NGC 2237 Rosette Nebula Ha and HaRGB

[x6gas]

Hi all,

Not sure what's going on with my mount, but my guiding just isn't as accurate as it once was... ho hum...

Anyway, thought I'd have a crack at the Rosette Nebula.

Scope: Takahashi FSQ85EDX

Mount: misbehaving CGEM DX

Camera: Atik 460ex

Guiding: IMG0H, Atik OAG, PHD

Here's the Ha, 15 x 1200s subs.

And here with RGB added (but not much star colour so I think I need subs longer than the R=120, G=150, B=180 used here)

Seasons greetings one and all, and wishing you all clear skies in 2014.

Ian

[sologuitarist61]

Superb Ian, prefer the non RGB version, but that is just my preference - lovely shot!

[swag72]

Definitely loving the mono Ian - A super capture!

[Mark72]

Great Rosette Ian especially in mono indeed,

Mark

[ollypenrice]

Both look great to me. I think a little more green and blue would help the colour version. The O111 signal is quite strong and adds relief because it's concentrated near the middle. It will be picked up by G and B.

Will longer subs help star colour? Not sure. It's easy to burn out the colour in stellar cores. Do you have Noel's Actions, Increase Star Colour? It's very good.

Olly

[x6gas]

Thanks Richard, Sara, and Mark, and thanks for the suggestions Olly - first time anyone's suggested more green in one of my images! ;-).

I also prefer the monochrome, Ha only version but following Olly's advice I've had a go at reprocessing the data.  I've stretched the RGB data much more aggressively in this and I think it's a big improvement...

Happy New Year one and all, and wishing you clear skies in 2014.

Ian

[martin_h]

You could always try a seperate layer for the stars only and blend them in. Nice image tho either way.

[ollypenrice]

What your reprocess has done is bring up the O111 in the inner part of the nebula. This was my point. I've just been writing about this for the mag. I think you now have far more 3D. To my eye it might be a tad overdone but that's a) a matter of taste and easily adjusted by blending the old and new images at different opacities.

Great stuff.

Olly

[x6gas]

Thanks Martin, and thanks again Olly.  The dodgy colour management of my laptop strikes again!  My work computer concurs with Olly that the version above is too green...  I really should do my final colour tweaking on my desktop computer, but it's a little more sociable to do all my processing in the lounge on my laptop...

Anyway, this version has the blackpoints of the three channels balanced; the background looks too blue on this screen in PS but I am curious to see if it is OK once posted to SGL.

Thanks again for the nice comments; definitely improved thanks to the constructive advice.

Ian

[ollypenrice]

Looks good to me. I think a good Rosette has a nice strong colour distinction between inner and outer parts. Rather than judge the background sky by eye, why not measure it? You can place some Colour Sampler markers on the background in various places and get a colour by colour value to appear. My starting point is 23/23/23 if I haven't made a mess of it before this stage!

Olly

[andyo]

That's a great rosette the final reprocess is a big improvement to the first one, great job done

[Guest]

What a gorgeous image, the last version certainly picks out the detail beautifully. The Tak 85 does a fantastic job too! I'll keep saving the pennies...

[x6gas]

Many thanks Olly, Andy, and Goth.

So funny story: turns out that I had the green and blue filters transposed in my filter wheel which is why I wasn't getting the right star colour... so here is a version with the colours actually assigned to the correct channels!

Thanks again for all of the comments and advice.

Cheers, Ian

[Uranium235]

Looks much better now, nice work.

[steppenwolf]

I've enjoyed watching this one develop - a very satisfying final image.

Sent from my iPhone from somewhere dark .....

[Martin-Devon]

Lovely work Ian, subtle and very effective palette yet again. Happy New Year to you!

Martin

[x6gas]

Looks much better now, nice work.

I've enjoyed watching this one develop - a very satisfying final image.

Sent from my iPhone from somewhere dark .....

Lovely work Ian, subtle and very effective palette yet again. Happy New Year to you!

Martin

Many thanks Uranium, Steve, and Martin.

Feels a bit like I got there in the end with this one.  I have some OIII to try a narrowband bicolour + RGB stars process when I get a chance...

[Dave Smith]

Well done Ian. The final reprocess certainly works for me - I love the colours.

Dave

[fwm891]

Great image Ian, star colour has been lost somewhat, I think you could add a star layer from your data and up their saturation without altering the main image

[morimarty]

Thats a lovely rosette Ian, great work.

[x6gas]

Well done Ian. The final reprocess certainly works for me - I love the colours.

Dave

Many thanks Dave!

Great image Ian, star colour has been lost somewhat, I think you could add a star layer from your data and up their saturation without altering the main image

Thanks Francis.  Hmmm, I thought I'd done ok with star colour in the final version (certainly got better!).  What's the best method for adding in a star layer then?  I have processed a separate RGB layer, but if I mask out the stars in the main image and add a new star layer in it looks 'orrible!

Thats a lovely rosette Ian, great work.

Thanks Martyn - much appreciated.

[Ewan]

Many thanks Olly, Andy, and Goth.

So funny story: turns out that I had the green and blue filters transposed in my filter wheel which is why I wasn't getting the right star colour... so here is a version with the colours actually assigned to the correct channels!

Thanks again for all of the comments and advice.

HaRGBOIII iteration colour balanced.png

Cheers, Ian

Looks very nice Ian, to be honest i thought this was meant to be quite red as a final image but i like this display better as it does seem to allow more & seperate detail to shine through so you actually notice it.

I think everyone has done the same with the filters, i put my hands up to it straight away, theres a lot to be said for taking the time in naming the sequence of captues based on the filter but i have still made a few [removed word], i am allowed to as im new to ccd imaging .

As for your guiding it doesn't look bad at all Ian, i guess you may mean the stars in the corners (some look very very very slightly eggy (mine look worse sometimes)), you don't notice anything Ian & it's a lovely image.

Olly is quite correct RE PS Actions, i bought Noel's actions the other day & for £13.00 + they are excellent, maybe i am a bit dim  but some are not too easy to fathom out without doing a test run on an image & compare it to the original, i re done my NGC6960 & got it looking a lot 'fluffier' natural looking than before & even wacked a defraction spike on the central star which kind of set the image off, your stars also seem to have vey small spikes or am i mistaken ?

You should be very happy with your image Ian as it's progressed into something rather nice, keep doing what your doing & i'll keep reading your post's.

  :grin: