Two creatuers in Cepheus: LBN 431 and 532

[gorann]

Second light of the season with the dual-RASA rig I aimed at these odd creatures in Cepheus that were among those recently parading in the magnificent RASA mosaic presented by @ollypenrice. I got 94 x 3 min, and to LBN 531 to the left I could add another 5 hours of data from two years ago. LBN 531 is quite often imaged and spectacular enough to be given at least three annotations: LBN 531, VdB 152 and Cederblad 201.

The image also contains the planetary nebula PK111+11.1 and a streak of Ha nebulosity belonging to a super-nova remnant. The RASA8-ASI2600MC combo is amazingly good at picking up Ha even without a filter.

So, RASA8 with ASI2600MC without filter on a Mesu 200. 203 x 3 minutes, so totally a bit over 10 hours. Processed in PI and PS using starless processing (Star XTerminator) on the nebulosity.

Cheers, Göran

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 3, 2022 by gorann

[Laurin Dave]

Wow! That's a cracker Goran!

Dave

[gorann]

9 minutes ago, Laurin Dave said:

Wow! That's a cracker Goran!

Dave

Thanks a lot Dave! Much appreciated 🙂

[tomato]

Awesome, and all broadband data? How about some descriptive names for the "creatures"? Moray eel for the top one, maybe, and the Decaying Molar for the one at bottom right.  I was going to suggest you enter it in the latest SGL imaging challenge, except I note you have some historic data in there. 

[gorann]

48 minutes ago, tomato said:

Awesome, and all broadband data? How about some descriptive names for the "creatures"? Moray eel for the top one, maybe, and the Decaying Molar for the one at bottom right.  I was going to suggest you enter it in the latest SGL imaging challenge, except I note you have some historic data in there. 

Thanks a lot Steve! To me the head of the top one looks a bit like a seagull but not sure what to make about the rest of its body😅. The bottom one looks like it has been decapitated and is on its way down....

I had missed that there is a new SGL challenge that may be relevant to me, and maybe I can come up with something else from Ceph or Cass.

Edited September 3, 2022 by gorann

[assouptro]

I am amazed at how deep sky imaging has evolved over the years I have been involved in this hobby 

Goran, you always impress me with your images and your knowledge of astrophotography 

This is stunning! I can’t wait to see  more from your amazing rasa dual rig! 
 

Thanks for sharing 

Bryan 

[ONIKKINEN]

Have you ever managed to capture just background? Seems like you point your scope at nothing at all and a pretty picture comes out. Really inspiring stuff as always!

[carastro]

Wow, just wow! 

[gorann]

7 hours ago, assouptro said:

I am amazed at how deep sky imaging has evolved over the years I have been involved in this hobby 

Goran, you always impress me with your images and your knowledge of astrophotography 

This is stunning! I can’t wait to see  more from your amazing rasa dual rig! 
 

Thanks for sharing 

Bryan 

 

7 hours ago, ONIKKINEN said:

Have you ever managed to capture just background? Seems like you point your scope at nothing at all and a pretty picture comes out. Really inspiring stuff as always!

 

7 hours ago, carastro said:

Wow, just wow! 

Thanks a lot Bryan, Onikkinen and Carole for you kind words!

In this image I decided to hold down the dust a bit to allowe the main features stand out. There is certainly a lot of dust in this area and a lot of dust in the data.

[peter shah]

stunning work Goran

[ollypenrice]

The extra depth coming from your longer integration has given more nuances to the dusty features. The sheer volume of 'information' in this image is astonishing. It's tremendous.

For my taste the colour is slightly over-pushed, notably in the reds. (Not so much in the Ha streak as in the dusty features. I think a little less might be a lot more in this case.)

Olly

[simmo39]

Stunning! Just a dream shot for me.

[Padraic M]

Superb image! Really pops.

I'm sure Beverly Lynds never saw it like this, but it would be interesting to see the resolution on the original Palomar 48" plates. The catalog lists LBN 532 as brightness of 1 (brightest on a scale of 1-6) and colour of 2 ("equally visible on Red and Blue plates). LBN 531 is brightness 3, colour 3 ("more Red than Blue").

[gorann]

11 hours ago, peter shah said:

stunning work Goran

Thanks a lot Peter, much appreciated as allways!

[gorann]

10 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

The extra depth coming from your longer integration has given more nuances to the dusty features. The sheer volume of 'information' in this image is astonishing. It's tremendous.

For my taste the colour is slightly over-pushed, notably in the reds. (Not so much in the Ha streak as in the dusty features. I think a little less might be a lot more in this case.)

Olly

Thanks a lot an Yes Olly, I was fighting with the red that appeared to be leaking through all over by its own. The data did this more or less by its own and I decided to leave it like this. I noticed that in LBN 531 what is usually seen as dark patches are now quite red (except in its head for some reason). Obviously there is a red signal there but maybe it needs to be suppressed and I am too weak to tell it off😅.

Cheers, Göran

Edited September 4, 2022 by gorann

[gorann]

10 hours ago, simmo39 said:

Stunning! Just a dream shot for me.

Thanks a lot Simmo!

[ollypenrice]

12 hours ago, gorann said:

Thanks a lot an Yes Olly, I was fighting with the red that appeared to be leaking through all over by its own. The data did this more or less by its own and I decided to leave it like this. I noticed that in LBN 531 what is usually seen as dark patches are now quite red (except in its head for some reason). Obviously there is a red signal there but maybe it needs to be suppressed and I am too weak to tell it off😅.

Cheers, Göran

Do you suspect the presence of some ionized hydrogen mixed in with the dust? I suppose the test would be an Ha-only capture of the same region.

Olly

[mftoet]

A great composition on these interesting subject, Göran!

Indeed, you've captured lots of reds. Hard to tell if the red in LDN 1219 is 'genuine' red or saturated brown (as far as brown is a colour (hint: dark orange), but that's another discussion). I happened to have my scope also pointed on this area in the sky recently to create an Ha-RGB composite. As suggested by Olly, here's an Ha channel only (auto DDP stretch in AstroPixelProcessor).

  

[gorann]

12 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

Do you suspect the presence of some ionized hydrogen mixed in with the dust? I suppose the test would be an Ha-only capture of the same region.

Olly

 

2 hours ago, mftoet said:

A great composition on these interesting subject, Göran!

Indeed, you've captured lots of reds. Hard to tell if the red in LDN 1219 is 'genuine' red or saturated brown (as far as brown is a colour (hint: dark orange), but that's another discussion). I happened to have my scope also pointed on this area in the sky recently to create an Ha-RGB composite. As suggested by Olly, here's an Ha channel only (auto DDP stretch in AstroPixelProcessor).

  

Olly and Maurice @ollypenrice@mftoet, I realize now that the red in the nebulae is likely to be more orange dust than red Ha. I assume there is dust out there reflecting brown/orange. Maurice Ha image convince me that it could hardly be Ha. So I tuned down the red to be more close to reality:

Thanks for the feed back and Cheers, Göran

[mftoet]

That's a good improvement!

[ollypenrice]

Yes, it's a big improvement for me, too, and I like Maurice's analysis of true red versus saturated brown.

I can see our RASA exposure times going up! At least, that way, we'll have some hope of keeping up with the incoming data...

lly

[GalaxyGael]

The is such a lot of information in this deep exposure, very nice Göran.

Based on Maurice' squery and your slight modification can I ask a question also on the reds/browns in these regions from the experience of all of you?

I image just in RGB from OSC (ASI2600MC), and with a relatively deep exposure, I sometimes tackle this issue. Here is 19hrs on IC1396 region with the Epsilon 130D, and aside from reds, blues, there are also the purples and browns that come from adjacent stars (I assume) reflecting/scattering from the ionized emitting gases. It is these colors that attract me to RGB over NB in general. Thisimage can be pushed more to the red, but I think the balance is close enough to right. When you add Ha to your images, is the Ha signal the guide to what is 656 nm red (like Maurice's Ha stack), and other regions where there is dust is subsequently colored based on that overall balance. Or does the layering of Ha cause its own color balance issues when added to an RGB image that is correct before Ha addition? What do you use as a guide to ensure that added Ha is not coloring signal that is e.g. pink photoluminscence from nanosized carbons in the dust for example, or other types of dust.

Sorry to hijack your thread Göran

[AstroMuni]

15 hours ago, gorann said:

So I tuned down the red to be more close to reality:

I love this revised version. Exquisite detail and amazing skills to bring these out! Definitely a candidate for NASA apod

Edited September 6, 2022 by AstroMuni

[Phillyo]

Not sure I can add anything that hasn't already been said here Goran, just another simply stunning image. Can't wait to take another look on my 32" colour calibration 4k monitor at home! This work laptop just doesn't do it justice.

Phil

[ollypenrice]

10 hours ago, GalaxyGael said:

The is such a lot of information in this deep exposure, very nice Göran.

Based on Maurice' squery and your slight modification can I ask a question also on the reds/browns in these regions from the experience of all of you?

I image just in RGB from OSC (ASI2600MC), and with a relatively deep exposure, I sometimes tackle this issue. Here is 19hrs on IC1396 region with the Epsilon 130D, and aside from reds, blues, there are also the purples and browns that come from adjacent stars (I assume) reflecting/scattering from the ionized emitting gases. It is these colors that attract me to RGB over NB in general. Thisimage can be pushed more to the red, but I think the balance is close enough to right. When you add Ha to your images, is the Ha signal the guide to what is 656 nm red (like Maurice's Ha stack), and other regions where there is dust is subsequently colored based on that overall balance. Or does the layering of Ha cause its own color balance issues when added to an RGB image that is correct before Ha addition? What do you use as a guide to ensure that added Ha is not coloring signal that is e.g. pink photoluminscence from nanosized carbons in the dust for example, or other types of dust.

Sorry to hijack your thread Göran

Let's start a new thread...

Olly