Flame and Horsehead

[Tommohawk]

This has probably been done a million times before, but it's my first proper go at the horsehead and I've just noticed I can enter it in the imaging challenge section - first time I've had the chance!

So - I've used only newts and camera lenses until now and finally at Xmas treated myself to a new TS optics scope (72mm F6 and a 0.79 reducer) 

During the beautiful weather last week I grabbed some Ha R G and B over a few nights, and got a fair result - I think! Processing a bit weird - main issue was massive Ha haloes round Altinak, which I sort of solved by blending in the relatively good Lum date around Altinak over the Ha data. Has left some blue halos because the blue was also pretty burned out, but I didn't want to manipulate things too much. 

Not sure I have the reducer spacing quite right - some less than round stars in the corners so will need to experiment a bit there, but general pleased with the new gear. Certainly way easier to focus than the camera lens!

I used the Ha as the Lum, (95% opacity) because the Lum was surprisingly weak, and blended 20% Ha in with the Red channel. This seems to work quite well I think - the red isn't quite as saturated as some of the examples I've seen, but if I strengthen the red near the horsehead then the background red becomes way too much across the rest of the image. Probably other ways of working it. I did try blending some Lum with the Ha, but that didn't really help, and I tried blending a smaller amount of Ha with the G and B channels, which some folk seems to have done, but that didn't help either.

I would call this Ha,HaR,G,B because the R has Ha blended in - but not sure if that's correct terminology!

So, TS72 F6 with TS 0.79 reducer, ASI1600 cool @-15 degC with ZWO NB filters, 27 x 300s Ha (gain 300), 14 x 300s Ha (139 gain), 60 x 60s R (139gain) 32 x 60 G (139 gain), 28 x 60s B (139 gain)  and L data only used for halo masking. SharpCap, DSS, PS.

Hope you like it!