IC 1871 - part of the Soul Nebula

[steppenwolf]

IC 1871 – Part of the Soul Nebula

 

Description

IC 1871 is a very busy region of the Soul Nebula, Sh2-199. The Soul Nebula itself is often referred to as IC 1848 but in fact, this is the designation of a star cluster within the nebulosity. The Soul Nebula is located within the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way in the constellation Cassiopeia at a distance of around 7,500 light years from the Earth with IC 1871 situated on the north-eastern edge of the nebula.

IC 1871 is rich is Ha emissions but less so in OIII which makes this region an ‘interesting’ challenge especially for bicolour imaging as displayed here, despite there being other regions within the Soul Nebula where there is a greater density of OIII emissions. If I could afford a 3nm SII filter, I would have used that too but I can’t so I didn’t!

The nebula also plays host to some fascinating dust lanes that produce some great additional features to contrast against the bright ridges of glowing gas clouds. Within these gas clouds, large cavities have been sculpted by radiation and winds from the region's most massive stars. The dense star-forming clouds of IC 1871 are an example of ‘triggered star-formation’, a theory that suggests that the compressed edges  of the cavities caused by the outwards push of the radiation and wind cause the region to produce successive generations of new stars.

Image Stats

Mount: Mesu 200
Telescope: Sky-Watcher Esprit 150
Flattener: Sky-Watcher Esprit specific
Camera: QSI 683 WSG-8
Filters: Astrodon 3nm Ha, 3nm OIII
Subframes: 15 x 1800 sec Ha, 28 x 1800 sec OIII
Total Integration: 21.5 hours
Control: CCD Commander
Capture: MaxIm DL
Calibration, Stacking and Deconvolution: PixInsight
Post-Processing: PhotoShop PS3

Location

Constellation	Cassiopeia
RA	02° 59' 41.0"
DEC	+60° 41' 4.0"
Distance	~7500ly

[Laurin Dave]

Oh that's lovely Steve, interesting colours for just an Ha and Oiii image,  I'd be interested to know what dark art or magic bullet you used.

Dave

[carastro]

Excellent image Steve.

Carole 

[steppenwolf]

2 hours ago, Laurin Dave said:

Oh that's lovely Steve, interesting colours for just an Ha and Oiii image,  I'd be interested to know what dark art or magic bullet you used.

This was quite an image processing-heavy image to be honest as I was rather battling with the OIII Data. However, I essentially produced two colour images, one with fairly garish colours and one with my usual more subtle 'muddy' colours.

The garish version used Ha mapped to red and originally, OIII mapped to both green and blue channels but early on in the process, I used Noel Carboni's 'synthesize green from red and blue channels' action to produce different green and blue channels. I used PhotoShop's Hue/Saturation tools to achieve the strong colours I wanted.

For the more subtle version, I mapped Ha to red and OIII to both green and blue and processed them again with Hue/Saturation and Selective Color (sic). I also used a strongly stretched mask produced from the OIII data.

I then blended the two images together with the garish version at 53% followed by further Hue/Saturation and Selective Color (sic) adjustments to achieve the finished (are they ever finished?) image displayed here.

For the fun of it, here are the two images that I blended together before the final Hue/Saturation, Selective Color (sic) and opacity % adjustments were made, together with a copy of the final image to show the progression:-

 

[tooth_dr]

Beautiful image with your delicate processing touch.

[Laurin Dave]

Thanks Steve, I’ve never used Noel’s synthesise green tool but after seeing this I think I’ll give it a go..  your mix really emphasises the whirling dervish.. lovely..  and our images are never finished because we keep improving at processing and finding new and exciting things to do with our data which is all part of the fun and the appeal, 

thank you 

Dave

Edited December 8, 2019 by Laurin Dave

[steppenwolf]

4 hours ago, carastro said:

Excellent image Steve.

Thank you Carole, I'm pleased you like it!

1 hour ago, tooth_dr said:

Beautiful image with your delicate processing touch.

Thanks, Adam!

1 hour ago, Laurin Dave said:

Thanks Steve, I’ve never used Noel’s synthesise green tool but after seeing this I think I’ll give it a go..  your mix really emphasises the whirling dervish.. lovely..  and our images are never finished because we keep improving at processing and finding new and exciting things to do with our data which is all part of the fun and the appeal, 

thank you 

It's a very useful tool, Dave and gives a subtle but useful alternative starting palette which when you are working with just bi-colour data can be very useful. I'm sure that Noel didn't have HOO in mind when he developed this but I do like to use it from time to time for just this purpose.

[carastro]

Quote

For the fun of it, here are the two images that I blended together before the final Hue/Saturation, Selective Color (sic) and opacity % adjustments were made, together with a copy of the final image to show the progression:-

I like that and something I have considered/tried doing before, but can't remember whether I actually did use this method.  Great to see it worked. 

Carole

[steppenwolf]

14 hours ago, carastro said:

I like that and something I have considered/tried doing before, but can't remember whether I actually did use this method.  Great to see it worked. 

This is a technique that I use when I simply can't decide what palette suits an object best to enhance the fine detail and as a minimum, it always produces 'interesting' results even if they are not useable!! 😎

[ollypenrice]

Exquisitely delicate processing. Real finesse.

Olly

[steppenwolf]

2 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

Exquisitely delicate processing. Real finesse.

Olly

Thank you Olly 😎

[Toxophilus]

Beautifully done! Strangely enough I have just started grabbing some data on almost exactly the same region tonight. Came on for a read on SGL whilst keeping an eye on the guiding and found this. I just hope I can get half as good a result.

Edited December 11, 2019 by Toxophilus
fix typo

[steppenwolf]

9 hours ago, Toxophilus said:

Beautifully done! Strangely enough I have just started grabbing some data on almost exactly the same region tonight. Came on for a read whilst keeping an eye on the guiding SGL and found this. I just hope I can get half as good a result.

Thank you, I look forward to seeing your result - it is a fascinating region of the nebula

[astro mick]

Your images are on a different level Steve.I think I might need a third book!!!!!!!!

Great result.

Mick.

[Toxophilus]

On 10/12/2019 at 08:45, steppenwolf said:

Thank you, I look forward to seeing your result - it is a fascinating region of the nebula

Unfortunately the cloud moved in and put a stop to things. My guiding was absolutely spot on with the mount behaving better than it ever has. Still it was an exploratory session to get a feel for my new scope with narrowband and how much exposure for each filter it would need. Looks like I'm going to have to wait for the skies to clear again.

[steppenwolf]

That’s a shame - it happens all too frequently here too!

Better luck next time, I am sure it will be worth the wait.

[steppenwolf]

15 hours ago, astro mick said:

Your images are on a different level Steve.I think I might need a third book!!!!!!!!

Great result.

Mick.

Thanks Mick - a third book you say? Now, there's a thought ....... 😁

[Rodd]

This is the way it is supposed to look--real.  It looks real--not like a photograph.  Not like my version which is more of a cartoon....ok ma decent cartoon but a cartoon none the less.  I really like your processing style.

Rodd

[barkis]

You're a Class act young Steve. Tremendous production here, and great to see your work
 back in the DS Imaging section. You must have put a lot of effort into this  work, and the effort
has been rewarded in a big way.
Look centre left of the image, there is a likeness of a Great White shark rearing up out o f the turbulence it resides
in. Perhaps it's just my questionable imagination at work there though .

Best Wishes matey.
Ron.
 

[toxic]

its all bean said but lovely image and superb processing 

[steppenwolf]

2 hours ago, Rodd said:

This is the way it is supposed to look--real.  It looks real--not like a photograph.  Not like my version which is more of a cartoon....ok ma decent cartoon but a cartoon none the less.  I really like your processing style.

Rodd

Thank you, Rodd, I'm delighted that you like my image.

2 hours ago, barkis said:

Tremendous production here, and great to see your work
 back in the DS Imaging section. You must have put a lot of effort into this  work, and the effort
has been rewarded in a big way.

Hi Ron, good to see you posting and thanks for your kind comments. I'm struggling with the 'shark' though, you obviously have more imagination that I have!

1 hour ago, toxic said:

its all bean said but lovely image and superb processing 

Thank you Chris, Delighted that you like the image.