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Taurus Mosaic - Hyades to California via C2022/E3, Mars, the Pleiades, IC348, NGC1333 and many more


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A multi panel (15plus) mosaic of dusty Taurus spanning about 25 by 18  degrees and including the Hyades, Pleiades, California Nebula, Northern Trifid (to the left of California)  IC348, NGC1333,  many LDN, LBN and Vdb objects plus Mars as it was 22 Dec22 and Comet 2022/E3 as it was 13 Feb23.  Data acquired between late November 2022 and 13Feb2023 using primarily a Samyang135ASI2600mc, with 3 plus hrs on most panels and more over the Hyades, Pleiades and IC348 area, additional luminance data was captured through an Askar200QHY600 combo and applied over lower signal areas at top left and bottom right,. Ha data was also captured over the California Nebula through a GT71QHY600 combo.  Processed in Pixinsight and Photoshop using  PIs Normalise Scale Gradient, Mosaic by Co-ordinates and Photometric Merge Mosaic to align and merge the panels,  Stretched initially in PI using ArcSinh, GHS and HT, then stars removed with Russ Croman's Star Exterminator, further stretching of Starless image in Pi, then  colour enhancement, Ha and Lum blending in Photoshop before replacing the stars in Photoshop using Screen mode.  Final levels and Noise Exterminator in PS.  then resized to 12 arc sec/pp in PI.

Thanks for looking

Dave

Taurus_Mosaic_Comet13Feb_Samyang_RGB_Final_15Feb23_50pc_Levels.thumb.jpg.b325bb1638b8138144c86cfec7db92a2.jpg

 

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11 hours ago, orion25 said:

Wow!! 🤩 Nice work, Dave! An absolutely majestic mosaic ;)

Reggie

Thank you Reggie :) 

11 hours ago, Scooot said:

That’s lovely, what a smashing image. 😀

Thanks Scoot

9 hours ago, Adreneline said:

For me Dave the star of the show is all the dusty stuff. So much to revel in and explore. Great work with the capture and the processing. Thanks for sharing. Adrian

Thanks Adrian...  yes its the dust for me too.  

 

9 hours ago, Whistlin Bob said:

Wow- that's a lovely result. Kudos for the vision to do it and the commitment to see it through 💪👍

Thanks Bob.  The weather helped with many clear moonless nights during December and January as did the robotic observatory in the garden and being retired !

8 hours ago, Craney said:

Wow! ... that must be  Astro Photo of the Year ....   would not be surprised if somebody spots Nessie and Elvis in there as well !

EPIC.

Thanks Craney

8 hours ago, Sunshine said:

EPIC! falls short when describing this stunning mosaic, unreal.

Thanks Sunshine

8 hours ago, ONIKKINEN said:

Speechless! What an image.

Thanks ONIKKINEN

6 hours ago, Petrol said:

WOW! Absolutely epic!
You must be pleased with that.

Pete

Thanks Pete..    I very much am, although it could do with a few more hours on some of he panels

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So much going on!

My favorite area is the Pleiades and their interaction with the dust and gas.

Its seems to be only recently that advances in cameras and processing techniques have allowed the true nature of that environment to be made visible. Your image shows the reason that the nebulosity round Merope fades from blue to dusty brown colour in more regular Pleiades images.

It just looks like the Pleiades are a bioluminous marine animal swimming through dirty brown water!

 

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2 hours ago, tomato said:

A stunning mosaic, a real testament to your patience and dedication.

How does your processing PC cope with an image of this size? I would imagine StarXterminator takes a while?

Thanks Steve...   yes SXT and BXT take quite a while..  20 mins or so for this if I remember correctly ..  gives me time to do some chores :)  

Dave

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  • 2 weeks later...

This is tremendous. What a vista. I've always thought it ironic that, the shorter the focal length of an instrument, the better it is for making mosaics. I was never tempted by mosaics when using long FLs but always want to use widefield setups to go wider still. Also, the apparent resolution improves to the point at which you'd hardly notice the difference between, say, a Samyang image and a very-multi-panel telescopic one.

This is gorgeous though, personally, I'd bring down the red saturation in the California.

Olly

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21 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

This is tremendous. What a vista. I've always thought it ironic that, the shorter the focal length of an instrument, the better it is for making mosaics. I was never tempted by mosaics when using long FLs but always want to use widefield setups to go wider still. Also, the apparent resolution improves to the point at which you'd hardly notice the difference between, say, a Samyang image and a very-multi-panel telescopic one.

This is gorgeous though, personally, I'd bring down the red saturation in the California.

Olly

Thank you Olly, much appreciated.  Short fast focal lengths combined with small pixels and the latest tools, Normalise Scale Gradient (you probably don't need this, but us Bortle4/5 dwellers do) and Russ Croman's BXT, SXT and NXT work very well., and yes its a bit too red!

Dave

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