IC 410 / Sharpless 2-236 Ha / OIII / SII

[x6gas]

Hi all,

I've previously posted a bicolour version of IC 410 but the other night I managed to captured some SII data so what follows is a Ha / OIII / SII narrowband rendition of the Tadpoles.

Usual set-up for this kind of thing (CG-5 mount, Atik 460ex, Atik OAG / IMGOH / PHD), but the Ha was captured with both my TS90APO and FSQ-85.

Ha 25 x 600s

OIII 23 x 600s

SII 29 x 600s

The different fields of view from the twio scopes were reconclied in RegiStar, stacked in DSS and processed in AstroArt 5 and PhotoPlus X4.

The first of these is what dropped out of the processing, the socond has had the stars tamed by blending in a layer that has had teh AA erosion routine applied. Then followed endless tinkering to try to get the result to look okay on SGL! I've no idea why but images that look fine on my desk top take on a green or magenta hue when posted on here. Maybe part of thr problem is that I don't really like to leave the sky really black as I don't think it looks natural... but on this one I've gone pretty dark!

Hope you like it! I feel like I've got some good data here; in fact I think that this is the first time I've had decent data for all three channels. It probably has more to give but I am pleased with this .

Thanks for looking.

Higher quality version of the above here.

Higher quality version of the above here.

[Gina]

Lovely

[JamesF]

Lovely images. I can't really decide which I like best. For me muting the stars makes the intended target stand out more, but actually I quite like seeing the entire thing in its natural context as well.

James

[x6gas]

Lovely images. I can't really decide which I like best. For me muting the stars makes the intended target stand out more, but actually I quite like seeing the entire thing in its natural context as well.

James

Completely agree, James. Can decide myself which is why I posted both of these...

I actually used the 2x drizzle stack in DSS which did give a smoother result but slowed down the processing (PhotoPlus starts getting unhappy even though I use a pretty fast PC) but the odd thing was that the image wouldn't take high-pass sharpening very well so I need to go back and see what I can do to sharpen this up...

[sologuitarist61]

Great images

[x6gas]

Thanks Richard.

I've found out that when I was trying to apply a high pass filter to sharpen up the central nebula, PhotoPlus was getting unhappy and not applying the filter properly - PhotoPlus is much more limited than Photoshop but it is only a tenner, I suppose!

Anyway, by reducing the size of the image, the high pass filter worked properly so here we go:

[MrDanner]

Absolutely beautiful!

[x6gas]

Thanks Richard and MrDanner...

I haven't quite got this image processing business worked out yet, but I am collecting techniques! Strangely, I can't quite nail what I really like which is why I post different versions and I really appreciate feedback. I do feel like I am getting acceptable images now, although others achieve much, much better with similar kit...

I was being a bit hasty with the sharpened version above; the image really needs selective high pass sharpening but this is sharpened across the whole image and it really spoils things by introducing halos around the stars in the nebula and making the whispy bits too grainy... I've also nudged the colours in a way that doesn't work too well when posted on SGL. I feel another version coming on!

Thanks again, Ian