27 panel SMC mosaic finished!!

[tilbrook@rbe.ne (Justin Tilbrook)]

Hi,
Well I’ve finally finished my mosaic of the SMC!!
Here's the large version.
http://www.pbase.com/comets2/image/152708496
Still only 25% of original which is nearly 2 gig's in jpg!!

Ended up with 27 panels, these consist of 60 minute and 30 minute panels, a total of 22.5 hours.
Subs were 5 minutes at ISO 1600.
Equipment used.
8” F/4 astrograph , baader type coma corrector,. HEQ Pro 5 mount, orion mini guider.
Camera.
Unmodded Cannon 1100D.
Panels stacked in Deep Sky Stacker.
Panels stitched in Microsoft ICE.
Processed in Photoshop 7.
Next time I'll plan mosaics out, so I don't need as many panels!
Cheers,
Justin.

[Larryp (Laurie)]

Looks fantastic, Justin-great work!

[LewisM]

Great job! A really spectacular, finely executed image!

I was looking up at the LMC and SMC last night, thinking about it myself. Now I chicken out

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Congratulations Justin something to be justly proud off

Mike

[gregbradley]

Great work. I am a big fan of mosaics.

Greg.

[LightningNZ (Cam)]

Awesome! Looks on my screen like you could boost contrast and vibrancy a little more yet.

Are you going to turn it into a poster?

Cheers,
Cam

[jase (Jason)]

Kudos Justin! Great image indeed. Perhaps a few minor tweaks as suggested by others would improve on the result (saturation mainly I suspect). I admire astro-imagers that stick to the game plan and complete the mission. Certainly not a small undertaking with 27 panels and I know how it feels when planning comes undone with gaps between panels as you experienced in a previous progress post. Not a fun situation. The resolution and wide expanse is a visual treat with so many clusters on display. Top work. I sure hope to see you tackle similar projects again.

[Ross G]

What a beautiful photo Justin.

A great project, well executed.

Looking forward to more mosaics from you.

Ross.

[batema (Mark)]

Great work and it looks fantastic.

[Forgey (Paula)]

Fantastic work Justin!

[MortonH]

Wow. Fantastic.

[Stevec35 (Steve)]

Great work Justin! I have a lot of admiration for anyone who can do a mosaic this big.

Cheers

Steve

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Congratulations. It's a lovely image.

[Lee]

Excellent work Justin.
(you'd have my vote for IOTW)

[Phil Hart]

Awesome project Justin. Great effort and result looks sweet.. another one I need to check out closely at home.

Phil

[tilbrook@rbe.ne (Justin Tilbrook)]

Originally Posted by Larryp

Looks fantastic, Justin-great work!

Thanks Laurie!

Originally Posted by LewisM

Great job! A really spectacular, finely executed image!

I was looking up at the LMC and SMC last night, thinking about it myself. Now I chicken out

Thanks Lewis!

Seriously, go for it!
You have a sweet setup, I'd love to see a mosaic.

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Congratulations Justin something to be justly proud off

Mike

Thanks Mike!

Always good to have your encouragement.

Originally Posted by gregbradley

Great work. I am a big fan of mosaics.

Greg.

Thanks Greg!

Yours are always an inspiration.

Originally Posted by LightningNZ

Awesome! Looks on my screen like you could boost contrast and vibrancy a little more yet.

Are you going to turn it into a poster?

Cheers,
Cam

Thanks Cam!

Yep, I played around quite a lot with saturation, thought it was too much and backed off.
I'll post another version, I'd like opinions, been looking at this too long.

I have a friend who owns an art gallery, he has a printer capable of doing large posters, hopefully he can turn it into something worth hanging on the wall.

Originally Posted by jase

Kudos Justin! Great image indeed. Perhaps a few minor tweaks as suggested by others would improve on the result (saturation mainly I suspect). I admire astro-imagers that stick to the game plan and complete the mission. Certainly not a small undertaking with 27 panels and I know how it feels when planning comes undone with gaps between panels as you experienced in a previous progress post. Not a fun situation. The resolution and wide expanse is a visual treat with so many clusters on display. Top work. I sure hope to see you tackle similar projects again.

Thanks Jase!

Good to have your input, yep obviously need to boost the saturation.
I was getting quite frustrated towards the end, imaging more and more panels.
Originally I thought 12 panels, no hope!!
I must admit, I'm already thinking of the next mosaic.

Originally Posted by Ross G

What a beautiful photo Justin.

A great project, well executed.

Looking forward to more mosaics from you.

Ross.

Thanks Ross!

Originally Posted by batema

Great work and it looks fantastic.

Thanks Marc!

Originally Posted by Forgey

Fantastic work Justin!

Thanks Paula!

Originally Posted by MortonH

Wow. Fantastic.

Thanks Morton!

Originally Posted by Stevec35

Great work Justin! I have a lot of admiration for anyone who can do a mosaic this big.

Cheers

Steve

Thanks Steve!

The stitch program ICE made it a lot easier, probably wouldn't have attempted it otherwise.

Originally Posted by jjjnettie

Congratulations. It's a lovely image.

Thanks jjj !

Originally Posted by Lee

Excellent work Justin.
(you'd have my vote for IOTW)

Thanks Lee!

Must try out your suggestions on panel alignment on the next one.

Originally Posted by philiphart

Awesome project Justin. Great effort and result looks sweet.. another one I need to check out closely at home.

Phil

Thanks Phil!

Certainly a challenge!
Still a bit to learn about processing such a large image.

Cheers,

Justin.

[jsmoraes (Jorge)]

Very good work. Very beautiful image. Too much details: all clusters and nebulas. I love it. Congratulations. The effort of 22 hours resulted much worth.

[johnnyt123 (John)]

All i have to say is that is ridiculous.. in a nice way...
and shouldnt be humanly possible....!!

Well done on the achievement.

[tilbrook@rbe.ne (Justin Tilbrook)]

Originally Posted by jsmoraes

Very good work. Very beautiful image. Too much details: all clusters and nebulas. I love it. Congratulations. The effort of 22 hours resulted much worth.

Thanks Jorge!

Glad you like it!

Originally Posted by johnnyt123

All i have to say is that is ridiculous.. in a nice way...
and shouldnt be humanly possible....!!

Well done on the achievement.

Thanks Johny!

Only possible because of the people that write the amazing software!

Cheers,

Justin.

[tilbrook@rbe.ne (Justin Tilbrook)]

Hi,

Just an updated image with more saturation.

What do you think??

Thanks in advance for feedback.

Cheers,

Justin.