NGC6960, The Witches Broom - Veil Nebula

[Paxo]

Another trial image from the GRAS System, this time GRAS003 in New Mexico, this is a Tak Tao-150 fitted with a SBIG ST-10XME NABG which gives a 3.2 Megapixel image with a resolution of 1.27 arc secs/pixel.

Image is an LRGB composition using Ha data as the Luminance channel.

5 x 600 secs Ha 1x1 binned

5 x 300 secs Red 1x1 binned

5 x 300 secs Green 1x1 binned

5 x 300 secs Blue 1x1 binned

Giving a total exposure of 2 hours 5 minutes for all channels.

(click to enlarge)

Witches broom nebula is a portion of the veil nebula, there was a lot of difficulty in the processing due to the presence of 52 Cygni (a double star) in the centre of the image which caused some minor blooming problems.

I guess the composition highlights the main problem with the remote imaging setup. You can on some of the copes set the imaging angle used, so this can be overcome. Just happy to get some practice on LRGB data.

Enjoy.

Steve

[bazza]

Steve,

It's a beauty.

Some great colour in there.

Hope you don't mind me saying this - if you've got Noel's tools, I think there is a tool for the removal of blue halos on stars.

Don't get me wrong - I'm no expert on processing - far from it!

Might be worth a try though.

Whatever, it's a cracking image.

Barry.

[Paxo]

Following a flow of information between SteveL and Bazza on processing Ha RGB images, here's a rework of the data using the suggestions made.

(click to enlarge)

It has certainly brought out more nebulosity in the image, and wasn't too complicated to boot.

Steve..

[bazza]

Steve,

OH YES SIR!

So much more detail - the first was good, but this is superb.

You've got to be pleased with that Steve.

I KNOW how much effort has gone into that.

Is it just me or is processing images absolutely mentally knackering!!

Great fun though!

Barry.

[beamish]

Now that does look great !!!

Karlo

[Talitha]

Huge improvement, Steve! Just out of curiosity, how much time does it take to process images?

[SteveL]

Much better

[SteveL]

Is it just me or is processing images absolutely mentally knackering!!

Battling a problem is hard, something you`ve never had to deal with before. Takes some mental effort to take lateral steps and learn new processes to overcome the obstacles in front of you.

[Paxo]

Huge improvement, Steve! Just out of curiosity, how much time does it take to process images?

I guess this varies a lot Carol, I must have put about ten hours total time into this one so far on and off. It's a steep learning curve as SteveL has said, a little trial and error at this stage but still very rewarding and it's all good practice for when the skies clear.

Steve..

[Talitha]

Wow, I had absolutely no idea how much time and work went into it. :notworthy: