The Helix is enormous!!! - Page 2

avandonk · #21 14-10-2009, 11:09 AM

Not bad Mike.

I bet if you tried hard enough Mike you could do better!

No further words needed the image says it all

Bert

AlexN · #22 14-10-2009, 11:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Know smeone who has looooooong exposure aspirations and with an observatory?

Mike

I know someone with looooooong exposure aspirations who's just put in am offer on 23 acres 300 odd km out of town!

hopefully an observatory by mid next year... Do ya a deal.. I'll get 50hrs data, you process it up (a few times!)

What do you say?

TheDecepticon · #23 14-10-2009, 11:34 AM

Awesome! Simply awesome!

avandonk · #24 14-10-2009, 11:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

It is like what I was seeing on over stretched images coming out of a DSLR. Sorry to rain on your parade mate, not intended; just an observation. I just detracts from what I reckon would be a spectacular image. Like you said you really worked the data to the maximum.

Still a staggering image though. I admire your skills and dedication.

Paul if I cannot see noise in an image then the image is not showing the full dynamic range.

We used to have a saying at CSIRO 'one man's noise is another man's signal'.

I think that Mike has gone much closer to the inherent noise to reveal the very faint signal than anyone before. He is quite correct with more time he will get closer.

Bert

DavidU (Dave) · #25 14-10-2009, 12:01 PM

We should start a " get Mike an observatory fund".
Knowing Mike if he had an Obs we would be talking exposure times of weeks!

RB (Andrew) · #26 14-10-2009, 12:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

but and yes there is a but. My screen must be a little brighter than most, because I can see red noise all over the sky section of the image. It is like what I was seeing on over stretched images coming out of a DSLR. Sorry to rain on your parade mate, not intended; just an observation. I just detracts from what I reckon would be a spectacular image. Like you said you really worked the data to the maximum.
Still a staggering image though. I admire your skills and dedication.

After reading your post Paul, I dragged Mike's image into PS to have a look.
To me the 'noise' is not uniform across the entire image especially in the top right. Once stretched you can see darker areas and lighter red sections.
To me it actually looks like it's faint nebulosity.

toryglen-boy (Duncan) · #27 14-10-2009, 01:44 PM

whatever it is, the image is a triumph

well done Mike, thats dedication

Hagar (Doug) · #28 14-10-2009, 01:53 PM

A Very nice Sidonio Mike. As you say stretched to the limit but very respectable at that. Your gear certainly grabs every photon out there to grab and your processing skills have eliminated much of the rubbish associated with a hard stretch like this.
Beautifully done. A big sucker it surely is.

slippo74 (Cristiano) · #29 14-10-2009, 05:00 PM

Amazing .... simply amazing.... /bow

Jen · #30 14-10-2009, 05:04 PM

wow Mike that pic is awsome :thum bsup:
Your work is amazing you make me drool over my keyboard everytime i look at your pics keep em coming

spearo (Frank) · #31 14-10-2009, 05:51 PM

Well done
The red is completely captured as you've pushed it, it is starting to come out in the rest of the full frame background darkness.
I'd say you got the totality without a doubt
amazing stuff
frank

strongmanmike (Michael) · #32 14-10-2009, 06:22 PM

Gee thanks for the overwellming response guys

so glad everyone liked it. I was excited while I processed it, watching all the faintest details emerge with each processing step

Paul: No worries mate I don't mind your comments at all in fact I agree with you. It is not a "peeeerfect" image and like Bert points out, I squeeked so much out of the data that I pushed the envelope of highlighting the red noise too. I did several (100

) variations and blends as I wanted to ensure that I got every bit of extension of the actual nebula as possible while minimising the non nebula noise.

But.....

It's fixed now though

Alex yes we could do a colaboration if you like

Thanks again everyone

Mike

kustard (Simon) · #33 14-10-2009, 06:51 PM

Beautiful

wasyoungonce (Brendan) · #34 14-10-2009, 08:46 PM

Mere words cannot describe that picture.

It is a mixture of Art/Physics/Skill & lots of dedication!

Well done indeed!

Miaplacidus (Brian) · #35 14-10-2009, 10:57 PM

That is a watershed photo, Mike, no question. When you have grandkids they'll be talking about that image all their lives. Pure gold in the next Astrophotography Olympics. And all without an observatory? Unbelievable!

You do realize, though, don't you, that you've got some serious problems..?

Still, I don't mind if you don't mind...

tornado33 · #36 14-10-2009, 11:02 PM

very nice. 26 hours over 6 nights. Love all the outer faint stuff rarely seen in such detail. Good job on maintaining nice even star colours with the narrowband imaging too.
Scott