Lambda Centauri Mosaic 65 hrs - Revised

[traveller (Bo)]

Awesome image M&T. I spent quite a bit of time in the larger version of the photo and swam through the stars and gas fields.
Bo

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Originally Posted by Ryderscope

Stunning. Colour palette is great.
Plenty of detail to swirl around in.
Got lost looking at a myriad of shapes looking at me.

Thanks Rodney. Glad you like the colour. You're probably our closest IIS neighbour, so we expect you're about to see some impressive storms too. We've had 17 mm so far. Best close the observatory!

Originally Posted by Octane

Simply outstanding, Mike and Trish!

I was really happy to see this pop up here as I'm also working on my own rendition of this subtle area of the sky. Gives me an idea as to what to look forward to.

I'm completely in awe of not just the 1 hour sub-exposures you guys do, but, also the fact it's processed in your own home-grown software. Very impressive!

H

Thanks muchly, Humayun, for your encouraging words. Looking forward to seeing your interpretation.

Originally Posted by Camelopardalis

What a beauty M&T, well done

Cheers, Dunk!

Originally Posted by Stevec35

Great work as usual M&T! Lots of lovely crisp detail that you don't often see and the colour is just about perfect.

Cheers

Steve

Thanks Steve. We're falling in love with the long focal length mosaic approach, even though it's very time consuming.

Originally Posted by traveller

Awesome image M&T. I spent quite a bit of time in the larger version of the photo and swam through the stars and gas fields.
Bo

Hi, Bo. Delighted you like it.

Very best,
Mike and Trish

[alpal]

Hi Mike & Trish,
that's an excellent image.
I enjoyed voyaging around it.
I checked it out in Photoshop & it's easy to get rid of the red halos.

cheers
Allan

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

Beautiful image M&T! I find the palette very ghostly, quite different to the usual chook, but very nice indeed.

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Originally Posted by alpal

Hi Mike & Trish,
that's an excellent image.
I enjoyed voyaging around it.
I checked it out in Photoshop & it's easy to get rid of the red halos.

cheers
Allan

Thanks, Allan.

Our standard software can routinely get rid of the rings. We suspect we just set the radius of removal too low, and colourblind Mike didn't notice. We're having another crack later today.

Originally Posted by cometcatcher

Beautiful image M&T! I find the palette very ghostly, quite different to the usual chook, but very nice indeed.

Thanks, Kevin. An interesting observation. Our palette is standard Hubble, RGB = SII Ha OIII, with the two constraints that the black point is set exactly to the foothill of the histogram for each channel (no cast or bias and no information loss), and the gains are set exactly so that each channel has the same average brightness (colour agnostic, as it has been called). That standard approach makes it easier to interpret, and easier to compare the "feel" of one object with another.

The one thing that we do vary is the contrast. Here, the challenge is how much emphasis to place on the faintest features. We like to keep away from exaggerating the faintest features until every image looks like a white piece of paper (the 'every cosmic microwave background photon is precious' theory), and instead try to bring out the structure of what one hopes is the main subject. But where to stop?

Very best,
Mike

[marc4darkskies (Marcus)]

Fantastic work M&T! Just a gorgeous image that's nice to swim around in!

Hmmm - that's funny - I see a parrot head (Cockatoo)

[JA]

Congratulations on a wonderful image. It's very otherworldly

Best
JA

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Originally Posted by marc4darkskies

Fantastic work M&T! Just a gorgeous image that's nice to swim around in!

Hmmm - that's funny - I see a parrot head (Cockatoo)

Thanks, Marcus. It's got the colours of a parrot!

Originally Posted by JA

Congratulations on a wonderful image. It's very otherworldly

Best
JA

Thanks, J.


We've reprocessed with careful attention to red rings round stars. Now it has grey rings around stars. Guess that is an improvement. But we've also made it a bit more contrasty.

New version here

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Yeeeah baby, now that's better

Ok...it's worth another ...Now to get the full row of'em...can you get just a little more intensity back into the star centres? they look just a tad washed out...THEN it will be prefect ....aaaaand you will have created one of the all time best versions of this area IMO.

Mike

[alpal]

Originally Posted by Placidus

We've reprocessed with careful attention to red rings round stars. Now it has grey rings around stars. Guess that is an improvement. But we've also made it a bit more contrasty.

Hi Mike & Trish,
I like the revision.
I've got to say - it was well worth the 65 hours -
it should be an APOD.

cheers
Allan

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Yeeeah baby, now that's better

Ok...it's worth another ...Now to get the full row of'em...can you get just a little more intensity back into the star centres? they look just a tad washed out...THEN it will be prefect ....aaaaand you will have created one of the all time best versions of this area IMO.

Mike

Wow, thanks muchly Mike. So near and yet so far. Will look into the stars.

Originally Posted by alpal

Hi Mike & Trish,
I like the revision.
I've got to say - it was well worth the 65 hours -
it should be an APOD.

cheers
Allan

Thanks for the strong encouragement Allan.



There's a section along the left hand edge where we have insufficient data, and there are cosmic rays, hot pixels, and even a satellite trail. Must see if we can fix that with another night or two.

Sometimes it seems a shame to get rid of cosmic rays - they are after all amongst the most distant and violent things we ever get to capture. Pity they're just random and non-reproducible. Evidence of stuff going on, but we'll never know what.

[Atmos (Colin)]

The stars in the previous version didn't bother me much, but as Mike says, they're a little... mushy?

The nebulosity pops more now though which is great!

[DJT (David)]

Fantastic image MnT. Great contrast which brought out the details really well and the saturation really makes this a very punchy image.

I just finished processing a wide field of this but with nowhere near the hours and it tells. If you are at the imaging meet tonight it would be interesting to see how it comes out using Goodlook.

Well done guys.

[Andy01 (Andy)]

Loving the revised version,
At risk of adding salt to the above mentioned wound, if those were RGB stars, well then, wouldn't that be something ...

[vlazg (George)]

That is brilliant M&T, well worth printing

[Phil Hart]

Impressive project Mike and Trish and a great result. The revised version is better but I'm with Mike about stars now needing some punch. I don't know how hard Andy's suggested RGB stars would be but if it's achievable the image is definitely worth it. You should be proud now though! :-)

Phil

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Originally Posted by Atmos

The stars in the previous version didn't bother me much, but as Mike says, they're a little... mushy?

The nebulosity pops more now though which is great!

Yes, we can see that. Got an idea how it happened. See what we can do. Thanks for the helpful and constructive feedback.

Originally Posted by DJT

Fantastic image MnT. Great contrast which brought out the details really well and the saturation really makes this a very punchy image.

I just finished processing a wide field of this but with nowhere near the hours and it tells. If you are at the imaging meet tonight it would be interesting to see how it comes out using Goodlook.

Well done guys.

Thanks, David. Eagerly awaiting your version.

Originally Posted by Andy01

Loving the revised version,
At risk of adding salt to the above mentioned wound, if those were RGB stars, well then, wouldn't that be something ...

Thanks Andy! RGB stars !!!! These are not the droids we are looking for ...

Originally Posted by vlazg

That is brilliant M&T, well worth printing

Thanks muchly for the encouragement George!

Originally Posted by philiphart

Impressive project Mike and Trish and a great result. The revised version is better but I'm with Mike about stars now needing some punch. I don't know how hard Andy's suggested RGB stars would be but if it's achievable the image is definitely worth it. You should be proud now though! :-)

Phil

Hi, Phil. Great to hear from you, and thanks for the helpful feedback. Can think of a couple reasons why the stars might have come out a bit weak. Should be easy to fix.

Annoyingly clear sky out there at the moment, but with almost full moon and quite a gale.

Best,
Mike and Trish

[Paul Haese]

I like the second version best I think Mike. The depth is very good, kind of like looking through fog. The field of view is massive. Well done.

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

I like the second version best I think Mike. The depth is very good, kind of like looking through fog. The field of view is massive. Well done.

Thanks very much, Paul.
The fog is a worry. Must clean the primary mirror.

[gregbradley]

That's a sensational image Mike. Plus what an amazing effort.
The processing is great and I like the restrained semi translucent look you have here.

One of your finest.

Greg.