The red eye

[Peter Ward]

Due the phase of the moon, and the fact 5 million people who live just north of me like to have their lights on at night, the colour data on my earlier h-alpha effort is a little thin....
to quote Pyton (of the Monty kind): just a tiny slither....
but what the heck...I'm in lockdown and slapped it onto the h-alpha set anyway.

The result reminds me of how my eyes felt after operating the QF12 into Sydney at dawn (the red eye of all red eye's)...but I digress...

Despite the thin colour data and rubbish seeing I did my best to "respect the light". As a result the outer chevrons are visible, but quite muted
Interestingly while the cometary globules recorded by my RC16 are not as fine as Paul's excellent recent RC8 effort...

Yet the bulk of the RC16 nebula looks lees smoothed and more structured. I have no idea why this would be so. Perhaps another few hours of RGB will address this.

Excuses aside.....the link is here

[Andy01 (Andy)]

What can I say, unlike my earlier not so subtle 60+ hr version , it's a very gentle image - delicate in appearance, those outer chevrons now almost appear diaphinous and jellyfish like.

It's cool that we can interpret these objects in so many different ways.

[LKD (Luke)]

Noice!!!

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by LKD

Noice!!!

Thanks Luke.

Originally Posted by Andy01

What can I say, unlike my earlier not so subtle 60+ hr version , it's a very gentle image - delicate in appearance, those outer chevrons now almost appear diaphinous and jellyfish like.

It's cool that we can interpret these objects in so many different ways.

Ta. Diaphinous. Humm. I like that. My current favourite version is this one: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso0907/
The Chart32 guys version however, is also hard to go past.... if I win Lotto a 24" Alluna headed to Chile' !!

It will be interesting to see what other covers are done during the current season.

[JA]

Originally Posted by Peter Ward

....but what the heck...I'm in lockdown and slapped it onto the h-alpha set anyway.

It looks to be well slapped and a fine image

Best
JA

[Retrograde (Pete)]

Some very nuanced and delicate details details in this Peter and of course amazing depth for a relatively modest integration (we all know there's almost never enough exposure on this object).

I really like your treatment.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Really nice shot Peter. You're definitely starting to pick up some structure in the chevrons and faint outer nebulosity. I also always look for that little side on galaxy on one side next to the bright star embedded in the red neb that is the hallmark of a good shot. Did you see the amount of faint fuzzies in the center visible through the Oiii in the ESO shot? It looks like a window into the universe right behind it. Now that's way cooler than processing it to taste trying to make it look like an eye. Well done again.

[DiscoDuck (Paul)]

Originally Posted by Peter Ward

Interestingly while the cometary globules recorded by my RC16 are not as fine as Paul's excellent recent RC8 effort...

Yet the bulk of the RC16 nebula looks lees smoothed and more structured. I have no idea why this would be so. Perhaps another few hours of RGB will address this.

Thanks for the kind words. I just sharpened the nebulosity in mine a bit, Peter (Astrobin link updated in my thread). Given I haven't processed an image since April, I think I have forgotten how to do it!! (I also managed to stuff up star colours - which Greg picked me up on). I had focused on selectively sharpening the cometary globules, as I was interested in those, but omitted to at least do SOME sharpening on the brighter bits of the neb (that could take it).

Your pic is amazing - especially given the suburban capture.

[gregbradley]

Looks great but it really needs some O111. The magenta colour seems off to me. Perhaps the lack of O111 causes that.

I like the cloudlike structures in the ring you don't normally see so the Aluna is showing its stuff there.

Greg.

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by gregbradley

Looks great but it really needs some O111. The magenta colour seems off to me. Perhaps the lack of O111 causes that.

I like the cloudlike structures in the ring you don't normally see so the Aluna is showing its stuff there.

Greg.

Ta Greg. I actually pretty happy with the colour balance. H-alpha (i.e. pure red) dominates the ring and outer zones. The core is bright in OIII (blue green) but the transition zone should be red+ blue/green i.e. a shade of magenta.

I hammered this thing years ago with a SII filter and came to the conclusion there was sweet Fanny Adam's worth in there hence don't bother these days.

That said, with just 45 minutes of colour data in a glowing urban sky, despite my best gradient removal efforts it's likely the colour has a bias...I just haven't able work out in what direction

Originally Posted by DiscoDuck

Thanks for the kind words. I just sharpened the nebulosity in mine a bit, Peter (Astrobin link updated in my thread). Given I haven't processed an image since April, I think I have forgotten how to do it!! (I also managed to stuff up star colours - which Greg picked me up on). I had focused on selectively sharpening the cometary globules, as I was interested in those, but omitted to at least do SOME sharpening on the brighter bits of the neb (that could take it).

Your pic is amazing - especially given the suburban capture.

You are welcome & thanks. Unfortunately without a dark observatory site I am limited to NB or brighter RGB object imaging, so tackling low surface brightness objects like this one from the 'burbs is always a challenge.

Originally Posted by multiweb

Really nice shot Peter. You're definitely starting to pick up some structure in the chevrons and faint outer nebulosity. I also always look for that little side on galaxy on one side next to the bright star embedded in the red neb that is the hallmark of a good shot. Did you see the amount of faint fuzzies in the center visible through the Oiii in the ESO shot? It looks like a window into the universe right behind it. Now that's way cooler than processing it to taste trying to make it look like an eye. Well done again.

Thanks Marc. I suspect with a few hours of luminance I might be able to get some of those awesome faint fuzzies into the data...but they are tiny too. You need good seeing to resolve them. The Chart32 image also has them in spades. Humm...quite the challenge for an urban imager like myself.. AO to the rescue?

Originally Posted by Retrograde

Some very nuanced and delicate details details in this Peter and of course amazing depth for a relatively modest integration (we all know there's almost never enough exposure on this object).

I really like your treatment.

Originally Posted by JA

It looks to be well slapped and a fine image

Best
JA

Glad you enjoyed the view Gentlemen. I'm not done with this one yet. Rubbish seeing caused some rainbow fringing on the RGB stars and as Greg suggested a tad more OIII is likely to reveal more of the spoke pattern in the OIII emissions. I'm not done with this white whale yet!

[AUST2000 (Andrew)]

I love the image and in particular, the sharp detail in the central portion.
Well done!

[markas (Mark)]

As with the B&W image, the resolution is superb - the cometary knots are beautifully caught. The magenta surprised me a little.....

I have a recollection of a paper I found years ago which had details of Helix's colours. It listed a Helium line which gave a yellow cast to sections of the eye beyond the blue-green central part. I haven't been able to find the reference again, unfortunately, but there are Hubble and ESO images which seem to support this.
Anyway, methinks this is a superb image
Mark

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by markas

As with the B&W image, the resolution is superb - the cometary knots are beautifully caught. The magenta surprised me a little.....

I have a recollection of a paper I found years ago which had details of Helix's colours. It listed a Helium line which gave a yellow cast to sections of the eye beyond the blue-green central part. I haven't been able to find the reference again, unfortunately, but there are Hubble and ESO images which seem to support this.
Anyway, methinks this is a superb image
Mark

Very kind. You'll also be pleased to know I tweaked magenta level via the green curve in photoshop (same url)

Originally Posted by AUST2000

I love the image and in particular, the sharp detail in the central portion.
Well done!

Ta...This was taken in average seeing, hence my hope is new data will show more of the faint fuzzies that lurk behind the central OIII pool.

[gregbradley]

That magenta colour now looks pretty accurate. I just looked at lots of Helix images. A surprisingly large number of dud images around. But the better ones did show a muted magenta band there. I had it in my mind that area was whitish but not so. Rob Gendler tends to be the gold standard when it comes to colour and his shows that muted magenta band.

I did not see another image with as much detail as yours, its a new standard.

Greg.

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by gregbradley

That magenta colour now looks pretty accurate. I just looked at lots of Helix images. A surprisingly large number of dud images around. But the better ones did show a muted magenta band there. I had it in my mind that area was whitish but not so. Rob Gendler tends to be the gold standard when it comes to colour and his shows that muted magenta band.

I did not see another image with as much detail as yours, its a new standard.

Greg.

Very kind of you Greg, but my rendition is not even in the hunt.

This one (Ha-O3-LRGB Version (720:560:260:260:260:260 min) total 38,5 h, processing by Johannes Schedler)
is by far the best I have seen to date. We are all hacks compared to the Chart32 guys

[alpal]

Originally Posted by Peter Ward

Very kind of you Greg, but my rendition is not even in the hunt.

This one (Ha-O3-LRGB Version (720:560:260:260:260:260 min) total 38,5 h, processing by Johannes Schedler)
is by far the best I have seen to date. We are all hacks compared to the Chart32 guys

Hi Peter,
no one here could ever beat CHART32 but yours
is still a fine image.
I bet from Melbourne I wouldn't pick up anything with my modest kit.


cheers
Allan