M16: Eagle Nebula (Ha)

[Uranium235]

Its been cloudy for over a week now, so its been a case of finding something to process. Over the past month or so, Ive been able to grab a few extra long subs on M16 to add to last years haul, but its getting really tricky now - I have about 45 min before it gets too low.

Ive deployed the usual routine for narrowband (high pass filter, sharpening applied to an inverted star selection), plus a little contrast enhancement. This had to be processed by composting two layers to avoid burnout in the core while bringing out the outer nebulosity. Not much noise to speak of, just wondering whether ive made it a little too crispy.

M16: Eagle nebula

10x360 + 10x600 + 5x900 + 1x1800 (4h 25min) Ha

ED80, Atik 314L+, NEQ6

Setpoint: -10

Calibration: none

Thanks for looking!

[Gina]

That's incredible Very sharp with great detail

[Mark72]

Lots of detail, well processed!

I thought it's already gone until next year.

Mark

[Uranium235]

Lots of detail, well processed!

I thought it's already gone until next year.

Mark

Thanks Mark & Gina.

Its not quite gone just yet, it depends on how low you can go from your location, I have a limit of -25deg (or -15 in the SW) below the southern celestial equator before things start getting a bit tricky.

[Gina]

It's gone from my view here - my western view is obscured by trees on higher ground.

[Jessun]

Very nice! What would a red version look like?

[Uranium235]

Very nice! What would a red version look like?

I do have a set of SII and OIII for this, but ive yet to reprocess it into something satisfactory, the RGB data may also need to be composted like the Ha luminance. I will have a crack at doing it tomorrow as it may take some time

[andyo]

Thats a nice shot great detail

[Quatermass]

Great shot you did say you were going to get this one done a few months back and this is a brilliant image, really glad I made the effort to image those wonderful nebula in this region including the eagle swan lagoon and triffid, the Helix was fun to do as well.

[Uranium235]

Thanks Mark, you really do have to be quick (and lucky with the weather) to catch this low stuff. But, Ive since had a tinker with the hubble channels (composted two layers) and then merged it with the Ha luminance. Here is what popped out:

[Tom OD]

Smooth pic, the claw stands out nicely.

[Uranium235]

Thanks Tom

Ive just spotted a bit of unwanted blue in the bottom left corner (cant believe I didnt notice that!), its probably just a slight gradient in the OIII channel - I'll take a look at fixing it later.

[Gina]

I thin that's a beautiftul image Are you sure the blue isn't just nebulosity?