A beginning of something large - 20 panel mosaic of NGC7000 started (Status: 20/20 complete - in post processing)

[graemlourens]

Hi Everybody.

(Update: Scroll below to see versions with more panels)

I've been completing lots of targets in the last 3 months and was capturing more data than i could really process. It lead to a kind of factory line mentality on my part and didn't feel right anymore. I want to have a target where i will be spending 1-2 years on it as a rolling project.
@ollypenrice once mentioned on this forum, that all targets have pretty much been imaged, and with far better scopes than most of us use. The only thing where you can stand out with is with spending gigantic amount of time on one target and doing high resolution mosaics, as most professionals can not spend that amount of time on one target.

It stuck with me, and i have decided to go for a huge 20 pane mosaic (i've got 2750 x 2200px sensor, so end result will be approx 10'000 px times 10'000 px and will lead to a 100 mega pixel (minus cropping & overlaps) image of the north american nebula as that target its rewarding in size & depth in my opinion. It will probably stay mono & HA forever, but thats subject to change. This would be much easier with a much larger sensor, but i will do with what i have, and my moderate ED80 will deserve a medal if it will stay with me until i finish this mosaic.

Each Panel currently has approx 8 hours of exposure, so until now i have already 48 hours, done over a mere 5 nights, all this September (we've had tremendous luck here with weather this year)

Here's what i've got until now. Nearly no processing, just tiny sharpening/contrasting & NR (4 Minutes invested). Here is a downsized resolution version as an appetizer:

I'll keep this thread up to date while i add more rows & columns.

Kind regards, Graem

[Gina]

Nice start

[ollypenrice]

Great propject. Best of luck. One of the hardest things is to keep the field curvature under control. If you can make the PI system work you can register all panels to a chart of the region and solve the problem that way. We didn't manage to suss it out though!

Olly

[Gina]

There you are then - the gauntlet is down   Good luck   Hope it's rather better than I had last time I tried a mosaic

Edited September 26, 2016 by Gina

[graemlourens]

Hi Olly & Gina.

Thx for your replies!

@ollypenrice Yes indeed. I already once registered an ultra-widefield DSLR mosaic in PI with manual registration to a generated star map, it works very well, even under very extreme conditions. In these 6 Panels i guess i already have curvature and looking forward to having a harder time putting it together. The harder it gets, the more rewarding the experience will be

P.s. the image above is a simple Staralignment in PI with 'register/mosaic' Option. Not even Gradient merge mosaiced. I was extremely surprised to not even find one seam. As the noise levels are pretty much the same in all masters, it was a joy and a 1.5 minute effort.

Kind regards, Graem

Edited September 26, 2016 by graemlourens

[graemlourens]

Hi Everybody.

Last 2 panels for this year, totalling 66.6 hours exposure (7400px by 4700px currently). Nearly at my personal record! See you next year with an update!

Getting harder and harder to register, took over 100 iterations to clear out the distortion  This will be a challenge, i can smell it! (The mosaic below is 4 min stretched and contrasted, no gradients handled, just a quick temp mosaic)

Kind regards, Graem

[graemlourens]

P.s. i caught something on the lower right side. Looks like a tiny nebula. Image solving and annotating in Pixinsight did not reveal anything with the catalogs i had available.

Anybody knows what this is?

Kind regards, Graem

[Rodd]

Amazing project--I did a 2 panel mosaic using PI and it worked very well.   Not as good as yours, but it was fun (Bubble Claw HST pallette).  Not sure I want to do another--maybe if I had more clear nights in a eow--but putting together 50-60 hours of data takes too long due to clouds.  

[PatrickGilliland]

Nice start to an impressive project Gream.  Admire your application and patience.  Great work so far and will keep an eye on your  progress.

11 hours ago, graemlourens said:

P.s. i caught something on the lower right side. Looks like a tiny nebula. Image solving and annotating in Pixinsight did not reveal anything with the catalogs i had available.

Anybody knows what this is?

Kind regards, Graem

PLN 84+ 1.1 - Planetary Neb look to be the most likely candidate.

 

Cheers

 

Paddy 

Edited September 28, 2016 by PatrickGilliland

[graemlourens]

7 minutes ago, PatrickGilliland said:

Nice start to an impressive project Gream.  Admire your application and patience.  Great work so far and will keep an eye on your  progress.

PLN 84+ 1.1 - Planetary Neb

 

Cheers

 

Paddy 

Paddy thank you! And thank you for finding out what this 'thing' was How did you figure it out?

P.s. can we give it a nicer name? I'd vote for Chewing gum nebula.

Kind regards, Graem

Edited September 28, 2016 by graemlourens

[PatrickGilliland]

Tbh i like protostars and thought it was one to start but i quick review showed in was a PLN check approx location in SKY X and is sitting there.

Let's see if you can blend gum into your image - if it works its a yes.

Paddy

[Tom OD]

Great work. Ahhh Mosaics, the only way to go

T.

 

[graemlourens]

Hi Tom

Thx for your reply! Yes, i did get addicted i must say. Now i need a lot of patience until next year....

Kind regards, Graem

[graemlourens]

Hi Everybody.

Its exactly 364 days later, and in the past 8 weeks i have added 4 full panels, totalling now at 12 of 20 panels and current integration time of nearly 90 hours to date.

This is just a temporary mosaic so i can see the progress as it goes. The real careful stitching and processing will only come when i have all panels complete probably next year.
Pixinsight is still doing a great job at merging these mosaics, but its now a 50 megapixel image and everything takes a lot of time! But i am so excited to have done some progress, this is truly a project requiring patience...

Kind regards, Graem

P.s. Thank you @steppenwolf for editing the title

Edited September 29, 2017 by graemlourens

[steppenwolf]

2 hours ago, graemlourens said:

P.s. Thank you @steppenwolf for editing the title

My pleasure - a very nice wide field too, keep going!

[Shibby]

Very impressive! Don't forget to add Oiii, Sii, R, G and B. Just another 100 panels  

[graemlourens]

2 hours ago, Shibby said:

Very impressive! Don't forget to add Oiii, Sii, R, G and B. Just another 100 panels  

Thats not funny! I sometimes have nightmares about that...

[Allinthehead]

This is looking great.

[ollypenrice]

1 hour ago, graemlourens said:

Thats not funny! I sometimes have nightmares about that...

I have nightmares about the next project Tom O'Donoghue wants to rope me into... 

This is going really well.

Olly

[Rodd]

Definitely have your work cut out for you.  Good luck.  Looks good so far

Rodd

[Stu]

Looking fabulous already Graem, keep at it!!

[Barry-Wilson]

I have to admire your dedication Graem .  Lovely mono mosaic and good luck for the remainder.

[planetman83]

It's very impressive my friend. Your patience is also admirable!

[graemlourens]

Thank you all for your kind words.

It is a very rewarding feeling to having a very long term project in parallel to the 'fast' images one can produce. It gives a totally new attitude towards the result that i was missing when i was pushing out 2 images per month.

But i would not be able to have the patience if i was only focusing on this project and not doing a few targets on the side, so its all 'in the mix'

Kind regards, Graem

[graemlourens]

Hi everybody.

I can't believe it, but i think the data capturing of this project has come to and end (no jokes about other filters please! :) )

Yesterday i completed the last of the frames needed to complete the 20 pane mosaic. I'm sitting on +- 132 hours of data and will have to take a huge breath to start working on it (and probably several glasses of a drink derived of grapes...). Starting in September 2016, it has taken me nearly 2 years. Without an observatory, this would have never been possible (in my situation). Even with an own observatory, battling basic issues of spiders resetting the dome's home position (not funny!) and random electrical issues have been challenging my patience.

At this point in the project i have totally forgotten why i even started it, but its something you just can't give up on!
Below a small preview as already last year. Just 5 minutes of stretching, sharpening etc.

Could an admin (maybe @steppenwolf again? :) ) adapt the title to '(Status: 20/20 complete - in post processing)'

The real work has only just begun....

Kind regards, Graem