Cosmic Conversation

[mightymonoped]

Captured this image of the North America & Pelican Nebulae from my light-polluted balcony over two moonless-nights this week.

A friend mentioned that it looks like God having a conversation with the Devil.... and now I can’t unsee it! [emoji23]

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20210513/cff9c33c45b7fd299b99c53a621a93e7.jpg


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[struth]

yeah i can see that lol.. great picture

[Gazjam]

Wow!

Helluva picture Tony.

[mightymonoped]

Cheers guys!

Here’s the finished version, took me two days of processing, new techniques and quite a sophisticated workflow using three different tools to get this one. I think it’s got everything there but isn’t OTT. Colour feels more balanced too.

I feel this is the best I’ve managed yet, processing-wise.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20210514/60b1d8aa6b0ab9223553d473278a4035.jpg


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[struth]

good, the left head is more defined and the right less, oddly...

[Ali Tait]

Great pic!

[guy]

Incredible given that you have the lights from Harwich and Felixstowe docks fairly near.

I take it that God is the elephant on the right :)

Edit: By the way, a few technical details (equipment) would be really interesting

[mightymonoped]

Here come the techie bits as requested...

Capture equipment is my ‘mobile’ rig:-

Telescope is William Optics Redcat 51 with mini guidescope (and mono guide camera)

Camera is ZWO ASI294mc Pro One Shot Colour astrocam.

Light-pollution filter is Optolong 2” L-Pro

Tracking Mount is Skywatcher StarAdventurer

Control & Capture by ZWO ASIair pro (via my iPhone)

Capture details:-

2.5 hours worth of lights in 120 & 180s subs.
Darks, Flats, Dark Flats & Bad Pixel Map for Calibration.

Image Workflow:-

Calibrated, Registered, Normalised and Integrated using AstroPixelProcessor.

Starless image created using Starnet++

Starred & Starless image processed and remerged using Photoshop CC on iMac and also Windows 10 virtual machine.



https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20210514/d4dd6849f6c92721ffbd67c948422d9b.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20210514/64a79ad724c291ef32f5e8252a7a37b7.jpg


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Marco]

Awesome stuff, Tony... Hope you're not spying in any nearby ladies' bedrooms?:eyebrows:;)

Marco.

[Lawrence001]

I really can't see the heads thing, can someone explain where they are please??

[mightymonoped]

I really can't see the heads thing, can someone explain where they are please??

A quick scribble to show one rough (very) interpretation..

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20210518/ead3d2da45c0134acd4c03c99dbb2baf.jpg


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Lawrence001]

I see now thanks! I got the one on the left but couldn't see the one on the right. Not helped by the fact that I could see a black ghost in between them with red eyes!