Witch head, LDN 1616, Rigel mosaic

[Tom OD]

Here is a 12 pane, full frame Mosaic, at 530mm with a Tak FSQ106ED and Atik 11 meg camera.

This is 156hrs of LRGB taken over two years.

I combined the Lum and RGB panels after just some light stretching, and a Saturation boost on the RGB.

I then tried Star Xterminator for the first time to separate the stars. From there I selectively stretched the Reds and Blues, then recombined the stars.

It looks like its over saturated to my eye, but  I did a bit of boosting to the Reds and Blues. 

I m not sure it totally pops yet, I think I need to play with it a bit more. I have never been able to get the Electric blues as I call them into the blue colours, and I think the Witch head may look a bit flat.

Still this is what I have ended up so far...

Thanks for looking

Tom.

[dannybgoode]

Extraordinary...

[ollypenrice]

That's absolutely gorgeous. The wide mosaic makes the object fresh in our eyes again. Great job on Rigel, too, since it often overwhelms attempts at this field of view. The other stars are excellent, too, both in size and colour.

Olly

[simmo39]

Wow thats stunning!

[Tom OD]

4 minutes ago, dannybgoode said:

Extraordinary...

Thanks Danny

2 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

That's absolutely gorgeous. The wide mosaic makes the object fresh in our eyes again. Great job on Rigel, too, since it often overwhelms attempts at this field of view. The other stars are excellent, too, both in size and colour.

Olly

Cheers Olly,

Thanks for your comments.

I thought I could get it in 8 panes. 4 rows 2 wide, but it was too tight to Rigel. So I had to add another row. Doing that allowed a much better visual framing. Its a very busy bit of sky. I ended up having to use some Rigel frames to cover up flaring, and to help control Rigel, so I m very happy I was about to keep it down tastefully.

Using Star Xterminator was great in preventing any stars getting stretched while working on curves and nebula stretches.

I even had to crop another nebula on the LHS side which has the same look as the witch head. I might have to go back and image there at some stage to see what it is.

Tom

[Sunshine]

Just WOW! is this image on Astrobin? it is stunning!

[Tom OD]

8 minutes ago, Sunshine said:

Just WOW! is this image on Astrobin? it is stunning!

thanks. No its not on astrobin I dont have an account with them.

Tom

[Catanonia]

oh wow, that is nice and some dedication and reuse / addition to / of  data.

Yes the witch looks like it is a bit flat and looks like to much of a sharp mask addition. Just my opinion, but wow, amazing work there

[Shibby]

Awesome image and well worth all that effort! Just shows how rich and colourful some parts of the night sky can be!

[AMcD]

Stunningly beautiful image, and a real tribute to you expertise and hard work.

[mackiedlm]

That is a truly fantastic image. So much of the backrounf HA showing through.

[Tom OD]

22 hours ago, Catanonia said:

oh wow, that is nice and some dedication and reuse / addition to / of  data.

Yes the witch looks like it is a bit flat and looks like to much of a sharp mask addition. Just my opinion, but wow, amazing work there

I appreciate the critic thanks. I did a little sharpening on the Witchhead as I find that, doing so can help the eye pull it out of the background, and make it more 3D. I d been staring t it too long to really tell.

Tom

[Tom OD]

22 hours ago, Shibby said:

Awesome image and well worth all that effort! Just shows how rich and colourful some parts of the night sky can be!

Cheers. I thought  d need Ha to get the Red signal but its there if you go deep on the RGB,

21 hours ago, AMcD said:

Stunningly beautiful image, and a real tribute to you expertise and hard work.

Thanks for the comments.

Tom

9 hours ago, mackiedlm said:

That is a truly fantastic image. So much of the backrounf HA showing through.

And without Ha data!