The power of collaboration: NGC 2237 Rosette Nebula

[Avdhoeven]

The power of collaboration...

Recently on the Dutch site astroforum.nl an initiative was started to share raw image data and see if it was possible to combine different datasets to get more out of the data. The first object that was decide upon was NGC2237, aka the Rosette Nebula. Several observers uploaded their data to an ftp site and it was shared again between all observers to be processed on their own accord. 

This is my result of combining the different datasets, resulting in a 34,5h exposure of the heart of this beautiful nebula. For this image Ha, OIII, SII and RGB data was combined.

The people who provided data for this image are: Michael Van Doorn, Irving Pieters, Ruud de Vries, Rob Musquetier and myself.

I did the processing and stacking of this image using Pixinsight and Adobe Photoshop.

I think this image is a nice example how sharing raw image data can provide opportunities to improve the final result considerably.

 

NGC2237 Rosette Nebula collaboration by Andre van der Hoeven, on Flickr

[Daniel-K]

.........wow! stunning.i much prefer for this type of image. rather than a wide field shot of the entire object. 

[daz]

Wowsers!!!

That's a stunning picture Andre - congrats to you and you and your fellow imagers!!

 

Right, need to aim for 35 hours!!!

[laudropb]

Very nice image. 

[symesie04]

Incredible. Beautiful nebula imaged with beautiful data and then beautifully processed. The sharing of data is really the way forward i think. Not only does it give newbies a chance to see what their striving for in terms of data capture and allow them to hone their processing skills but it also allows collaboration as above to produce images that are right up there with professional observatories and that can be used by professional astronomers for reference. Well done gents.

[gorann]

Yes, a really stunning image, and yes, sharing data is a great idea, particularly when skies are persistently cloudy and repeated reprocessing of your old data starts becoming silly.

[Avdhoeven]

Thanks. I really think data sharing is the way to go to get much better results. Unfortunately in the world of astrophotography this is not a very common practice. One important issue is to make good agreements on what and what can't be done with the data. Also for science data sharing would be beneficiary. Just thing about how many variable stars there are in every image...

[toxic]

stunning image well done to all involved 

[ShrewView]

What a brilliant idea and what a beautiful image.

Who needs Hubble!

[Barry-Wilson]

Excellent image.

[andyo]

Great image a real stunner congratulations to all those involved in this capture

[ollypenrice]

I too am a great fan of collaboration. It's great to share and it's great to get a better image. Win-win.

Olly