Iris nebula complex - now with added colour!

[Uranium235]

Well.... if I had a brain I'd be dangerous! Went out the dark site again last night and this time forgot my dew heater cable.... doh!

So, after a quick rummage around in the car I found some cardboard and sellotape - then made a very rough looking dew shield for the Samyang lens. It did the job, but I lost a bit of time becuase on that so only just over 90min worth of colour DSLR data collected before I had to pack up as I was getting pretty tired.... oh boy did I pay for it at work today, stumbled around in zombie mode the whole time!

More colour data would have been better to work with, but I went with what I had. The main thing I would have liked more of is better colour in the Iris itself, but the dust and star colour seem alright (messing around with LAB colour). Whether I chase for more colour im still deciding... but I definitely wont be doing it on a week night again!

The added DSLR data amounted to 35x180s @ ISO200.

So tonight, Im off to sleep until my name changes to Rik Van Winkle!

 

EDIT: Now updated with old data for Iris colour:

 

[Dave In Vermont]

Very nice results! Where the ends justify the means, Mr. Zombie!

Subtlety meeting a stunning play of colour and texture.

Please do continue!

Dave

[Atreta]

Very nice as always.

yeah, imaging during weekdays makes it hard in the next morning. I have some sleep to catch up.

 

[Nova2000]

Hi Uranium235, very nice image! Lots of faint dust, 

Can you do a star reduction and check the result? 

Rajesh 

[swag72]

The dust and star colour looks great........ I'm surprised when those two factor are playing ball that the Iris has no colour in it. Such a shame..... please do go and get more colour and get that lovely blue of the Iris,,,,

[Uranium235]

3 hours ago, Nova2000 said:

Hi Uranium235, very nice image! Lots of faint dust, 

Can you do a star reduction and check the result? 

Rajesh 

The stars have already been reduced to death on this one it was a bit of trial and error on the luminance layer to find the point just before dark halos start to creep in. The dust that has colour is what was in the CCD luminance, so no need to check it really.... including that odd streak of Ha towards the top right of the frame.

[Uranium235]

1 hour ago, swag72 said:

The dust and star colour looks great........ I'm surprised when those two factor are playing ball that the Iris has no colour in it. Such a shame..... please do go and get more colour and get that lovely blue of the Iris,,,,

Thanks Sara, I've got a bit of an idea in regard to the Iris colour. Im pretty sure I did it a few years ago with the Atik 314, I'll check the PC a bit later to see if I can find the data.

[al-alami]

I love the image  But I also vote for more colour data (not on a week day  ).

Keep up the great inspiring work.

 

[Uranium235]

@swag72 there ya go! Managed to dig up a really old Iris from SGL8 and used a bit of registar magic to layer it in

[swag72]

4 minutes ago, Uranium235 said:

@swag72 there ya go! Managed to dig up a really old Iris from SGL8 and used a bit of registar magic to layer it in

Thanks!!! I think that looks much more striking with the blue in the Iris

[Uranium235]

Just now, swag72 said:

Thanks!!! I think that looks much more striking with the blue in the Iris

heh heh   While I was there I tweaked the background a little bit to help remove a bit more of the chromatic noise you get from a DSLR... just picked a bit of background which isnt dust and did a slight desaturation on a very narrow colour selection. Also clipped the black point a little more, so theres about a gap of 20 before the histogram starts - which feels about right.

Actually, more luminance might be nice to really clean it up becuase while I was at the dark site the only L filter I had was a CCD CLS - which felt like a lot of overkill. But yesterday I finally got my hands on a nice UV/IR cut, so next time Im out chasing dark stuff there wont be a single photon wasted.

[Allinthehead]

A real Beauty. Well worth all the effort.

[ollypenrice]

 I've just bought what you need to tidy that lot up a bit!

It is a truly lovely rendition of those vast dustfields, showing them clearly but without exaggeration. Natural but pin sharp, as ever.

Where does that whiff of Ha lead?

Olly

[wxsatuser]

9 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

 

Where does that whiff of Ha lead?

Olly

Another night out I would think

[Shibby]

Congrats on a cracking image Rob. I'm impressed you managed to retrieve such good brown colouration of all that dust from the DSLR - I know exactly how hard that can be, even with many hours of data! That Samyang lens is moving its way steadily up my wishlist

[Uranium235]

2 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

 I've just bought what you need to tidy that lot up a bit!

It is a truly lovely rendition of those vast dustfields, showing them clearly but without exaggeration. Natural but pin sharp, as ever.

Where does that whiff of Ha lead?

Olly

lol... thanks Olly, just what I always wanted

That patch of Ha... Im pretty sure its Sh2-133, Maybe not worth chasing since its just a long(ish) ribbon of Ha.

[Uranium235]

1 hour ago, Shibby said:

Congrats on a cracking image Rob. I'm impressed you managed to retrieve such good brown colouration of all that dust from the DSLR - I know exactly how hard that can be, even with many hours of data! That Samyang lens is moving its way steadily up my wishlist

Lewis, that lens should be at the top of your list mate as being able to run @ f2 without issues is no mean feat!

[Rodd]

That's a super wide field shot--nice job

Rodd

[Uranium235]

Thanks Rodd

[gorann]

Incredible image - well worth the lost sleep!

So sad I have to wait until September before it gets dark enough and I can have my little Samyang hitching a ride on the other scopes all the time.

[Barry-Wilson]

A breathtaking widefield Rob that really illustrates dusty Cepheus.  Lovely star colour too.  Top notch!

[Uranium235]

5 hours ago, Barry-Wilson said:

A breathtaking widefield Rob that really illustrates dusty Cepheus.  Lovely star colour too.  Top notch!

Thanks Barry, I think running at ISO200 really helped with the star colour. I've had a little revisit to the data, and done a version slightly less saturated in star colour in red, then boosted in blue a little... the colour balance feels a little better now

[PatrickGilliland]

Super work. Lovely dust and colours.  I would not stress about star reduction and just control them.  There is supposed to be a lot of stars in a widefield image after all ;).  Likewise at this scale the blue is hard to pull out as the red across the frame swaps it so all told I think you have a good amount here.  Well done.