Mother of all clusters - now with 27yr comparison

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

While I wait for the weather to clear

This is another AG12 and Starfire combo image

Omega the Great

Two Omega Centauri's taken 27 years apart - same photographer with technological improvements

Mike

[Octane (Humayun)]

Senfriggensational.

H

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Holy smokin' Globs! Mike!!

You can almost count every star right to the core

Nice work mate Stunning!

[Osirisra (Ken)]

Impressive! nice work.

[Stevec35 (Steve)]

One of the best images of Omega I've ever seen Mike. Congratulations!

Steve

[SkyViking (Rolf)]

That is excellent Mike, very impressive! I like how you have brought out the contrasting colours of both the bright red giants and the blue stragglers. It's a very beautiful image, thanks for the view.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Great star colors and resolution. A benchmark.

[avandonk]

I upsized your image by a factor of four (x2x2 cubic int) Mike. All I can say is WOW! The resolution of your original image would be superb. Could you put up a crop from the centre to the outskirts of OC at full resolution.

For a fast system the resolution is stunning!

Sorry just saw you had?

Bert

[atalas]

Awesome big guy!

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Hey thanks so much everyone

It is always a challenge to present globs faithfully, bit like galaxies really, they should generally be much brighter in the core but the temptation is to go for high res in there and as a result the overall dynamics don't look real, not that it is a bad thing as resolution may be the thing you are really after of course. Here though I tried to showcase this mighty cluster in a way that had some resolution in the core but given the almost infinite number of stars in there it needs to also have a glow and not be sharply resolved to look real in my opinion...

I also tried to get the more bronze/gold colour in the red giants rather than sturated yellow and tried to keep the blue straglers subtle.

Anyway, just another madness prevention exercise

Mike

[Dennis]

Holey moley Mike – that is a gorgeous image. I like the way you have balanced all the various elements to help retain a very natural and pleasing look.

Cheers

Dennis

[DavidTrap (David)]

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

It is always a challenge to present globs faithfully, bit like galaxies really, they should generally be much brighter in the core but the temptation is to go for high res in there and as a result the overall dynamics don't look real, not that it is a bad thing as resolution may be the thing you are really after of course. Here though I tried to showcase this mighty cluster in a way that had some resolution in the core but given the almost infinite number of stars in there it needs to also have a glow and not be sharply resolved to look real in my opinion...

Mike

Great image as usual Mike - the core is impressive. I can see what you're meaning here - I presume this is because I'm used to seeing the core blown out with a loss of detail. The "glow" around the centre took me a little getting used to.

Are you able to divulge how you've maintained the detail - is this a composite of varying length exposures or some fancy curve manipulation? I took a few subs of 47Tuc on the weekend - you've inspired me to process those now, so any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Ta

DT

[Ric]

WOW

What a beauty.

Top stuff Mike.

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Hey cheers guys, glad you like it

David, it is similar to the multi layered decon technique many use for detail extraction ie basically careful use of DDP and high pass in Astroart5, shadow highlights and curves in PS and careful blending of several slight variations. With Omega one needs to be mindfull that it isn't symetrically round and in-attention to this will result in an unantural appearence. 47 Tuc is much more symetrical so a little more forgiving.

The AG12 data was seeing affected actually which would usually be a negative thing but here it actually helped acheive the overall look I was after actually - funny how things can go in processing...really is like cooking sometimes, bit of this, taste, bit of that, taste...voila

Mike

[Saturn%5 (Graeme)]

[allan gould]

Mike, there is something wrong with your darks as all I see is specks everywhere. It looks like a large field of coloured salt on black velvet. You need to correct this!
I think that a globular is the hardest thing to process and you have done this beautifully. Its a masterpiece pure and simple.

[h0ughy (David)]

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by Saturn%5

Cheers Grahame, I take it you founmd it pleasing then

Originally Posted by allan gould

Mike, there is something wrong with your darks as all I see is specks everywhere. It looks like a large field of coloured salt on black velvet. You need to correct this!
I think that a globular is the hardest thing to process and you have done this beautifully. Its a masterpiece pure and simple.

Hmmm, yes, I think Fred should do a Sidonio on it and remove the stars...

Cheers mate

Mike

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by h0ughy

So.. is that kinda like a Mark Holden Touchdown ala Australian Idol ...or are you Islamic

[mill (Martin)]

That is one great looking Omega Mike
The biggest problem with Omega is getting all the smallest stars not to look like noise and you pretty much nailed that