Pillars of Creation - in Technicolour/Hubble comparison
Well, bored and thinking, man I really wanna finish this image and while I wasn't planning on using it for anything but colouring the stars (if that!), I decided to have a crack and used the sadly rather sorry and soft RGB collected on Thursday night and pinched some old (and also under par but not as bad as the RGB) SII and OIII data, I had collected on this area in the past....aaaand after a lot of fiddling, I managed to hack something together - a reasonably faithful original Hubble palette (with a bit more blue )...and while I had started this exercise just for a bit of fun, surprisingly, I was quite happy with the end result really.. ...so here'tis
I was keen to get a good amount of SII and OIII, hopefully in similar conditions to the Ha and was/am planning this for next New Moon (?)... I really should because it should improve the image further.
Very clear and sharp and I like HST+blue palette. It'll be interesting to see what better SII and OIII data does for this already very nice image.
Mark
Thanks a lot guys ...let's see if I can maintain my enthusiasm for completing this with 100% current data (currently, by exposure time, about 80% is new)..there was a bit of time spent in front of the screen processing/fiddling with this version..?..so, it's a bit touch and go now . I get bored too easily and start feeling I want to move on...to something else, especially with such a popular bright target ....and that's not a GALAXY
Definitely confirmation that you have captured the key detail in the Pillars...nice
Yeah, comparisons like this are good to make I recon, you can really see what you have captured...aaaand are nicely reminded of just how amazing the beloved Hubble is...hope it lasts many more years yet it will either break down or Musks network will make observations impossible...
Purple stars notwithstanding, that's a lovely homage to Hubble, and a fascinating comparison of the difference between amateur and ultra-professional equipment in the best of conditions.
Interesting to see what difference a few billion dollars and perfect seeing conditions makes!
It makes one wonder about the not-so-distant future of amateur astrophotography, when one day, we amateurs may all have access to small satellite-based gear in low orbit.
Purple stars notwithstanding, that's a lovely homage to Hubble, and a fascinating comparison of the difference between amateur and ultra-professional equipment in the best of conditions.
Interesting to see what difference a few billion dollars and perfect seeing conditions makes!
It makes one wonder about the not-so-distant future of amateur astrophotography, when one day, we amateurs may all have access to small satellite-based gear in low orbit.
Totally agree, depending on how bad the effects of Starlink et al and the associated massive increase in low Earth orbit material becomes , the future is sure to be fascinating, if perhaps a little tragic....
Regarding the slightly purple stars , It's funny, as per the very Hubble image in the comparison I have made, I have always liked the original narrowband images that came out of Hubble, whiiiiich yep, had purple stars, so have usually left some magenta in my stars in full narrowband shots, I just recon it works (my little quirk ) and adds a little extra to the image, after all, the nebulosity is in unnatural colour so why not the stars? I think all white stars can look a little bland for example, I don't like leaving a lot of magenta in there though but even a little usually garners attention and the odd comment from someone too, which is cool
Regarding the slightly purple stars , It's funny, as per the very Hubble image in the comparison I have made, I have always liked the original narrowband images that came out of Hubble, whiiiiich yep, had purple stars, so have usually left some magenta in my stars in full narrowband shots, I just recon it works (my little quirk )
Mike
I agree with you Mike, I've always liked the purple stars in NB too.
and while I wasn't planning on using it for anything but colouring the stars (if that!), I decided to have a crack and used the sadly rather sorry and soft RGB collected on Thursday night and pinched some old (and also under par but not as bad as the RGB) SII and OIII data, I had collected on this area in the past....aaaand after a lot of fiddling, I managed to hack something together - a reasonably faithful original Hubble palette (with a bit more blue 
)...and while I had started this exercise just for a bit of fun, surprisingly, I was quite happy with the end result really.. 
...so here'tis 
and start feeling I want to move on...to something else, especially with such a popular bright target 
....and that's not a GALAXY 
