taken under big city skies. Hitting the brighter targets and utilising narrow band data to augment the RGB helps a lot of course. That said and certainly when it comes to fainter and more diffuse stuff like molecular dust and faint galaxy arms or outer halos etc, dark skies still rule .
Nice work.
Mike
Cheers Mike! Yes, I dream of dark sky imaging again - even pre Covid-19 I only managed a few trips way each year
That said, thanks to good advice from the likes of yourself, Marcus, Peter W. etc I'm using this challenging time to lift my 'LRGB imaging under LP skies' game to a whole new level.
...and attempting to rectify my frustrating tilt issue!
There is still a bit of funky stuff happening with your background stars but that must be processing induced.
.
- even pre Covid-19 I only managed a few trips way each year 
