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LDN 1355/7 LBN 643 VdB 9 & 7 - The Helping Hand

PatrickGilliland

By PatrickGilliland
in Imaging - Deep Sky

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PatrickGilliland

PatrickGilliland

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Not really sure what I was thinking when I decided to image this, seemed like a good idea at the time.  A Cat II, F, Mod reflection nebula (full details and narrative under the image) under average UK skies proved to be more difficult than I anticipated!  331 subs, 1 moth (the flying type, not a typo!) and a lot of processing resulted in .......

v11_crop.png

Here is LDN 1355/7 LBN 643 (the Dust) VdB 9 & 7 (the reflection nebulae), taken under average UK skies, that was my first mistake but persevered as wanted to see what the RH was capable of. 331 subs Lum 43x300, 50x30 and 220 x 180, R/G/B @ 120 21/20/20.
To say this was my most challenging target to date would be a massive understatement. VdB 9 is a class II, F, Mod reflection nebula. II meaning it has no internal stars illuminating, F for faint and mod for moderate light absorption. If you compare to say VdB 126 at I (internal star), Bright and Strong LDN 1355/7 LBN 643 VdB 9 & 7 are 10's or maybe 100's of times dimmer in comparison. 
In some areas of the sky this may not have been such an issue but this is in a star rich area which presented all sorts of challenges. The net result is the brightness of the stars, by comparison is amplified versus the dust, to go deep enough to pull the object out meant handling the massively bloated stars. 
In part this was addressed with patience (not my strong point) acquiring 270 lum frames (50 at 30 seconds specifically for star management). Even with the 30's for HDR I had to pull every trick i had out of the bag to produce this image. Under darker skies this would be a super target, under UK skies certainly a challenge.
As if that was not enough it appears a moth was rather fond of my scope, going about its last hours of life moving around the front lens. So for 100+ frames i also had to deal with a mobile moth mote!

Towards the lower right of the frame you can also see VdB 7.

Hope you enjoy.

Full size here.

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PatrickGilliland

PatrickGilliland

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17 hours ago, Dark Horizon said:

Well i think you've done yourself proud with that shot, Paddy. Well done and I think that's a brill target.. 

Thanks - glad it done TBH though a mosaic will be next LRGB target, must be mad :)

10 hours ago, johnrt said:

Not one I've seen before, very impressive. 

Thanks John appreciate the feedback.

28 minutes ago, iksose7 said:

I shot a few luminance subs on this last year but never completed the project. If i ever get my mount fixed i i would love to have another go after seeing this, excellent capture!

Callum

 

Thanks Callum, difficult but doable.  A rewarding one to complete. Feedabck appreciated.

27 minutes ago, Barry-Wilson said:

Having processed some dust this Summer myself, I appreciate the difficulty in processing and capturing this image Paddy.  Quite exquisite.

Well done and I've made a note of this rare target for my list too :happy7:

Thanks Barry - updated the target references to better reflect what's in the shot.  Ironically i may have went too far with the Lum and was almost no noise in the image.  I actually had to go and add some back in as it looked too artificial without some!  As mentioned it is a rewarding one to complete.  

Thanks all

Paddy

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pietervdv

pietervdv

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Great shot!

It is indeed a lovely part of the sky. I imaged it too a couple of years back with my TeleVue after being inspired by Thomas Davis  his image .

Maybe you could hold back a bit on the noise reduction? I always find a little background grain gives a more natural look.

But that is personal I guess...

Regards,

Pieter

 

 

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PatrickGilliland

PatrickGilliland

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3 minutes ago, pietervdv said:

Great shot!

It is indeed a lovely part of the sky. I imaged it too a couple of years back with my TeleVue after being inspired by Thomas Davis  his image .

Maybe you could hold back a bit on the noise reduction? I always find a little background grain gives a more natural look.

But that is personal I guess...

Regards,

Pieter

 

 

Hi Pieter

As mentioned i actually had to add noise in to get to this state - maybe i will add some more.  Had a lot of lum frames 270 and the data was far cleaner and artificial looking than this to start.  Will have another look as I know what you mean as already tried to reverse the 'cleanness' of the image a little prior to your comments.

Thanks

Pat

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PatrickGilliland

PatrickGilliland

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Is space weird or just us humans and our need to anthropomorphise things in a hope of understanding them?  Whoa too deep :) 

Let's just stick to the imaging - yep it does look like a hand though clearly has dropped that star - probably a tad hot.

Thanks for the feedback - Paddy

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PatrickGilliland

PatrickGilliland

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15 hours ago, toxic said:

thats a beaut that is Paddy it looks like Fagin collecting his money

Thanks Chris - what version of Oliver Twist did you see :) 

Appreciate comments

3 hours ago, Dave Smith said:

WOW - that is an amazing image and well worth all the effort. I do love those dust lanes :thumbsup:

Dave

Thanks Dave glad yo liked.

3 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

Lovely detail and texture. First class image.

Many thanks Michael 

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PatrickGilliland

PatrickGilliland

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15 hours ago, ChrisLX200 said:

Lovely colours and the noise is well handled. All you could for in these dusty images :)

ChrisH

Thanks Chris.

14 hours ago, Tom OD said:

I like that you stuck with this Paddy. Super result. It is a faint one as you say.

Super

Tom.

Thanks Tom.

I still am pondering another version with far fewer but 'cherry-picked' subs.  The noise really was not there to handle i even created a little from RGB to add back into the lum channel as it looked even cleaner, verging on artificial from the unprocessed data stack.

14 hours ago, carastro said:

Wow, what a fantastic colourful and unusual image.  Love the dark nebulae.

Excellent work.

Carole 

 

Thanks for the feedback Carole - appreciated.

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wimvb

wimvb

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I can only agree with what has been said: superb image.

Adding noise to an image?? Unheard of. But it clearly works.

I wonder what happened to the moth ...

(You may not want to answer that last one.:icon_mrgreen:)

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Maximidius

Maximidius

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What an incredible image, sounds like you battled with it too and without doubt came out on top! I really like the contrast between the dark grey/brown dust and the way the blue radiates and perforates through it, adds to the depth and gives it a real 3D feeling.

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PatrickGilliland

PatrickGilliland

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6 hours ago, wimvb said:

I can only agree with what has been said: superb image.

Adding noise to an image?? Unheard of. But it clearly works.

I wonder what happened to the moth ...

(You may not want to answer that last one.:icon_mrgreen:)

I Know counter intuitive but think it was needed in this case - real noise from other channels though not artificial.  I have posted another version with some more tweak and a little more noise again (drizzled data to make some minor changes to star profiles too) which i think i prefered as seems to now show a little more contrast.  Thanks for feedback.

The moth had already met its maker by the time i arrived - duly buried in small ceremony :) 

6 hours ago, Maximidius said:

What an incredible image, sounds like you battled with it too and without doubt came out on top! I really like the contrast between the dark grey/brown dust and the way the blue radiates and perforates through it, adds to the depth and gives it a real 3D feeling.

Thanks - yeah could have been more moody with the colours but this is what was there so went with it.  Glad you liked.

ANy feedback on this new version vs the original appreciated.  Small tweaks but think it does show a fraction more.

Thanks - Paddy

v21_crop.png

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