The Final Hubble Eagle

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

After a few days of reworking and reprocessing (lots of fun) I have settled on this framing and combination of data from two telescopes and two cameras to finish with a nice compromise - a medium wide field of the main nebula region.

I wanted to show maximum FOV while maintaining the highest amount of structural detail and stay more true to the traditional Hubble pallet of colours, hopefully I have acheived this finally?

Here is the usual album of variations for you to have a geek at.

To see the largest file in each case, click on a thumbnail and select "original" size at the bottom of the image page that opens

http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/the_eagle_nebula

Thanks for looking and putting up with the progressive nature of this imaging exercise, I think that should be it for now?

Mike

[Octane (Humayun)]

Mike,

Absolutely beautiful. All of them.

Needs (more) diffraction spikes, though.

I'm still wading through old threads, but, noticed you posted some other images. I'll get to viewing them soon.

Regards,
Humayun

[TheDecepticon]

Well done, love narrow band images!!

[gregbradley]

Nicely done Mike. The stars look great. Only minor thing that catches my attention is that area of green above the pillars.Otherwise its a wrap.

Greg.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Awesome rendition Mike. Love it.

Originally Posted by gregbradley

Nicely done Mike. The stars look great. Only minor thing that catches my attention is that area of green above the pillars.Otherwise its a wrap.
Greg.

I think it's actually there Greg. If I recall someone telling me once it's H beta, close to Ha that turns up green in the hubble palette. Same thing is at the tip of the HH in similar NB pics.

[Hagar (Doug)]

Very nice detailed image Mike. This colour scheme is much easier on the eyes than the green or the often flouoro colours used in NB imaging.

I like it a lot.

[gregbradley]

I think it's actually there Greg. If I recall someone telling me once it's H beta, close to Ha that turns up green in the hubble palette. Same thing is at the tip of the HH in similar NB pics.[/QUOTE]

Oh yes I realise its there - its a strong Ha area in the image as Ha is assigned to the green channel in NB Hubble palette. Problem in NB Hubble is the Ha signal is many times stronger than O111 and especially S11 hence the tendency for the image to be predominantly green with some blue areas. The challenge I think in NB is to tame this green dominant phenomena with a more balanced palette. Russell Croman is probably the king of NB and so Ken Crawford the prince so examples of their work make a great template for a very pleasing colour balance (Russell's in particular, a 20inch RCOS and New Mexico skies no doubt help!).

I notice Astrodon is selling N11 (nitrogen11) filters. They seem to give a strong image on supernova remnants etc. Could be a nice alternative to S11 which is a bit of a pain really. There's also a helium filter but not sure how strong that signal is. You can also spin a polarising filter (I have one but never used it) through various degrees (the side of the filter is marked) 45 90 120 270 degrees to give 4 different exposures and then assign them to colour channels in photoshop to get a polarised colour image. It would work on Eta Carina, M1.

Another great image by the way. You pump them out with that setup Mike to a consistently high standard.

Greg.

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Cheers greg you are to kind

Regards the Astronomiks, my complete set is the 11.8nm band pass set so I recon that's the best for time miserly imagers, not too wide not too narrow. The new low refection quality is obviously an improvement too and I think the price is good. If you are determined to minimise the stars, don't have to guide through the filters and/or have the luxury of being able to easily do longer exposures (or have an F5 or faster scope ) then the 6nm set might be the go

Mike