Working on a Narrowband Mosaic Project: ~20 panels per channel

[antimorris]

Yes, you read the title right, this is going to be a massive undertaking for me and I expect it will last until Cygnus is too far west to image this year. I am making my little Atik 314L+ work for its keep and am making a giant mosaic of the Pelican & North American Nebulas with the 314 and my Orion EON 80ED. I am at the moment working on the Ha, then will go back and do the SII & OIII. So far I have 8 panels, each are 10x1200s. Normally I would do longer than just 200 min per panel, but since this thing is going to be so large I am leaving it at that.

The 8 panels I have so far are already 55x65inches large. I think this whole thing could be wall size by the time I am done

I will add on to this thread throughout the summer as I get more panels and then as I move on to the other narrowband channels.

Here is higher res (though still had to half-size it to fit their ize restrictions) on Flickr: Pelican Nebula - Mosaic - 8 panels-Flickr | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

and shrunken down for the forum along with a crop of just the Pelican from it:

[ashworthacca]

This is stunning already so I can't wait for the final image.....I'm definitely keeping a big eye on your progress on this one.

Superb stuff.

[AndyUK]

Fantastic Anna - I Agree with Martin - The frames so far already look stunning... and when this is complete in full narrowband it will look incredible.

(200 mins/pane, 20 panes/channel, 3 channels... I make that 200 hours ?)

[ollypenrice]

Quality in depth - and breadth! This is already glorious. Have you considered doing a DSLR version (big chip, fast) and applying your Ha to that?

What is great about this region, to me, is the fact that the shapes of the nebulae extend beyond the parts which are ionized so you see the clouds continue in subdued tones after the glowing pinks have faded. You have the scale to capture this effect.

Olly

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Brilliant images, really impressive.

[antimorris]

Olly - I have never had much luck with my DSLR and DSOs . . . The Nikon/lens combo I have just has too much noise and I have never had great results (then again I haven't spent TOO much time trying) - I have the piggyback for it to try more, just haven't gotten around to it yet - maybe I will piggyback it next time I am out imaging then and run a sequence to see how it does.

Michael - thanks!

[msinclairinork]

WOW Anna! If you do manage to get all your data in by the end of the year please make sure you send it in to astro photographer of the year competition! Because I think this would certainly be a worthy candidate!

Keep up the good work!

Michael

[antimorris]

I am still chipping away at this project as I get clear nights (few and far between the last few weeks unfortunately) ... Here is how it looks now ...

10 panels, cumulatively over 33 hrs so far. What I am posting here is about 1/8th size and resolution so hopefully it doesn't take too long to load.

Forecast is looking promising for later in the week so I am hoping to knock out a bunch more before the weekend is out if I am lucky and the weather holds.

[msinclairinork]

Looking really really good!!

Michael

[ashworthacca]

Looking superb Anna....

[johnh]

This will be a glorious wonder when finished just in Ha so with S2 and O3 its very ambitious, hope you have a glorious summer of good weather.

John.

[roundycat]

wouldn't this be a lot easier with the same camera orientation for each panel?

Dennis

[antimorris]

Dennis - LOL, yes and for the rest they will be the same orientation as the last 2 panels (that is what the first 2 were as well) but I wanted to finish the Pelican first so I rotated it to square off those sides. By my map plan I would only added 2 panels by doing it this way since although they are oriented differently they still covered a good bit of the space the original orientation did so I finished up the Pelican so I had that image on its own as well first, I figured 2 extra panels would be worth that to me. Also, I do obviously have the right edge trimmed of excess since I thought I would end it where I have on that edge, but looking at my stack before I trimmed I think I can eek out a bit more on that side without adding but maybe 1 more panel so I will have a little more on that side of the Pelican in the next round of processing (ie after I get another panel I will rework)

I admit it does end up looking a bit haphazard if you are trying to follow the progression here but despite that there is a plan The majority of the rest of the plan follows the latest orientation (until the last couple).

[roundycat]

What caught my eye is the reference to 20 panels. I am trying to do a narrowband NA Neb + Pelican and so far (two weeks?) all I have is 25m of Ha using FSQ/STL. At least I can get it all in one frame but at this rate it will still take me eight years.

Dennis

[AndyUK]

At least I can get it all in one frame but at this rate it will still take me eight years

. Maybe you could use the project to write a book about how you did it...?! . That would be some serious dedication, although I think even Anna's will end up taking well over 200 hrs (which is still an amazing committment... )

It looks superb, Anna! I wouldn't mind betting you get quite a few more people subscribing to this thread, just to watch the progress... However, I also suspect you're going to have to link to the image rather than posting it sooner or later, although the detail visible in a smaller image will be absolutely stunning...!

[antimorris]

Another panel done. Some edge cropping to coincide on the right and bottom with my plan for the final mosaic. Definitely getting too big to post on here so here is a link (even there I had to shrink it to 20% to upload to Flickr!)

edit: updated the link with another night's panel added to the photo:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/akryger/5795978033/in/photostream

[AndyUK]

And still looking superb...! How big is the cumulative raw file now...?

[antimorris]

Somewhere around 230MB, but that is after they have all been converted to tiffs ...

[AndyUK]

That must look amazing on your screen, scrolling around the whole image @ 1:1...

[antimorris]

Andy - yeah it is kinda getting impressive to be able to zoom in so much from what you see as the full frame on screen to 1:1. Although this is a really long-term project, I am enjoying it so far.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Another panel done. Some edge cropping to coincide on the right and bottom with my plan for the final mosaic. Definitely getting too big to post on here so here is a link (even there I had to shrink it to 20% to upload to Flickr!)

IC5070-NGC 4000 mosaic - 11panels-20percent size | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Brilliant stuff! I really like seeing this project progressing and the image growing. Therefore, I hate to sound pedantic, but on the flickr page the caption is wrong: NGC 4000 should be NGC 7000

[antimorris]

OOPS! That's what I get for staying up for several nights in a row! It's fixed now - thanks for the sanity check!

[antimorris]

Got Mexico done last night ..... here is the plan as it stands now. I explain the odd angles in the description.

Mosaic Plan

[AndyUK]

And STILL looking superb...! It's also very helpful to see the rest of your plan - Thanks. I suspect it might be a bit of a relief to get the Ha completed and start on the next filter. As you say though, the forecast isn't brilliant but at least it gives us all a chance to catch up on sleep (Oh and work that I've neglected as I've been too tired!)

[antimorris]

Andy -

Thanks. I am looking forward to moving on to the next filter, but trying not to look too far ahead else I might start shortening the subs which I don't want to do. I am still trying to decide whether it will be better to do 45min unbinned for SII & OIII or 20-30 min subs binned 2x2. I am leaning towards binned just because I hear that they are fairly faint and 30 minutes binned 2x2 might produce some nice results and seeing how ridiculously large this is already, I don't think I need the extra resolution of having SII & OIII unbinned like the Ha is. What do you all think?