Swan Nebula

posted: 613 days ago, on Monday, 2011 Sep 19 at 12:01
tags: astronomy, astrophotography, deep sky, Dale Liebenberg.

Swan Nebula, Messier 17, imaged by Dale Liebenberg.

Equipment: Celestron EdgeHD 14-inch, ASA DDM60, SBIG STL11000M, Astrodon 3nm NB and RGB filters

Exposure: 8x30min each 3nm Ha,OIII,SII and 15x4min each RGB (blended highlights)

Location: Port Elizabeth, South Africa

 comments

2011 September 20 at 05:59 by dany

absolutely stunning! congrats!

2011 September 20 at 22:53 by Kos

Brilliant image, well done Dale!

2011 September 22 at 05:32 by Oleg

Dale, I share the previous comments of course, but have a question. Why would one add those aberration artifacts around the stars? Maybe showing the stars as they are would be even better?

Some people might get confused and think that they need the telescope like yours to produce those spikes on the images, or there might be the others, who will hesitate to buy telescope like yours, because the stars look strange. Or you could simply explain, that you used special technique to create such spikes of a special effect during processing the images on a PC.

Looking forward to see more of your great images, all the best!

Oleg

2011 September 22 at 22:45 by Dale Liebenberg

Hi Oleg,

You obviously saw that I use a SCT, so, yes, the diffraction spikes are artificial.

(I included the software processing info with my image, but I see Auke did not include it in the description)

I quite like the effect as it adds some punch to the image, and Auke also commented favourably.

Maybe, I overdid the effect

With the software I am using, I can adjust the spikes, the star flare and ring flare.

Is it the ring flare that worries you, or do you think I sould not add diffraction effects at all?

Maybe, if Auke agrees, I can also post the version without the effect (or reduced effect) for guys to comment.

Dale

2011 September 23 at 23:10 by Oleg

Hi Dale,

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the spikes, they do look very realistic and I understand that they were added on purpose- to create a very pretty picture. On the other hand, I am sure, that the original image looks just as beautiful, if not better.

I think Auke has not included the software processing description also on purpose- it's absence made me and probably others looking at the image with more attention and having this discussion :-)

Four comments and one reply have been submitted. Do you have any comments?

 Add a comment or leave a reply

name

message

(to reply, type your message, do the sum, & click the corresponding "reply" button)

e-mail (if you want to be notified of follow-up comments)

do the sum before clicking!

1 plus 6 =  

nothing more to see. please move along.