Hi all, just posted a couple of images of winter targets, while I am trying to catch up processing the little mountain of old data collected I am not following any special logic in what is going to be the next object on display so sorry if you will see winter, summer or mid seasons targets coming out more or less at the same time
Sh2-54 (RCW 167) & NGC 6604
Sh2-54 is an extended bright nebula in the constellation of Serpens that surround the open cluster NGC 6604. Overall a very dull area, quite "flat", I tried to process the image in several different ways without ever get any close to a "wow" effect. By mistake in my ACP planning I ended up to have a lot of "unnecessary" Ha exposures, eventually I used it even if probably collecting 1/3 of the light would have produced almost the same result. Not a remarkable object but still an image of a not so often imaged target (with reasons..)
NGC 6520 & Barnard 86
This is an area of sky that I always liked very much. It is because it reminds me the golden sand of a sunny beach, it is because gives me the sense of wander on the vastness of the Universe, this part of the sky close to our galaxy bulge has been in my to (re)do list for quite a long time. I opted for a LRGB composition adding enough luminance signal to display the subtle changes in the shadow of B86 and the other small dark nebulas that contrast with the extremely rich star field. I also opted not to push too much the color saturation of the stars as I other times do in order to keep as much natural look as I could. Definitely recommended the full resolution vision, where the thousands and thousands of stars displayed perhaps will let you wander if any one could actually host life..
Technical details are on the relative pages.
Hope you will enjoy the view.
Clear skies
Marco
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