The Wizard Nebula, NGC 7380 in bicolour

[MartinB]

Captured over several nights in August.  One night of reasonable seeing but very twinkly on the others.

Scope: 10" LX200 ACF reduced to F7.5

Camera: QSI 532 wsg

Filters: Baader 7nm  Ha 22 x 1800secs  OIII 12 x 1800 secs. 

I also got a little RGB star colour data using an MN190 and SX M26.

Captured, calibrated and combined with Maxim and processed in PS with the OIII mapped to both green and blue.

I did gather about 3 hours of binned SII but preferred the more realistic appearance of the bicolour.  Hubble Palate version available on request!

 

 

[gnomus]

Very nice Martin.  I especially like the delicacy of the pink/red vs the blue.  And the fine detail in the dusty bits are really good.

[alan4908]

Very impressive Martin ! 

I particular like the colours that have resulted from your NB mapping selection.

Alan

[MartinB]

Thanks Steve and Alan

[johnrt]

That's a cracker, love the colours.

[ollypenrice]

Tremendous. The palette works beautifully for this target, especially given its name. The 'magenta into blue' makes the object coherent while still revealing the difference between the gasses.

Olly

[swag72]

Love it!! The detail is bang on and the colour change subtle and delicate... Very nice indeed.

[Allinthehead]

Very nice image. Great detail.

[Rodd]

Great color separation for bicolor.  I find bicolor very difficult and have never had even a modicum of success.  This is great.

Rodd

[MartinB]

Thanks everyone.  Glad people like the colour.  I made some big [removed word] with early processing which stymied the addition of RGB stars but you live and learn!

[DaveS]

I actually think this palette works better than the HST for this target. HST might be too lurid.

[MartinB]

1 hour ago, DaveS said:

I actually think this palette works better than the HST for this target. HST might be too lurid.

That was my thinking Dave.  Here is a rough HST version.

 

 

[steppenwolf]

I like this one a lot, Martin and I think that a bi-colour palette works well for this object. I think that the 'amateur' version of the Hubble palette (gold and turquoise as opposed to Hubble's original prominent green hue) can be beautiful and most certainly has an important place in imaging but it can be a little garish! I love that little 'bubble' under what I take to be the 'wizard's nose' - very delicately produced.

Edited to say:- We doubled and having now seen the Hubble version, I agree with myself above!!

[DaveS]

Yes, having seen both I'm now definite that bicolour works better than HST for this target.

I think HST (In it's "pure" form) can be useful / justified if it's showing new information about elemental distributions, but in this case the [SII] is following the HII too closely to be separated.

[MartinB]

Thanks Steve and Dave, very helpful feedback.  Steve, I thought the wizard might be blowing bubble gum!

[gnomus]

As you know, I like the bicolour a lot.  However, the SHO is a slight step up again, in my view - and it is anything but 'lurid'.

[tooth_dr]

Fascinating image and beautifully presented!  The colour palate works perfectly!  Is this object reserved for the more 'seasoned' imager?

[MartinB]

57 minutes ago, gnomus said:

As you know, I like the bicolour a lot.  However, the SHO is a slight step up again, in my view - and it is anything but 'lurid'.

That's the thing about imaging things which you never get to actually "see".  We have no idea what they should really look like so anything goes!

57 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

Fascinating image and beautifully presented!  The colour palate works perfectly!  Is this object reserved for the more 'seasoned' imager?

You don't have to be too well salted.  All narrow band images benefit from longer subs and overall exposure times.  The Ha is signal is quite strong and it is a target that suits a range of focal lengths

[ollypenrice]

6 hours ago, steppenwolf said:

 

Edited to say:- We doubled and having now seen the Hubble version, I agree with myself above!!

It's a lucky man who consistently agrees with himself!

Olly

[steppenwolf]

6 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

It's a lucky man who consistently agrees with himself!

Actually, it's rare for me to agree with myself - I normally talk such nonsense.........

[MartinB]

5 minutes ago, steppenwolf said:

Actually, it's rare for me to agree with myself - I normally talk such nonsense.........

Nonsense!!

[ollypenrice]

8 minutes ago, steppenwolf said:

Actually, it's rare for me to agree with myself - I normally talk such nonsense.........

You're in good company. The celebrated American poet Walt Whitman has it in a nutshell:

Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict

myself. I am large. I contain multitudes....

And, my dear boy, you do indeed! Bravo.

Olly

PS edit: Post of the month to Martin, above!

[Scott]

Very nice indeed Martin. I think the accolades have been pretty well covered above so I'll just add, Retirement clearly agrees with you sir

 

[swag72]

Love it!! The detail is bang on and the colour change subtle and delicate... Very nice indeed.

[MartinB]

Thanks Scott and Sara