IC2162 in HaRGB

[swag72]

After the last HaRGB attempt, I decided to get the data to try another one. I had a few problems with the processing - There was some rather huge dust bunnies in all the colour channels, prior to my spring clean.

I took on board comments about the dogs dinner that was the last HaRGB effort and hope that this has been more sypathetic in the processing, and not quite so smack you in the face.

Here is IC2162 and the acquisition details below.

M: HEQ5

S: SW 120ED x0.85

C: Atik 314L mono

F: Baader Ha, RGB, Trutek Supaslim manual filter wheel

Guided: 9x50 finderguider, Maxim, EQMOD

20 x 300s R, G and B

11 x 900s Ha, 25 x darks

Processed in PI

Still learning, so PLEASE tell me where I have gone wrong!

[AndyUK]

Hi Sara - I see you got the focuser sorted out then!

It would be the blind leading the blind if I tried to advise if any improvements could be made, but you might be able to get some more red into the nebula by maybe adding a %age of your Ha into the R channel, but I guess that's down to a matter of taste

It's good to see the colour in the stars, and also the detail in the nebula on the left hand side starting to come through - You don't see too many images of this nebula, and of the others I've looked at, there doesn't seem to be too much contrast available, especially in the larger "cloud" area... I personally might see if I could increase the contrast in it a bit though, but that's usually where I start getting heavy handed and the noise starts to come in (so ignore me...!)

[swag72]

Cheers Andy. This was done with the 120ED, started before my play with the Equinox and finished afterwards.

Interesting about your thought on more red in the nebula, there was more, but I toned it down as I thought that the bright red looked just too in your face. Ha was added to the red channel and it certainly did boost the reds!

It's difficult to know what to do with a target that is not often imaged, as there's no clear idea in your mind of what you want to achieve.

Do you think that the background is too dark? I made sure not to clip it as far as I know, but I had some dust bunny problems that showed up really badly if I lightened it too much.

[AndyUK]

It's difficult to know what to do with a target that is not often imaged, as there's no clear idea in your mind of what you want to achieve.

I think that's very true... With famous / regularly imaged objects, there seems to be a general concensus of how much detail there should be and how much colour etc etc, but I for one am always happy to see the lesser imaged objects posted as it forces me to find out more about it myself... So thank you!

I certainly wouldn't say the sky is too dark - The black point doesn't look clipped at all, and you've got VERY little (if any) noise evident... Did you run some kind of DBE on it or noise reduction tool...?

[swag72]

DBE to try to get rid of the awful dust bunnies that I had in the colour channels and some noise reduction in PI as well. I thought that the nebula's looked a little noisy, but maybe it was my 'can't see the wood for the trees' eyes after spending (wasting!) a whole day on the processing!!!