Sh2-126 now as a two panel mosaic.

[ollypenrice]

(I'm simply cribbing the catalogue number from an excellent Thomas Henne APOD submission, by the way.)

OK, so with 24 hours of HaLRGB, here's the two panel. Having got the feel of the data in the first go (top frame of this) I took a different approach this time. The star control is tight which means this is intended to be presented in fairly small format rather than be zoomed in on. Keeping the stars down is vital in small formats, I think. The full version on my gallery site is half size. The Ha signal is plentiful but I applied it sparingly to try and keep that eerie look it has and I applied it to red and, sparingly, blue in order to keep the colour very close the nebulosity showing in the RGB. This was distinctly magenta and similar to what you see here.

Gallery site version https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Best-of-Les-Granges/i-TxbbHBS/0/X3/Sh2-126 HaLRGB 24 Hrs-X3.jpg

Olly

[mftoet]

Excellent. What more can I see. I particularly like the bright red diagonal streak in the lower half of the image. It reminds me of an aurora display.

[MikeODay]

Lovely image.  The gently curving red lines seem unusual to me; I am more used to seeing nebula which have clouds that are at least to some extent chaotic, whereas the main nebula in this image looks to me like a character from an asian language laid down beautifully in red paint using a calligraphy brush.

[ollypenrice]

Yes, this is a very unusual Ha target indeed. The aurora similarity struck me as well. It doesn't seem to be showing the same kind of interaction with stars and clusters as most Ha objects do. I wonder if, for some reason, it hasn't been subjected to the kinds of disturbance which trigger star formation. Or maybe if it has a high internal gas pressure it will resist the Jeans Instability if disturbed. It's incredibly smooth, as Mike says.

Olly

[wimvb]

Lovely image. I like the balance between the nebulae.

[toxic]

blooming Ek Olly you got them stars very tight great image, if it was myne i'd be tempted to denoise it lol -  it's a cracking image

[Barry-Wilson]

Very beautiful Olly: the second panel has created a sublime image and has been worth the effort. Tremendous.

[sharkmelley]

That is a remarkable image!  It's an area I had never seen before Maurice's and your recent posts.

It really does look like someone has painted hydrogen emissions in broad brush strokes across the sky.

Mark

[andyo]

This is a great image love the darker bits of nebulosity 

[PatrickGilliland]

Thats super Olly well done, the way the brown dust wraps around red nebula is excellent.  Careful when reducing stars and creating halos around the stars though few showing a little but not enough to detract from the excellent target and final image.

Paddy 

[Rodd]

The second panel definitely improves the framing of the image and FOV.  A very angular DSO--which is unusual.  Looks like an alien spacecraft.

[Tom OD]

Super pic Olly. It does look more like Aurora than an Emission nebula.

Tom