[SteveL]

The image here is the outcome of an idea that started last week, when I saw Maurice Toet’s (mftoet) 4 pane Mosaic of Orion’s sword area , and realised that it matched almost exacty the area I imaged in Hydrogen Alpha at Kelling Heath a few weeks back. Maurice was kind enough to provide me with the TIF file of the mosaic, and I set to work in combining the two sets of data.

Using Registar, PixInsight and CS2, and adding in some Hydrogen Alpha data as luminance for B33 and NGC2024 from Daz and TJ, the many many hours of trial and error produced the following image. It was an absolute joy to work on, and I am not sure it could be improved all that much without a major rework from scratch. It is one of those images that require a decently calibrated monitor, as my laptop screen shows it too light and salmon pink, while my decent screens at home and at work all show a vibrant Ha red in the background.

The details for the image data used in this final version are listed after the image. I would like to thank Maurice, Darren and Tim for all helping this project by allowing me to use their data.

I hope you enjoy looking at this image as much as I have enjoyed working on it!

(Click on image for larger version)


RGB Mosaic Data
Name: Maurice Toet (mftoet)
OTA: Takahashi FSQ-106ED @ f/5
Imaging: Q453-HR (QHY8)
Mount: Losmandy GM-8
Taken from : Etoile St. Cyrice, Hautes-Alpes, France
Date: January 25 – 26 and 27 – 28, 2009
Web: Astrophotography by Maurice Toet | www.dutchdeepsky.com

Widefield Hydrogen Alpha data
Name: Steve Loughran (SteveL)
OTA: Borg 60 @ f/3.8
Imaging: SXVF M25C
Mount: EQ6
Taken from: Kelling Heath Star Party
Date: September 12th, 2010
Web: Steve’s Astro

RGB M42/M43/NGC1977 data (used as Luminance)
Name: Steve Loughran (SteveL)
OTA: Skywatcher 190 MakNewt @ f/5.3
Imaging: QHY8
Mount: EQ6
Taken from: Cambridge, UK
Date: December 6th, 2008
Web: Steve’s Astro

Horsehead (B33) Hydrogen Alpha data (used as Luminance)
Name: Darren Jehan (Daz)
OTA: 12″ f/4 newtonian
Imaging: SXVF-H9
Mount: EQ6
Taken from: Kelling Heath Star Party
Date: September 12th, 2010
Web: The Alan Norman Observatory - Home Page

Flame (NGC2024) Hydrogen Alpha data (used as Luminance)
Name: Tim Jardine (TJ)
OTA: Celestron C9.25 @ ~f/6
Imaging: SX H9
Mount: EQ6
Taken from: Coventry,UK
Date: December 1st, 2009

[Breakintheclouds]

Allow me to pick my jaw from the floor. Stunning. Simply stunning.

There surely has to be some scope (ha ha) for UK astrophotographers to collaborate this was in a more organized fashion in the future. That is, specifically plan to capture different aspects of the same target, thereby allowing each component much more acquisition time.

[brantuk]

Awesome Steve - gobsmacked here lol

[barkis]

This ought to hang on a wall at the next Astrofest. It deserves it.
We can only gawp at it, because words can't do it justice.
Ron.

[Tim]

The irony is that while the main part of the image was being captured at Kelling heath, the vast majority of the campers had given up on the patchy cloud conditions and turned in for the night. Those who stayed the course were rewarded with really good skies from around 3am on as I recall. Certainly, seeing this one roll out of your Borg and onto the laptop made it a lot easier to stay awake

The combined image is simply stunning Steve. Worth every hour spent on it.

[Earl]

Stunning!!

Id love to see that in 3D

[BeyondVision]

A great collaboration Steve and what a result. Just imagine being able to see this with your own eyes. Not many people realise how colourful the skies would be. This image certainly brings it into perspective

Regards

Kevin

[Deneb]

Simply saying Awesome is not good enough here...

Nadeem.

[Moonshane]

I'm not at all religious but this makes me feel 'spiritual' - simply awe-inspiring it gives me butterflies for some reason..........

[russ]

Originally Posted by Deneb

Simply saying Awesome is not good enough here...

Nadeem.

Better than awesome! Amazing work Steve.

[Coco]

=

[cloudbuster]

Thats a real gem of an image....well done guys!

[iamjulian]

Blimey. Nice!

[red dwalf]

how do you do that !
amazing image, do you do this for a living ?

[ollypenrice]

I can remember Maurice working away in the kitchen looking at how to put the original RGB image together in Registar and the result was a knockout. The addition of Ha and other detailed contributions has transformed it form outstanding to downright staggering. This image is utterly, utterly, magnificent. Well done to all involved.

This was one of my winter projects but now I'm not sure!! Thos one will be remembered for a very long time indeed.

Olly

[NickH]

Fantastic image, if you compare to the winner of the APOTY deep sky this year, pretty close..so well done indeed

[SteveL]

Thanks to all who have commented so far, its nice to get some feedback (after being up most of the night with my 9 month old!).

RBA's APOTY winning image is a step or two above this one for the finer detail, but then I am sure we would all do much better with clearer skies (and more of them) so we can hone our skills more easily.

[Shibby]

Surely this is an artist's impression Can't wait to get a look at Orion this year.

[RobH]

Magnificent

Well done to all involved

Cheers
Rob

[zedds]

Incredible. Absolutely stunning.

[daz]

It is most definitely awe-inspiring!!

It looks quite amazing on my 24" calibrated screen at home, and I am extremely chuffed to have been asked to have my data included!

Massive thanks to Steve for all the processing hours he has put in!

[merlinxlm]

Absolutely stunning. Must be one of the best images I've ever seen.

[harry]

Truly spectacular. Belongs in an astronomy book

[shaunster]

Simply one of the best images ive seen!

[Doug]

Steve
Simply Stunning well done, loved the large size Image
Doug
Essex