Giant Perseus Molecular Cloud

[Allinthehead]

This one is a reprocess of an image I posted here before, the original turned out noisy and too dim to show any real detail. With this effort I just through everything I had at it and used more aggressive settings to try to get something worthy of the time I put into gathering and pre processing the data. This aggressiveness has left artifacts for sure, but viewed at normal screen size I think it works.  

Stacked and combined in APP

Processed in APP, PI and PS.

5 panels were with the Asi 071 and the final upper right corner panel was completed using the Asi2600.

All captured using my Esprit 100 mounted on an AzEq6.

Subs were of 150 second duration for a total imaging time of 18hrs

Richard

 

[Phillyo]

Wow!! Absolutely spectacular. I love seeing these dark dusty clouds, just beautiful. What sky conditions are you imaging under please?

[Kinch]

Fantastic - looks lovely from afar OR close in. (It ticks all the boxes).

[Allinthehead]

13 hours ago, Phillyo said:

Wow!! Absolutely spectacular. I love seeing these dark dusty clouds, just beautiful. What sky conditions are you imaging under please?

Thanks, I'm lucky enough to be in a bortle 4 area, at least according to clear outside.

13 hours ago, Kinch said:

Fantastic - looks lovely from afar OR close in. (It ticks all the boxes).

Thanks Brendan, hope all's good with you.

[fwm891]

Great imaging Richard.

Can you tell me what the central object is so I can get an idea of location please

Francis

[Allinthehead]

Glad you like it Francis. Ngc 1333 is tha central object. It's a fascinating area. 

[Scooot]

That’s quite a difference to the original. Spectacular now.  

Edited November 20, 2020 by Scooot

[Allinthehead]

5 minutes ago, Scooot said:

That’s a quite a difference to the original. Spectacular now.  

Thanks, I was quite disappointed with the original, just shows how different the same data can turn out.

[Mr Spock]

Fabulous image. You've done a great job with the processing 👍

[astro mick]

That is a rather special  image Richard.

Really nice.

Mick.

Edited November 20, 2020 by astro mick

[johngm]

As others have said, fantastic work Richard, and definitely worth all the effort 👍 

John

[Allinthehead]

25 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

Fabulous image. You've done a great job with the processing 👍

Thanks, glad you like it.

8 minutes ago, astro mick said:

That is a rather special  image Richard.

Really nice.

Mick.

Much appreciated Mick.

 

3 minutes ago, johngm said:

As others have said, fantastic work Richard, and definitely worth all the effort 👍 

John

Thanks for that John.

[Sunshine]

That is just beautiful!

[Adam1234]

Incredible!

[Kinch]

1 hour ago, Allinthehead said:

Thanks Brendan, hope all's good with you.

Apart from cloudy skies every other night and high humidity when the skies are clear......things couldn't be better   ☹️

[Phillyo]

9 hours ago, Allinthehead said:

Thanks, I'm lucky enough to be in a bortle 4 area, at least according to clear outside.

Interesting. I'm in Bortle 5 and only a short drive to bortle 4. This could be a great target at some point in the future (when the clouds have moved on!)

[Laurin Dave]

Lovely Richard..  have just started a two panel mosaic over IC348 and NGC133 based on seeing this the first time around..  it’s a fabulous area..  

Dave

 

[Allinthehead]

10 hours ago, Sunshine said:

That is just beautiful!

 

10 hours ago, Adam1234 said:

Incredible!

Thank you Sunshine and Adam

9 hours ago, Kinch said:

Apart from cloudy skies every other night and high humidity when the skies are clear......things couldn't be better   ☹️

Could be worse, try cloud every night in Cork for the last 2 weeks

1 hour ago, Phillyo said:

Interesting. I'm in Bortle 5 and only a short drive to bortle 4. This could be a great target at some point in the future (when the clouds have moved on!)

Well worth giving it a go. I live in a housing estate surrounded by street lighting so I reckon I'm somewhere between 4 and 5.

 

35 minutes ago, Laurin Dave said:

Lovely Richard..  have just started a two panel mosaic over IC348 and NGC133 based on seeing this the first time around..  it’s a fabulous area..  

Dave

 

Thanks Dave. Really is a great area, I'll look out for your image when you finish.  

[tooth_dr]

23 minutes ago, Allinthehead said:

Could be worse, try cloud every night in Cork for the last 2 weeks

Beautiful image Richard. Processing and everything exceptional.

I have had two partially clear night since September 👎🏻

[Allinthehead]

6 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

Beautiful image Richard. Processing and everything exceptional.

I have had two partially clear night since September 👎🏻

Thanks Adam. Two partially clear nights since September is a pretty poor return to be fair. Looks like it's clear here in cork tonight and I've no scope to image with🤣

[Laurin Dave]

6 hours ago, Allinthehead said:

Thanks Dave. Really is a great area, I'll look out for your image when you finish.  

Don't hold your breath, I think it'll take a while!

Dave

[Xiga]

Wow Richard, that's some improvement over the original, and there was nothing wrong with that either! You've managed to make it brighter, and, less noisy at the same time, no mean feat! Care to say what you did differently this time?

I see you down-sampled the image too. I think this was a wise choice. The image loses nothing in the process, and it no doubt helped hide some of the noise too. 👍

[simmo39]

That looks so cool, brilliant!

[Allinthehead]

4 hours ago, simmo39 said:

That looks so cool, brilliant!

Thanks Simmo👍

[Allinthehead]

12 hours ago, Xiga said:

Wow Richard, that's some improvement over the original, and there was nothing wrong with that either! You've managed to make it brighter, and, less noisy at the same time, no mean feat! Care to say what you did differently this time?

I see you down-sampled the image too. I think this was a wise choice. The image loses nothing in the process, and it no doubt helped hide some of the noise too. 👍

Thanks Ciarán. I remembered the advice you gave about down-sampling which really helps. The other thing I did was to go very heavy on the noise reduction at about 3/4 stretch on a starless version. I used Topaz denoise for this, which did a great job although I definitely ended up with some artifacts. The compromise is a much more dramatic image at display size while accepting these artifacts. 

I've been playing again with it going starless again with more noise reduction and a couple of curves with the black point held down.