A couple of widefield shots

[Martin Pugh]

Hi everyone
these two images are a little silly really, given the image scale and field of view.

The first is a 4deg x 4deg view with M95 and M96 on center. There are literally loads of other background galaxies and M105/M106 are in there too. I love the little face on spiral right at the bottom of the image field.

This is LRGB 4.5:2:2:2 hours (SBIG STX), and the luminance was the subject of my "extreme gradient removal" demo at AIC this year.

half-sized (1.2Mb)
http://tinyurl.com/28vyulw

Full-sized (5.5Mb)
http://tinyurl.com/27zhuul

The second is the Cocoon nebula; again, the image scale is no good for detail in the nebula itself, but I love the way this appears to have spun through space, leaving a trail behind it, before coming to a stop. That's what I was going after but what I didnt expect is the abundance of hydrogen in the background, and the Ha frames were full of it.

http://tinyurl.com/29azoux (3.5Mb)

This is L (Ha+R)RGB of 7.5:2:2:2 hours (FLI Proline 16803). There are 2 mag 15 galaxies in the lower right of the image, but they are a little obscured.

My weather has closed in for a good while now, so its back to reprocessing.

thanks for looking
cheers
Martin

[paulF (Paul)]

I found the first two and especially the 5.5MB one AMAZING!Love this sort of images !
Good stuff!

[dannat (Daniel)]

martin lovely shots- what size glass was it thru? & f/l? -you have put in some serious time on the w/f's

[Martin Pugh]

Thanks gents - Daniel, the scope used is an FSQ106N at f5 (530mm f/l)

cheers
Martin

[supernova1965 (Warren)]

what do you mean silly I thought they were great and well outside what I thought was possible earthbased.

Well done Congrats

[gregbradley]

Great images Martin.

I'd love to hear about your extreme gradient technique. Is available anywhere?

Greg.

[jase (Jason)]

Fantastic work Martin. Wouldn't call the wide fields "silly". Nothing silly about the super flat fields the FSQ delivers, regardless of target! A tremendous quantity of background faint fuzzys on display. Great image.

...and boy does it deliver! The Cocoon nebula looks like a soft marsh-mellow amongst a diamond sea. Don't often see such a wide field perspective of the target. Really like the composition with the river of dust streaming below. Top shelf!

Cheers

[CoolhandJo (Paul)]

Great stuff! Both images are super flat! Very striking.

[TheAstroGuy (Shane Ross)]

Martin,

Totally onboard with that one, that little spiral is so perfect!!, it's the true definition of a front on spiral and so detailed, LOVED THESE IMAGES!!

Gotta say i love seeing different images like this, sensational to view

Kind Regards

Shane

[multiweb (Marc)]

Amazing clarity and details in those little galaxies. Love the colors you got out of them too. Very very nice.

[jenchris (Jennifer)]

Wow - no other words

[Hagar (Doug)]

Very nice Martin, At first look I thought how tiny this image is and not your usual. Then I clicked the mouse button and up it came. WOW fantastic detail in such tiny little galaxies. Blew me away totally.

[RobF (Rob)]

Yes, wonderful work and thanks for showing us Martin. For a moment I started to think you had managed to get a modified 450D to do this when you mentioned widefield in the title, then my senses returned

Stunning combination in the Proline and FSQ

[Ken Crawford (KenC)]

Both are masterpieces and that image scale really shows perspective!

Nicely done!

Regards,

[TrevorW]

I like well done

[Paul Haese]

Nice work Martin. I am just wondering with the Cocoon nebula image if the background is not a little too red? Is this part of the surround nebulosity?

Lots of nice galaxies in the first image and yes I could see the two galaxies in the second image.

[Martin Pugh]

Hello all and many thanks for the posts - I had hesitated many times before finally deciding to post those 2.

Paul - as I mentioned in the opening post, I was very surprised at the amount of hydrogen in the surrounding area - what I can do, is post the Ha only image and you can see for yourself.

Too red? Possibly, yes, but there is a lot of hydrogen there!

cheers
Martin