New Image, Refurbished Observatory

[Bill McLaughlin]

Hi:

After selling Orion and rebuilding my home roll-off last summer, I managed some data
before the weather closed in and finally just got around to processing it.
Pretty much all the data was gathered with ACP.

I have been using the somewhat (interface) odd PixInsight for most processing recently.
Very powerful but a steep learning curve, for sure. I finally learned at least enough to use
it for most of the processing of the data.

The result is here:

http://nightskypictures.com/sh2-136_zoom.html

Other people's versions of this object have been APODs . Note that I did black clip somewhat as a last step.
The fainter stuff is there in the data and in the pre-final versions but I prefer the less noisy and darker
background for aesthetic reasons - just more impact, IMHO.

[Bob Denny]

Very nice! You are a true artist!

[Bill McLaughlin]

Thanks Bob!

Can't wait for next summer now that I am operational once again.

[Dick Berg]

Bill, this is really spectacular. You must send the image off to APOD. In case you don't know where to do that, here is a link to their instructions: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html

[Bill McLaughlin]

Bill, this is really spectacular. You must send the image off to APOD.[/url]

Thanks Dick, I am glad you like the image!

I used to send stuff out to APOD and publishers but stopped doing that a few years ago. Nowadays I only have things published if a publisher comes to me (seldom). APOD does not seem to be particularly concerned about quality these days in any case. One sometimes wonders if they select images at random (or maybe they are running out of possibilities)! Some of their choices do not even seem to have anything to do with astronomy!<g>

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap061122.html

It is great to know that you think I am "worthy", however!