The Smoking Sword

[Ken Crawford (KenC)]

Very nice! I have only captured the trapizium before back in 2004. I look forward to giving this region a try myself.

I love that you get get the complete area in one shot! amazing!

[marco (Marco Lorenzi)]

Veeery nice one Mike, and thanks for being back on a "true" color image, no Hubble/CHFT/Picasso palettes I am a traditional guy, love the red nebulae looks bloody red, not green as Shrek's vomit

It seems that you tamed well your beast, there is a lot of signal and the image is up your usual standards, i.e. excellent..

Clear Skies
Marco

[iceman (Mike)]

Stunning results Mike, great to see you back in the saddle. Go easy on that horse!

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by cventer

Sensational Mike. Detail is fantastic.

How are you guiding that ? OAG ? Or separate guider ?

Hi Chris

Yeh the seeing was kind of only average but that is actually good for my site

I guide piggyback using an 80ED and SXV-H9

My subs for the RGB were only 2mins and for the Ha & OIII they were 5mins.

Mike

[bmitchell82 (Brendan)]

Ahhh the power of a newtonian when in the right hands they a very special thing! Mines only a little baby telescope compared to the AG but i know the feeling when I go back to smaller refractors its like i should be able to see this by now

The only piece of niggling that I have though Mike is under the trapizium what i like to call the beard of the eagle, to my taste you have really cranked the sharpening possibly a bit to much there is a star in there that looks kind of odd if you know what i mean. The over all image has a nice subtle blurryness to it (even though its still sharp) but that one area is just stark compared.

Brendan

[Saturn%5 (Graeme)]

Stunning.

[gregbradley]

It looks almost exactly the same as the original rgb?? I thought I must have hit the wrong link.

You'd be better off doing a Ha as red channel, Ha as blue 15% and O111 as blue and O111 as green on top of your RGB to add some oomph to the reds, blues and teals. As a luminance it doesn't add anything only weakens colour. There are some odd grey green gas/dust areas not far from the core that are eye catching.

Greg.

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by gregbradley

It looks almost exactly the same as the original rgb?? I thought I must have hit the wrong link.

You'd be better off doing a Ha as red channel, Ha as blue 15% and O111 as blue and O111 as green on top of your RGB to add some oomph to the reds, blues and teals. As a luminance it doesn't add anything only weakens colour. There are some odd grey green gas/dust areas not far from the core that are eye catching.

Greg.

You are right Greg, this was just an experiment L(as Ha+OIII) RGB, mainly to add some more outer area clouds, so yes it is quite close to the stock RGB but with more outer clouds. Personally I like the straight RGB best anyway and wish I had collected more RGB now (it was only intended for the stars) ...and given the power of this beast it may be something I do more of ie. just straight RGB, the result can be quite pleasing and natural looking. My original idea was to construct a HaOIII bi-colour with coloured stars but I wasn't having any luck with how the results were looking, so while I was cooking I decided to change tack and do the LRGB hybrid instead . I also wanted to do something different looking to my Eureka Prize version from last year so I had more pastel pinks, greys and reds in mind from the outset.

Knowing me....let me see..?..a repro cooouuuld happen I guess particularly if I get some SII next outing (hopefully not another four months away )

Thanks for your comments though.

Mike

[richardo (Rich)]

Hey Migel.....
AGie is doing her stuff alright... fantastic image for the amount of time!
I've been in the same boat at times on bright objects.... you go, woooo, can't believe it, so much detail and signal for such a short time.
Ah yes the beauty of fast, large precision optics
I do like the natural colour blend myself and don't really see any great benefit in the present added OIII NB wave length at his stage and as Greg has also mentioned.
One thing you could try is to do a synthetic green with your Ha & OIII and then combine the RGB with it... if you want to experiment that is.
Steve Canistra has a bit of a run through on the synthetic green if you want to give it a go.. the link's here

As Ken mentioned, fantastic to be able to get the Running man and the whole M42 area in in one image, and at great resolution... gotta love that

All in all Mike, great to see a new image from you. Great you were able to get what you did from your LP skies there in Newie...

Look forward to more..... and even a repro on this I wouldn't mind

All the best for now
Rich

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by richardo

Look forward to more..... and even a repro on this I wouldn't mind

All the best for now
Rich

He he..?.. aaalright

I did fiddle with a few of the things you mentioned but it was late so I'll revisit

Mike

[multiweb (Marc)]

Wow! That's pretty special. I reckon the questacon's gonna need a repro.

[Bassnut (Fred)]

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

so I'll revisit

Mike

No you wont, move on Mike, its awesome for the exposure time, thats the point of the image. You now have the capacity to do awesome NEW stuff. Put M42 in the done that bin, pleaseeeeees, gaud .

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by Bassnut

No you wont, move on Mike, its awesome for the exposure time, thats the point of the image. You now have the capacity to do awesome NEW stuff. Put M42 in the done that bin, pleaseeeeees, gaud .

Bah.... you'll live, you just keep at those slow panning, all look the same boring, complete with gaudy music, seen one seen'em all, just like M42, amateur movies

Luv ya

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by multiweb

Wow! That's pretty special. I reckon the questacon's gonna need a repro.

The same only different....

[marc4darkskies (Marcus)]

Bah!! You're not a reeeal astrophotographer unless you do 15-30 mins subs!! ........... Hmmmph ... 2 min subs <mumble, mumble>

Good to see you back mate! I also dusted off the scope on the weekend but couldn't fininsh in 2 nights because of long subs and cloud.

Cheers, Marcus

PS: Hey, not bad for a "snapshot"!

[h0ughy (David)]

Originally Posted by marc4darkskies

Bah!! You're not a reeeal astrophotographer unless you do 15-30 mins subs!! ........... Hmmmph ... 2 min subs <mumble, mumble>

Good to see you back mate! I also dusted off the scope on the weekend but couldn't fininsh in 2 nights because of long subs and cloud.

Cheers, Marcus

PS: Hey, not bad for a "snapshot"!

you would think that the photon master may have a few more new photons/targets under the hat

[RobF (Rob)]

Stunning. I've never seen such 3D. Wait a moment, I have - in the Hubble 3D IMAX movie simulations/animations. I've just realised I was waiting for the screen to starting swirling in closer and closer.....
30mins, just amazing Mike

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

I also dusted off the scope on the weekend but couldn't fininsh in 2 nights because of long subs and cloud.

I rest mt case

Good to hear and look forward to your..?.. first light.

PS: Hey, not bad for a "snapshot"!

Yes and with the HaOIIIRGB version there are some similarities to your Sword and the Rose even, completely unintentional of course but perhaps in my minds eye when I was processing it was some sort of influence..? I never research objects before processing but it is interesting how sometimes images take on similarities, I guess it means the aims and/or processing journeys are similar..?

Cheers

Mike

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by RobF

Stunning. I've never seen such 3D. Wait a moment, I have - in the Hubble 3D IMAX movie simulations/animations. I've just realised I was waiting for the screen to starting swirling in closer and closer.....
30mins, just amazing Mike

On ya Rob ...Hubble?...bah that's a has been

Mike

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by Ken Crawford

Very nice! I have only captured the trapizium before back in 2004. I look forward to giving this region a try myself.

I love that you get get the complete area in one shot! amazing!

Yes the scope suits my predicament exactly ie portable and crap weather so I need to make the most of my imaging time (mosaics are not on the radar any time soon)...not like those decadent guys with remote observatories they can program it to hammer a target night ater night automatically when it is clear

Look forward to it Ken, the area is more of a challenge than people think...I'm sure your result will be of a high order though

Mike

Originally Posted by marco

Veeery nice one Mike, and thanks for being back on a "true" color image, no Hubble/CHFT/Picasso palettes I am a traditional guy, love the red nebulae looks bloody red, not green as Shrek's vomit

It seems that you tamed well your beast, there is a lot of signal and the image is up your usual standards, i.e. excellent..

Clear Skies
Marco

You should be doubly happy here then Marco, I made a natural colour image using OIII and Ha data - tricky

Ciao amigo

Michele