Rho Ophiuchi 2nd mosaic panel

[gregbradley]

Part of a larger mosaic, this is panel 2 - the main Rho Ophiuchi area of nebula and dust

HaLRGB 120 60 60 60 70 for a total of 6 hours 20 minutes.

One of about 10 panels so far. I think I will be needing some advice about how to stitch them together. Whether I make one big lum, R, G and B or stitch individually processed panels? If I can put them all together it will end up being over 3.4 billion pixels.

FSQ106ED and reducer giving F3.64 and FLI proline 16803, Baader filters, Astrodon 5nm Ha.

http://upload.pbase.com/gregbradley/...25681533/large

Also out of interest there is a great You Tube video about largest stars and Antares is right up there. It is absolutely huge, many many times larger than our sun.

Greg.

[MrB (Simon)]

Wow, can't wait to see the full blown mosaic.
Some unusual colour there, so much blue.

[Bassnut (Fred)]

10 panels!!!!!!!, holy cow, thats going to be some image Greg, some serious Photoshoping there, and lotsa RAM if you do many layers, be interesting to see how that goes ;-). Nice pic to start with, colourfull.

[Hagar (Doug)]

This is spectacular but a 10 panel mosaic, This will need to go up on the big plasma when you finish this one. I wont have anything else big enough to view it on in any detail.
Keep at it.

[Octane (Humayun)]

Greg,

This is a very ambiious project, but, I have to say, you can do far better on the processing than this. I can clearly see, even on my iPhone the areas where you have selectively processed the different coloured nebulas.

Once this thing is complete, it'll be pretty darn awesome.

H

[gregbradley]

Originally Posted by MrB

Wow, can't wait to see the full blown mosaic.
Some unusual colour there, so much blue.

Thanks. It is because it is such a colourful area that I am willing to spend a couple of weeks on it.

Originally Posted by Bassnut

10 panels!!!!!!!, holy cow, thats going to be some image Greg, some serious Photoshoping there, and lotsa RAM if you do many layers, be interesting to see how that goes ;-). Nice pic to start with, colourfull.

I am going to need some help with it I reckon. The main problem with mosaics is matching up the backgrounds. Not sure how that goes yet.

Originally Posted by Hagar

This is spectacular but a 10 panel mosaic, This will need to go up on the big plasma when you finish this one. I wont have anything else big enough to view it on in any detail.
Keep at it.

I hope it is. I still have to master the putting together of a mosaic and making the various panels blend in.

Originally Posted by Octane

Greg,

This is a very ambiious project, but, I have to say, you can do far better on the processing than this. I can clearly see, even on my iPhone the areas where you have selectively processed the different coloured nebulas.

Once this thing is complete, it'll be pretty darn awesome.

H

Oh I see yes, I used for about the 2nd time these Topaz Labs PS plugins. They are a bit pushy. I haven't actually selectively processed different parts of the neb but it does seem pushed too hard in some areas.

I think I will also look into getting some Astrodon Gen 11 filters as Astrodons were always very easy to use processing wise. The Baaders are a bit harder to use and sometimes the colour isn't what I expect after the combine.

This panel will have to be reproed anyway as I don't think I will be able to individually colour process each panel and expect them to stitch together.

Greg.

Greg.

[gregbradley]

I took on board Humi's comments and did a repro on this one. It has very little processing which is really my aim these days. The theory being if you do the basics thoroughly then the need for processing is minimal.

Also so much for experimenting with the Topaz Labs plugins. They are too harsh for astrophotography which are usually delicate images.

Same link as before.

Greg.

[Lester]

This will be a huge project Greg. This image records the faint varied nebula well. I will look forward to more of this area.

All the best.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Very nice and colorful part of the sky. Can't wait to see the whole mosaic. It's turning out quite nice so far.

[richardo (Rich)]

Hi Greg,
reprocess looks better and I'm sure once you have the mosaic together, it will look tremendous, at a distance.

I still can't get over how much gear you have and have had and while it's top notch stuff, I keep looking at your stars..
This image for instance appears flat and the stars look slightly out of focus giving a soft blobby look. This I've noticed on many of your images.
I think maybe your should take a bit more care with focus. With the FSQ you should be able to get pin point stars, resolving well down to even the fainter magnitudes. With 2 hours worth of data and such a fast F ratio, this should be well the case here.
If you're finding focus a prob, then perhaps a better dark site or pick the nights.
This is all imo btw, but I only say it as I see it.
I really feel your letting yourself and your great gear down.
When you get the CDK scope up and running, the 17" aperture will really test your conditions. If you can't get the vanes sharp in the image, you'll be loosing the focus battle again.

Take your time and let's see what this gear can really do.

Rich

[gregbradley]

Originally Posted by Lester

This will be a huge project Greg. This image records the faint varied nebula well. I will look forward to more of this area.

All the best.

Thanks Lester. Its going to take a lot of time processing it all.

Originally Posted by richardo

Hi Greg,
reprocess looks better and I'm sure once you have the mosaic together, it will look tremendous, at a distance.

I still can't get over how much gear you have and have had and while it's top notch stuff, I keep looking at your stars..
This image for instance appears flat and the stars look slightly out of focus giving a soft blobby look. This I've noticed on many of your images.

I've done probably 250 images. Focus is obviously a key point but not sure "many" is accurate. FSQ and especially with the reducer the CFZ is small and it shifts with temperature. I do need to fit a Robofocus to it to help with refocus as it is difficult with the 106ED focus lock. My other scopes have robofocus and the only way the focus would be off would be temp shift throughout the night or very slight focus differences between the filters. I do use the same focus for all LRGB an perhaps there is a slight gain by focusing for each colour and setting that up to be done by software but I think it is a pretty minor game. Seeing would play a bigger role there.

I think maybe your should take a bit more care with focus. With the FSQ you should be able to get pin point stars, resolving well down to even the fainter magnitudes. With 2 hours worth of data and such a fast F ratio, this should be well the case here.
If you're finding focus a prob, then perhaps a better dark site or pick the nights.
This is all imo btw, but I only say it as I see it.
I really feel your letting yourself and your great gear down.


Rich

That's a bit insulting isn't it? and out of character for this site.

[richardo (Rich)]

Sorry Greg, wasn't meant to be an insulting observation.
It's just what I'm seeing.
Yes perhaps temperature shift is playing it's part here Maybe checking the focus periodically would be the go.

I'm sorry, just see something that could be improved upon is all.
Maybe I'm too out front, maybe I shouldn't say anything, and once again I'm sorry if this offended you. Probably too harsh, ok.
I know i'd like to be told, as what we might not see, others do.
I know I've been told in the past on issues, and it's made me look, and try harder.
But then again, I know we all can be touchy with our passion.

Rich

[Garyh]

What a project Greg! shall be awesome when finished!
I reckon the color balance looks spot on! very pleasing!
But I go against the majority and I think you could push it even more..
That`s me push every thing and button

[gregbradley]

Originally Posted by richardo

Sorry Greg, wasn't meant to be an insulting observation.
It's just what I'm seeing.
Yes perhaps temperature shift is playing it's part here Maybe checking the focus periodically would be the go.

I'm sorry, just see something that could be improved upon is all.
Maybe I'm too out front, maybe I shouldn't say anything, and once again I'm sorry if this offended you. Probably too harsh, ok.
I know i'd like to be told, as what we might not see, others do.
I know I've been told in the past on issues, and it's made me look, and try harder.
But then again, I know we all can be touchy with our passion.

Rich

No worries Rich. I have noticed this FSQ and reducer is very very touchy on focus. It can seem OK until you do a refocus and suddenly its a lot sharper. I don't think focus has been an issue on many of my other images. I have noticed some fatter stars on some. Perhaps they were nights of poor seeing, some I think were the 8300 chip having small wells and you can get star bloat from that. Other times the stars are tiny.
Ideally I would setup an autofocus routine before every exposure. Some do that. It would be a step up in automating the image acquisition.

But refocusing with every filter change would be difficult when its doing an all nighter and its setup to go at 12:30am and finishes at 4:45.
But you are right in this image focus could be a little soft. I looked at another panel and the stars are quite a bit tighter.

Cheers,

Greg.

Originally Posted by Garyh

What a project Greg! shall be awesome when finished!
I reckon the color balance looks spot on! very pleasing!
But I go against the majority and I think you could push it even more..
That`s me push every thing and button

Colour in this area definitely can be strong. I'll leave that until I have more panels stitched.

[gregbradley]

Woohoo, got Anacortes Picture of the Day with this one.

http://www.buytelescopes.com/PostComments.aspx?id=39184

Greg.