ngc 6334 The Cat's Paw Nebula ( NGC 6334 ) in Scorpius - updated

[MikeODay]

The Cat's Paw Nebula ( NGC 6334 ) in Scorpius 

updated ( slight tweak to colour balance, a little brighter and tad more contrast )  

( please click / tap on image to see larger and sharper - a full size image can be seen here )

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original:

( please click / tap on image to see larger and sharper - a full size image can be seen here )

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Also known as the Bear Claw Nebula, NGC 6334 is an emission nebula near the scorpion's tail in the Scorpius constellation. 

Image details:

Image centre ...... RA: 17 20 08.185  Dec: -35 52 30.91
Field of view ..... 57' 37.8" x 38' 51.8"
Rotation .......... 0.00 deg ( North is up )
Resolution ........ 0.586 arcsec/px

Telescope: Orion Optics CT12 Newtonian ( mirror 300mm, fl 1200mm, f4 ).
Corrector: ASA 2" Coma Corrector Quattro 1.175x.
Effective Focal Length / Aperture : 1470mm f4.7

Mount: Skywatcher EQ8
Guiding: TSOAG9 Off-Axis-Guider, Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2, PHD2 

Camera:
Nikon D5300 (unmodified) (sensor 23.5 x 15.6mm, 6016x4016 3.9um pixels)

Location:
Blue Mountains, Australia 
Moderate light pollution ( pale green zone on darksitefinder.com map )

Capture ( July 2018 )
6 sets of sub-images with exposure duration for each set doubling ( 4s to 240s ) all at ISO 250.
168 x 4 min frames plus ~10 frames each for the shorter exposures  

Processing:
Calibration: bias, dark and flat
Integration in 8 sets
HDR combination 

Pixinsight July 2018

[carastro]

Very nice.  For obvious reasons am not intimately acquainted with this target.

Carole 

[MikeODay]

Cheers Carole - yes I imagine that it is quite low in the sky for you!

[Rodd]

Wonderful.  I am wondering if a slight drop in black point would bring out the details a bit.  Its great as is though.

Rodd

[MikeODay]

On 26/07/2018 at 01:30, Rodd said:

Wonderful.  I am wondering if a slight drop in black point would bring out the details a bit.  Its great as is though.

Rodd

Thanks Rodd

Here is a further tweak.  What do you think, better or have I over done it?

Cheers

Mike

 

[Rodd]

9 minutes ago, MikeODay said:

Here is a further tweak.  What do you think, better or have I over done it?

I think it looks good.  You did not over do it at all.  The structures stand out a bit.  Nice.

Rodd

[MikeODay]

 

15 minutes ago, Rodd said:

I think it looks good.  You did not over do it at all.  The structures stand out a bit.  Nice.

Rodd

Thanks Rodd.

I find it hard sometimes to set the right contrast - I calibrate my monitor for colour but the contrast is very different between my monitor and IPAD.

[Rodd]

2 minutes ago, MikeODay said:

 

Thanks Rodd.

I find it hard sometimes to set the right contrast - I calibrate my monitor for colour but the contrast is very different between my monitor and IPAD.

I know what you mean.  I find the im ages look their best on iphones and ipads.  Something about the screens.  Maybe being smaller helps too.

Rodd

[MikeODay]

updated ( slight tweak to colour balance, a little brighter and tad more contrast )  

[MarsG76]

Thats look heaps good.. WAY WAY better than what I ended up with last time I tried imaging this nebula.... well done.

[MikeODay]

On 31/07/2018 at 20:03, MarsG76 said:

Thats look heaps good.. WAY WAY better than what I ended up with last time I tried imaging this nebula.... well done.

Thanks for that!  I am quite pleased with the way it turned out.   

Although ...

The colour balance was a challenge and I'm still not sure it is "correct" - the problem I had is that there is no neutral area that I could use as a reference to remove the light pollution.  Even the dark areas are really red!

Also, looking at other deep images, I think that the blue tint at the far left  is not due to reflection of blue star light from interstellar material :) - I think it is probably due to the very strong stretch of the dark tones bringing out atmospheric flare from the bright star just out of frame - there must have been more dust/vapour in the air than I thought; it looked clear!

Cheers

Mike

[MarsG76]

4 hours ago, MikeODay said:

Thanks for that!  I am quite pleased with the way it turned out.   

Although ...

The colour balance was a challenge and I'm still not sure it is "correct" - the problem I had is that there is no neutral area that I could use as a reference to remove the light pollution.  Even the dark areas are really red!

Also, looking at other deep images, I think that the blue tint at the far left  is not due to reflection of blue star light from interstellar material - I think it is probably due to the very strong stretch of the dark tones bringing out atmospheric flare from the bright star just out of frame - there must have been more dust/vapour in the air than I thought; it looked clear!

Cheers

Mike

Very dense in Nebulosity, that's for sure, although with the blue, it looks like it convexes into a point so I doubt that it's atmospheric haze dispersion, I this that it's the result of star light... 

Either way, it looks great.

[MikeODay]

On 02/08/2018 at 15:37, MarsG76 said:

Very dense in Nebulosity, that's for sure, although with the blue, it looks like it convexes into a point so I doubt that it's atmospheric haze dispersion, I this that it's the result of star light... 

Either way, it looks great.

Thanks for that.

Cheers

Mike