NGC1318 BUTTERFLY NEBULA (Work in Progress mosaic)

[SlipperySquid]

Hi all

This is a work in progress mosaic consisting of two panes that have been slightly cropped and I'm looking to add at least one more pane to the top.Hope fully finishing it off in the Hubble palette but that's a long way off yet.

I have some halo's around the stars and think this was mainly due to high cloud but they look ok and can be processed out at a later date.

15minute subs in Ha with 3 hours for each pane. There's some really nice detail in the clouds which I surprised by due to only having 3hours but then I remember I am now imaging at F4.8 (televue reducer/flattener) so all's good!

Anyway thanks for taking the time to have a looksee. Feel free to comment on what you think could be improved upon.

Clear skies all,

Matt

[davew]

Hi Matt,

That is a really good foundation for further work. Good shape to the stars and fine detail in the dust. A sign of good guiding. Plenty of fine detail in the main dark lane that could be teased out.

From personal experience it looks like you have internal reflections between the filter and the CCD or rear of the reducer. Most likely the former. Careful processing would get rid of most of that.

I feel that the major effects of thin high cloud are fuzziness around bright stars that may be reduced very successfully with gentle deconvolution. Watch for dark rings.

Due to the resolution you're working at, I'm really looking forward to seeing above and to the right of Sadr. There are some beautiful streaks and swirls up there.

Good luck with doing it all three times ! Narrowband mosaics are a trial of enthusiasm over sense

Dave.

[SlipperySquid]

Thanks Dave,

Great advice there which I will act upon! There's no real processing done on the image yet just a couple of stretches as I don't see the point at the moment due to it being a mosaic and not complete. or I could just be lazy...

As to another couple of panes..yeah why not, in for a penny as they say! I do some times struggle for targets in my urban location so to be able to really sink my teeth into this project is what I'm aiming for.

I have a feeling you might be right ref the halo's. I have a spacer between the CCD and the filter wheel, I may be better off putting the spacer after the reducer then filter wheel then ccd?

Thanks again mate,

Matt.

[ollypenrice]

Great! It's wonderful to see these huge structures in large mosaics.

On the processing I wouldn't go too far till you have it all in or you'll never get the add ons to look blended. I can never resist though, so I redo them once fully assembled.

As Dave implies, I think there is more to be had by working on local contrasts (and deconvolution applied as a layer and only where constructive might indeed 'de-haze' the stars.) However, that is a cracker and not often seen other than in camera lenses.

Olly

[davew]

You are quite right re processing Matt. Not worth doing too much until it's all in.

Re halos. Have a look here - http://www.astrodon.com/articles_faq/articles_faq/press_release:391,355,49

About 1/4 of the way down is a formula for finding reflection surface distance. Problem is, you could make the halo larger and less distinct or smaller and more distinct. Have a look and then may be have a play around.

If we had more clear skies this would be fun to sort out. As we don't then it isn't.

Still love the image so far,

Dave.

[Gina]

Very nice

[farunj]

Simply stunning!! Wow!!

[SlipperySquid]

Thanks for the replies ladies and gents! Really appreciate you taking the time out!

Just for giggles I did a quick process of the image, bit of star reduction and fiddled about with the larger halo and to finish up a bit of sharpening.

Uploading this from photobucket so it may resize smaller than I'd like.

Thanks again all!