NGC2264 - Cone and Fox Fur nebulae HST (part 3)

[GordonH]

Hi

Despite the sabotaging attempts by the MET office I just managed to scrape together 5x30 minute sub frames of SII data to go with the Ha and OIII data that I got over the last few weeks, I was hoping for at least 8 sub frames but clouds came over and it started raining just as I had focused and twice I had to stop the imaging run mid frame because of clouds, finally the oak tree stopped the session completely (probably a god send as the subject is getting a bit low in the sky at this point.

Because of the shortage of data this was a bit of a pig to process and the way I went about it was to give weightings of 1:0.5:1.5 for SII:Ha:OIII respectively in Maxim DL when I colour combined as I've found that this gives a cleaner result than just boosting the OIII and SII channels. Processing is mainly levels and curves with some contrast adjustments and colour balancing to get an aesthetically acceptable result.

As with all my images at the moment the exposures were taken with the FSQ106ED at f5, FLI ML8300 and Paramount ME with auto guiding taken care of by a lodestar and OAG

The Ha, Ha and OIII mix and this image cane be seen on the home page of my website Imaging The Heavens - Home Page as well as previous efforts in the image gallery.

I have included a larger image at the following link but It is not full size due to the amount of noise from a shortage of data

NGC2264 - Cone and Fox Fur nebulae in HST palette photo - Gordon Haynes photos at pbase.com

I am hoping to get some more OIII and SII data but with the way the weather is going it may be later this year. After tonight I have come to the conclusion that light pollution and moonlight are not the astrophotographers worse enemy, it is the MET office (weather forecasters)....they don't seem to understand what "clear skies" mean

Thanks for looking

Best wishes

Gordon