Tadpole Nebula

[alan4908]

My first attempt at the Tadpole Nebula (IC410).  

Located in the Auriga constellation, the nebula is about 12000 light years distant and is approx 100 light years across.  The red tadpole like objects are believed to be  about 10 light years across and consist of dust and gas that have been shaped by stellar winds. The nebula also contains an open cluster (NGC1893) that contains newly born stars that are estimated to be only 4 million years old (in the center of the image and a little to the right).

Since I prefer natural looking colours, on the acquisition side, I decided to go for an LRGB image with the details enhanced with some narrowband Ha data.  The image was taken with my Esprit 150 and represents 16 hours integration time.

Alan

LIGHTS: L23, R:19, G:15, B:18 x 600s, Ha: 7 x 1800s, BIAS:100, DARKS:30, FLATS:40 all at -20C. 

[alan potts]

That is a lovely shot Alan, one I should try and get closer up on with my longer scope. Like the way you have framed it too.

Alan

[MarkAR]

Lovely image, I think you've nailed the natural colour balance.

[alan4908]

18 hours ago, alan potts said:

That is a lovely shot Alan, one I should try and get closer up on with my longer scope. Like the way you have framed it too.

Alan

Thanks Alan. Yes - it seems a very good target with my field of view, I was also somewhat pleased on the tadpole details.

15 hours ago, MarkAR said:

Lovely image, I think you've nailed the natural colour balance.

Thanks for the comment 

Alan

[Laurin Dave]

Very nice, certainly looks Much better in LRGB than my attempt in HOO. Good framing too

Dave

[gorann]

Like you I prefer RGB or images with a plaette looking like RGB even with some NB added, and you clearly succeded! Great image!

[alan potts]

Keep looking at this, so so nice, one of the best images of this I have seen!!

Alan

[alan4908]

On 25/03/2020 at 07:41, Laurin Dave said:

Very nice, certainly looks Much better in LRGB than my attempt in HOO. Good framing too

Dave

Thanks for your comments Dave.  The LRGB image was improved by my first attempt at creation of a super luminescence (a noise weighted result of the individual L, R, G, B stacks - my RGB data is binned 1 x 1 so, it increases SNR without decreasing detail).

23 hours ago, gorann said:

Like you I prefer RGB or images with a plaette looking like RGB even with some NB added, and you clearly succeded! Great image!

Thanks Goran 

17 hours ago, alan potts said:

Keep looking at this, so so nice, one of the best images of this I have seen!!

Alan

Thanks Alan ! - apart from the superlum creation (mentioned above) I was also experimenting with a couple of new PI techniques that I also recently learnt from Adam Block's PI tutorials ( https://adamblockstudios.com/) - the first was to boost nebula contrast via the fuzzy logic script (LocalFuzzyHistogramHyperbolization) and the second to boost the blue contrast in the nebula via a specific Adam Block technique.

Alan

Edited March 26, 2020 by alan4908