SH2-103 (Veil nebula)

[alan4908]

I had originally decided to attempt my second Hubble Palette image but abandoned this due to the high noise levels of my SII data.  So, changing strategy to a bi-colour approach, I mapped the Ha and OIII data to red and blue, respectively, with a synthetic green channel generated via Noel Carboni's PS actions.  I could have really done with capturing much more data but decided to see what I could process out of the noisy subframes.

 Apart from the filaments of the Veil nebula, I  was quite pleased to see what to me looked like a flaming skull (bottom left) and a small blue lightning storm (bottom centre). Constructive criticism would be welcome 

LIGHTS: Ha: 11, OIII: 6 x 1800s; DARKS: 30; BIAS:100, FLATS:40 all at -20C.

Alan

 

[ChrisLX200]

The Veil is a bit like a fractal image - increase the image scale and ever more fascinating structures come into view

ChrisH

[daz]

I like that Alan! The 'skull' looks like a serpent with its tongue flicking in and out

 

[alan4908]

Thanks for the comments.

On the larger image scale front, I think I need to investigate how to image mosaics with ACP.

Alan

 

[steppenwolf]

This is a lovely take on a fascinating object - what telescope did you use?

[PatrickGilliland]

NIce work - love looking at same object at different focal lengths - different details and structures become evident.  Nice work.

Paddy

[alan4908]

1 hour ago, steppenwolf said:

This is a lovely take on a fascinating object - what telescope did you use?

Thanks Steve, the telescope used was my Skywatcher ED80 DS-Pro, with the matching 0.85x FF/FR. Used in conjunction with my SX Trius 814 camera, gives me an imaging scale of 1.46 arc seconds per pixel which seems to work well for DSO imaging.

56 minutes ago, PatrickGilliland said:

NIce work - love looking at same object at different focal lengths - different details and structures become evident.  Nice work.

Paddy

Thanks Paddy.

Alan