IC443 (Jellyfish Nebula)

[geoflewis]

Here is my first attempt at this target and my first attempt trying to use Ha data both for red channel enhancement and as a luminence. I kind of made the processing up as I went along, so I'm calling this Ha(L)HaRGB....!!

More info about the image can be seen on my Astrobin page at https://www.astrobin.com/331094/

The Ha only image is at https://www.astrobin.com/331103/

I only had about 1 hour each RGB, 2.5 hours Ha and no chance yet to shoot any luminence. I doubt that I collected enough data for this target, so may add some more to see if I can improve it.

Comments, feedback and suggestions for improvement will be much appreciated.

Cheers, Geof

[Tommohawk]

Don't have the experience to offer authoritative  criticism, but I think it looks very good!

Maybe the Ha L layer could have been stretched a bit or have increased opacity - the colour is quite rich but maybe the detail a bit lacking? Or maybe you could get some L and blend it with the Ha for the L layer?

Not sure though - like you, I'm making it up as I go along too!

[geoflewis]

10 minutes ago, Tommohawk said:

Don't have the experience to offer authoritative  criticism, but I think it looks very good!

Maybe the Ha L layer could have been stretched a bit or have increased opacity - the colour is quite rich but maybe the detail a bit lacking? Or maybe you could get some L and blend it with the Ha for the L layer?

Not sure though - like you, I'm making it up as I go along too!

Thanks Tom,

I appreciate the feedback and ideas. The Ha layer was fully processed (i.e. stretched, stars removed, high pass filter, background smoothed, then stars added back) before applying as the luminence, but it was not processed prior to adding to the red channel. I did try a stretched Ha with the R, but it overwhelmed the BG channels when combined, turning all the stars red. I agree that some true luminence might help and maybe more of everything to help reduce noise.

Cheers, Geof

[lux eterna]

Hi Geof,

I very much like the colours you ended up with. The warm dark red, and not too much of it.

Maybe the framing could have put the subject a bit more to the right. Overall a very nice image.

Ragnar

[geoflewis]

14 minutes ago, lux eterna said:

Hi Geof,

I very much like the colours you ended up with. The warm dark red, and not too much of it.

Maybe the framing could have put the subject a bit more to the right. Overall a very nice image.

Ragnar

Many thanks Ragnar,

I very much appreciate the feedback. There is a region of blue reflection near the blue stars in the top right of the image that I was also hoping to capture, hence the framing of the jellyfish off to the left, but I managed so little colour data that it barely shows in my image. I will try to add more data to see if I can tease it out, but I think it will need a lot more, so not sure if my infrequent clear skies will allow....

Best regards, Geof