Laurin Dave

Just seen it in AN... 

to quote  "Normally we save amateur-images for ANs gallery but the science represented in this image means its is a little more than just a pretty picture" 

jolly well done Goran!

Dave

Very nice Olly, the Blues look slightly Green/Teal on my screen maybe reduce the yellow in Blue and Cyan?   I eagerly await your full Samyang 135 Hi Res enhanced Rho Ophiuchi Blue Horsehead mosaic.    ...  Also found out on a recent trip to see some friends in Northumberland that I know your old college friend Keith...    Small world!

Dave

Marvellous image, and very nicely processed.   You must have a very good southern horizon 

Dave 

3 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

A truly great image. Flawless. You are right to be pleased.

Olly

Thanks Olly

3 hours ago, barbulo said:

Wonderful pic. Well done!

Thanks barbulo

3 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

Fabulous image 👍 I don't think I've seen one this good.

Thanks MIke

2 hours ago, 900SL said:

Excellent.

Thank you

The Dusty Pleiades, another combination of data from multiple sources:-   Esprit100SX46 5.5 hrs Lum,  6hrs RGB,  GT71 ASI1600mm 6hrs RGB, Askar200ASI1600mm 4hrs RGB and Askar200ASI2600mc 4hrs RGB.  Processed in Pixinsight and Photoshop using the NSG script to combine all the colour data. Blur, Star and Noise Exterminators also used with great effect.  Stars are from the Esprit100SX46 RGB data.  Somewhat pleased with the result as with the combination of all  that colour data  (20hrs) I've finally managed to get some colour in the dust!

Thanks for looking 

Dave

14 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

Gorgeous and super-subtle. I really like the warm colours of your dust.

Olly

Thanks Olly..   Dust colour courtesy of balancing the red and green in the Histogram rather than removing the green with scnr, then boosted with the LAB colour Soft light method you showed me 

13 hours ago, tomato said:

Great processing, and a first class image.👍

Thanks Steve

4 hours on the Pleiades from November 2022, Samyang135 at f2.8 and ASI2600mc, gain zero minus10 300second subs.  Processed in Pixinsight :- calibration, cosmetic correction, debayer, reg, NSG, integration, DBE, Spectrophotometric colour calibration, BlurExterminator, StarExterminator, NoiseExterminator and stretching (ArcSinh, HT and GHS)) and Photoshop for colour enhancement, combining various levels of stretch and adding the stars back using Screen mode,

Thanks for looking 

Dave

Very nicely processed image of a difficult target.  Well done

Dave

Very nice Olly, lovely to see the colours of Orion in pure RGB.  Oh for dark skies.   I hope to extend and deepen my HaRGB version to match your FOV next time Orion comes around. 

Dave

Congratulations and well done..  great image

Dave

8 hours ago, Priesters said:

Thanks for the advice.  It seems I can put Darks behind me 👍.  As others have said I will dither to remove hot pixels but I'm also interested in your mention of using a bad pixel map.  When you created this, did you use a high gain setting and what about offset?  Also was it a single dark frame or did you stack several?  

I use a stack of 25 20 min darks taken at low gain ..  although this doesn’t matter as gain doesn’t change which pixels are bad..  I calibrate with Pixinsight and use the master dark in the Cosmetic Correction process with hot pixel rejection sigma set at 3..  Pixinsight then uses this to create the Bad Pixel map with which to correct the lights..  which it does very quickly..   

HTH

Dave

21 minutes ago, gorann said:

Looks really great and very inspirational Dave! Reminds me that it is high time give my Iris data the same treatment.

Thank you Goran, much appreciated

Dave

2 hours ago, Jasonb said:

As a purely Visual Observer (so far!) I find these kind of images just stunning. Beautiful work!

Thanks you Jason

1 hour ago, ollypenrice said:

That is mighty!

In particular, I don't think I've ever seen such an interesting Iris. As well as the elusive pinks, you have some rarely seen shafts of brown dustiness close to the core.

This region is an absolute 'must' for the Croman tools. They change everything.

Olly

Thanks Olly, much appreciated...  the Iris benefitted from Pixinsight's LHE and HDRM, with HDRM bringing out those shafts of dust.  Layered together and merged in Photoshop of course   .   I've also realised at last that too early application of SCNR or HLVG destroys the browns in dust. 

Dave

48 minutes ago, glafnazur said:

Beautifully done, one of the best images I've seen of the Iris 👍

Thank you

A reprocess of all the above data using Russ Croman's game changing BXT, SXT and NXT tools, Pixinsight and Photoshop.  Smaller more colourful stars, brown and more dust, more detail in the Iris..  Wide field and close up of the Iris.

Thanks for looking

Dave

I have ZWO and QHY cameras with the same sensor and use matching Bias only for Flats and Bias plus Bad Pixel map (from a long Dark) for Lights. It works fine and saves a lot of effort.  The Dark current with these sensors is next to nothing as you can confirm when  you get it.

Dave

Fabulous image Olly, what a difference these new tools make, not only do they improve the result I find they also save a bundle of time... Just as well as I now need to re-process all my data!  I love the tiny, halo free stars with better colour and background galaxies seemingly popping out of nowhere. The edge on spiral  in this image really stands out behind M63, sharper and deeper colour than your previous process.  My Ha data on galaxies seems to particularly benefit from the BXT,SXT, NXT treatment

Dave

21 minutes ago, ninjageezer said:

Can I ask what camera you use is it APS-C size or full frame. and are you happy with the edge to edge stars.

I'm beginning to think I have an issue with mine, got anther couple of hours in last night and got nowhere. I had the Z73 before this same camera no issues at all.

Its good at APSC size and pretty good at full frame when pointing high in the sky (wobbly focuser).   The original one purchased in 2020 had very poor corner stars even with an ASI1600 and was diagnosed as suffering from the objective pointing off centre with respect to the reducer. It was replaced by FLO.   

1 hour ago, ninjageezer said:

Do you currently have a GT71 

Indeed I do..  focuser could be better though in terms of flex 

2 hours ago, alpal said:

That's amazing -

you could make a poster 5 meters wide and it would still be sharp.

cheers

Allan

Thank you Allan..

1 hour ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

A lot of likes and comments but many of them not much more than one word and after looking at that superb image for some considerable time I see why, it really does take your breath away and leave you in awe, and almost speechless.

After regaining my breath and power of speech:
How great to see such a wide field image of  a very busy piece of the sky with regions we all know and where there are targets we have all imaged but never really see them in  such context to each other.

A tremendous project, really well done and thank-you so much for sharing with us 🙂 

Steve

Thanks  Steve..   much appreciated..   I've just about recovered now after a long lie down  

Dave

3 hours ago, alan potts said:

That is as good as any image I have seen from any photographer on here and lets face it some of them are pretty damn good.

Alan

Thank you Alan...  

Dave

35 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

That really is super. It also made me chuckle because we happen to be doing just the same project here...  Full Samyang 135 Orion enhanced in regions of interest by telescopic data. We have the full height in the can but need another strip down the left hand side to finish the framing properly. I think we'll be lucky to catch it this season because we've had some down time with mount issues, an electronic problem, a broken bracket (Do not buy the Wega Samyang lens holder) and a local internet shut down. You couldn't make it up.)

It's very interesting to compare your result with ours. We have no Ha,  just OSC, so you're deeper on the gas and our balance of gas-dust differs, not surprisingly.  I'd say we've made quite a few similar processing decisions and a few rather different ones but it's probably reassuring to see that the images are remarkably similar, really. It shows we don't just make this stuff up!

Anyway, a great piece of work with well-judged blending of the telescopic bits. Had I not imaged this myself in the Samyang I wouldn't have been able to tell it had been enhanced. It's seamless.

Olly

 

Thank you Olly,  much appreciated.  Looking forward to seeing your version, hopefully not too long a wait.  

Dave

I gathered some Ha over top right the last two nights to enhance Barnard's Loop (and obscure the noisy stuff underneath  ) ...  here it is

Dave

20 hours ago, knobby said:

Wow, seriously impressive and congratulations on your dedication !

Thanks knobby 

Dave

21 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

This is tremendous. What a vista. I've always thought it ironic that, the shorter the focal length of an instrument, the better it is for making mosaics. I was never tempted by mosaics when using long FLs but always want to use widefield setups to go wider still. Also, the apparent resolution improves to the point at which you'd hardly notice the difference between, say, a Samyang image and a very-multi-panel telescopic one.

This is gorgeous though, personally, I'd bring down the red saturation in the California.

Olly

Thank you Olly, much appreciated.  Short fast focal lengths combined with small pixels and the latest tools, Normalise Scale Gradient (you probably don't need this, but us Bortle4/5 dwellers do) and Russ Croman's BXT, SXT and NXT work very well., and yes its a bit too red!

Dave

As @scotty38 says to start with you need to adjust the flattener to 9.1mm.  I found with mine that in-order to fine tune the flattener spacing (from 9.1) I needed to remove the rotator to get some extra back focus.  Once I'd got the spacing correct I put the rotator back and all was fine. Hopefully be the same with yours