Cocoon Nebula - Now in colour

[Uranium235]

Tonight I managed to get out for long enough to do my flats to add to the L, R and B data I captured last night.

But it took much longer than usual because there was something crawling about inside my imaging train! So I had to wait for whatever it was to finish crawling across the fov of the ccd chip before I could start saving exposures. It took 20 minutes but I had saved enough subs to calibrate last nights data. As soon as that was done I unscrewed the camera and blew away a tiny speck of a thing from the ccd window, whatever it was - it was very small! All gone now though

First time ive attempted this one, but the framing is deliberate as im hoping to add a 2nd pane below this one for the widefield effect. It could probably do with a bit more L and a dose of Ha, but its been interesting to process as my usual tricks dont work so well when there is such a dense starfield.

Had to pack up early though being as it was a weeknight, so for now the colour has been generated from the R and B channels. I tried synth green, but it didnt look quite as good.

IC5146: Cocoon Nebula

ED80 (0.85x), Atik 314L+, NEQ6

L (18x450), R (8x300), B (8x300) - LRBB

Setpoint: -10

Calibration: Bias & Flats

Thanks for looking

Rob

[Mark72]

Well done, Rob!

Why are you not imaging G channel?

Mark

[Uranium235]

Update: Have now done a little more processing and removed the slight gradient - probably caused by a security light which keeps going off every 20min.

[Gina]

Nice one

[Shibby]

Nice one Rob I know what you mean about the star field - it's absolutely packed with them. It's looking good, albeit a little on the green side but I assume this is due to the fact you haven't managed to capture the real green yet?

[Uranium235]

Thanks guys (and Gina!).

Lewis, how is the update I posted? Is there any green in that? Im pretty sure i'd gotten the background level flat, but its always better to have another pair of eyes on the job Usually, I'd run HLVG but it didnt seem to work well on a bicolour image. It will probably look better when I get some real green for it, all I need is just need 20min of clear sky.

Mark, I decided to go with R/B/B because it was getting late and I had work the next day. You can get a decent approximation of colour with just those two filters, so I always shoot red and blue first just in case im pushed for time or get clouded out.

[Shibby]

Sorry, the background looks spot on actually but I meant the blue stars and blue reflection nebulosity (e.g. the little triangular patch below the Cocoon) - they seem to be showing up as green. I don't see what you can do about this though until you get round to capturing the green channel!

Ah forget work, I've already been out on 2 school nights tonight. Hence the imminent cold I can feel approaching... So perhaps you're a wiser man than me!

[Uranium235]

Sorry, the background looks spot on actually but I meant the blue stars and blue reflection nebulosity (e.g. the little triangular patch below the Cocoon) - they seem to be showing up as green. I don't see what you can do about this though until you get round to capturing the green channel!

Ah forget work, I've already been out on 2 school nights tonight. Hence the imminent cold I can feel approaching... So perhaps you're a wiser man than me!

Ahhh, I see now, thanks.

Its more of a teal colour to my eyes, the same colour you get when doing a HOO image. But I've just ran the synth green action on it and this is what popped out: