Orion's Sword - Widefield Ha

[Hytham]

Good evening everyone!

I've been working away on a mosaic that has me pulling my hair out - nothing seems to be going right - I needed to shift gears to another image to relieve the stress.

I thought a timeless classic was in order and one of my favourites in Ha - a widefield of Orion's Sword.  I did make a couple of small mistakes (I forgot to feather and smooth one of my masks ... hece the halo on the Horse Head).  I do plan on fixing it at some point

All comments and criticims are welcome (I'm a big boy, constructive criticism is a great thing!)

Thank you for looking.

Info:

Equipment:  Tak, FLI, Astrodon, AP
Integration: 3h 45m (4x900s, 8x1200s, 10x30s [core])
Software: Pixinsight for heavy lifting, PS for aesthetics, SGP for capture

Click for a larger size:

 

[stargazerslivingroom]

Not for me to criticise...That's really lovely!

So is the equipment in your signature...WOW!

Steve

[Jonny99]

I agree steve lovely pic  

Would love to do something like this maybe if i ever win euromillions

[Gina]

More than lovely, that's magnificent

[Zakalwe]

Oh boy...what an image! Look at all that dust!

[Luke]

Wow, breatktaking. Amazing to think that that is the sword we see with the MkI eyeball.

[ultranova]

wow lots and lots of dust, a bit like my equipment at the moment,

gathering dust but the wrong sort, damn weather.

Really nice capture, I like the HA version, but some colour to this will set it alight,

Do you have any plans to add any colour.

[SkyJamie]

Superb image

[Hytham]

Thank you, all.  The camera's dynamic range definitely helps with the really faint stuff.

I do have a colour version of it, and unfortunately all my luminance data turned out to be pure garbage.  I used a synth luminance, but it was taken from 2x2 binned colour data ... not very much detail in there.  Working on through it and will post it up if/when I'm satisfied.

Thanks again for looking and appreciate the comments.

-Hytham

 

[ollypenrice]

This is fabulous. I love, without reservation, the broad background structures rarely seen. OK, you need to fix the Horse halo but that's a detail you'll sort easily.

I'll express one small reservation, though. The moment I opened the image it said 'Pixinsight.' This is really seen in M42, which has the 'PI wavelets' look. I don't really see it eleswhere. The rest of the image looks thoroughly 'yours' and totally natural, though very remarkable. 

This is a splendid image and if it weren't so damned good I'd be far less fussy! Well done.

Olly

[Ewan]

Remarkable.

Mono is so aweinspiring at that level, detail is breathtaking.

[Andy_E]

So much detail there it took me a minute to navigate round the photo! Love it!

[Hytham]

Thank you!

Olly, I agree that M42 does look like it has the signature PI look to it, but it's in fact all done in PS.  It's a combination of HDR, shadows/highlights, high pass and several masks with differing blend modes.  Trying to figure out how I wanted M42 to look was the hardest part and I finally gave up after a little over 20 iterations. 

This hobby is a mental condition.  I swear it.

[ollypenrice]

Heh heh, well you got me there! Maybe its the HDR tools you used that give the PI look.

Whatever, it's a wonderful image. Benchmark stuff.

You're dead right about the 'mental condition' too. But that's true of anything really worth doing.

Olly

[Uranium235]

This hobby is a mental condition.  I swear it.

Youre not wrong!!! It almost as if you need to be pathological in your approach to everything - setup, capture and processing.

Cracking pic, something Im going to have a stab at later in the year. But something tells me that processing will take more time than the actual capture! (many, many layer masks!)

[Special K]

That is truly remarkable! I love seeing these mosaics. Looks like smoke and amazing to see the flows and contour. Thanks for posting the fruits of your labor and sharing.

+1 for the mental condition hobby

[Hytham]

My girlfriend will always walk by me and say one word to me ; "obsessed" and continue walking on by. She is far too understanding at times. Which leads perfectly into the rest of my post ... I fixed the halo:

[Nibor]

What an amazing image!!  Well impressed!!

[iksose7]

Fantastic image Hytham certainly one for everyone to try and aspire to in the coming months!

[Fish]

Very nice .

[Nibor]

I really can't get over this image!! - Whereabouts was it taken from? What was the light pollution like?

I have just done a search on the kit items -  really desirable !!!

[Hytham]

I really can't get over this image!! - Whereabouts was it taken from? What was the light pollution like?

I have just done a search on the kit items -  really desirable !!!

Thanks!

It was taken from a bortle red zone in Woodbury and Afton, MN, USA (the total population is approximately 4million [surrounding suburbs inclusive]) out of my driveway or a little place on a hill in my little hiding spot.  With 5nm Ha (I should have purchased the 3nm instead) one doesn't have to worry about light pollution, or moon light for that matter.  It's great and provides some fantastic contrast. 

The kit is pretty sweet and the last 4-5 months have been one heck of a learning curve trying to figure out how to process. 

[Fay]

I;m taken aback!!! Never seen so much detail, takes a long time to absorb all the info.

Fay

[x6gas]

Wowzers!  I agree with all the plaudits above, that's very nice indeed.

I've always thought that the Horsehead is more like a seahorse than a horse-horse and to me this looks like a seahorse popping it's head out of a swirling sea.  Lovely stuff.

[ollypenrice]

Good job on the halo, Hytham. Spot on.

Olly