Veil from Los Angeles - Forums

Topic starter

Sep 30, 2023

Hi everyone!

I just shot the veil complex from Los Angeles, CA (West Hollywood, specifically- Bortle 9!) with my redcat and would love some feedback

https://www.astrobin.com/scigii/?utm_source=astrobin&amp&utm_medium=email&amp&utm_campaign=notification&amp&from_user=26940

Ian McIntyre

Sep 30, 2023

The bright lights of Hollywood seem to be no match for those Chroma filters. I have only tried the Veil once with a DSLR and have not revisited. This is a fantastic image of a challenging region. I like that you maintained a lot of the star field with enough reduction that they don't obscure the target. I do see a couple of trailing stars in the upper left and lower right (nothing to the level I end up with on my RC). Should be able to crop them off w/o effecting your composition.

Good job. Inspires me to reshoot this maybe next summer.

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Danny Lee

Sep 30, 2023

Looks great to me Alex, congratulations.

Personally I like that you managed to process both a rich and deep starfield and have the target pop at the same time. The starfield looks great and doesn't overwhelm the veil.

Nice bit of the faint stuff captured too.

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SemiPro

IOTD Staff

Sep 30, 2023

I would go for a more conservative approach to sharpening, especially with the stars. It's very tempting to see all of the details in the Veil and get thirsty for more, hence a tendency to over-sharpen.

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Francois Theriault

Sep 30, 2023

Alex,

wow, what a spectacular image. I really salute you on 40 hours of integration.

I image from Bortle 9 as well. I appreciate your challenges.

As far as "constructive" criticism: Not much to say other than 3 points:
1) the image could use some SII data. I seems to be missing a bit of something. I realize that the SII is the faintest of the signals, but at 40 hours of integration, it will show up.
2) the color is a bit off. I find the red for Ha and the dark navy blue for the OII a bit "unnatural". I would go toward the color palette you had on your elephant trunk or your California nebula. They feel more natural.
3) contrast a bit too much. Makes the image a bit stark. I would soften it up a bit.

That being said, I can only aspire to achieve your level of proficiency. Kudos.
I guess it gives me something to aim for.

Francois

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Alex Weinstein

Topic starter

Oct 1, 2023

I would go for a more conservative approach to sharpening, especially with the stars. It's very tempting to see all of the details in the Veil and get thirsty for more, hence a tendency to over-sharpen.

I do think I probably overdid it on blurX but it is just such a great tool! I’ll try to tone it down in the next process version

Jan Erik Vallestad

Oct 1, 2023

I think it looks good, maybe the red is a bit orange but I honestly don't mind. I think it's pleasing to look at. If I were to nitpick I would say perhaps the stars are stretched a bit too far and have some miscoloring, not perfectly round in the edges. But that is nitpicking.

I find this target challening as well. The nebula comes out so sharp on it's own so when my team recently did this we had to dial back a lot, especially when it comes to bxt which we barely touched tbh.

Oscar

Oct 1, 2023

It looks very good, it looks very decent. Did you take calibration frames?