NGC 281

[Hughsie]

NGC 281 is located in the constellation Casseopeia and is a bright emission nebula. At it’s centre is a an open star cluster, IC 1590, an area of star formation contain very large, bright hot stars. It is thought that the radiation and strong solar winds are causing the concentrated interstellar gas to glow.

This image was captured across three nights using narrowband Chroma filters. These filters allowed me to capture light emitted by ionised Hydrogen alpha, Oxygen 3 and Sulphur 2. The data was then combined to form the ‘Hubble Palette’ assigning Sulphur to the Red channel, Hydrogen to the Green channel and Oxygen to the Blue channel.

Data

Overall 17.5 hours of exposures was gathered;

Ha 70 x 5 mins

Oiii 70 x 5 mins

Sii 70 x 5 mins

 

Equipment used

William Optics Z103 refractor.

ZWO ASI1600mm Pro Cool camera, Gain 139, offset 30 and cooled to -10 degrees centigrade.

Skywatcher EQ6R Pro Cool camera

Chroma 1.25” 3nm Ha, Oiii & Sii filters

Sesto Senso Robotic Focuser

ZWO 8 EFW

Sequence Generator Pro for managing the capture of data

PixInsight for processing.

 

Thank you for checking in.

John 

[MarkAR]

Lovely image.

[Hughsie]

A few days ago I revisited this data to see what I could do a second time around armed with new PixInsight tools.

[B4silio]

1 hour ago, Hughsie said:

A few days ago I revisited this data to see what I could do a second time around armed with new PixInsight tools.

Wow the difference is more than striking! Hooray for always better processing!

What did you use specifically to get the nebulosity to feel so much more solid and still keep the color nuances in the brightest blue vs white areas?  

[Hughsie]

7 hours ago, B4silio said:

Wow the difference is more than striking! Hooray for always better processing!

What did you use specifically to get the nebulosity to feel so much more solid and still keep the color nuances in the brightest blue vs white areas?  

I downloaded the RC Astro tools, BlurXterminator, NoiseXterminator and StarXterminator for PixInsight.

Removing the stars enabled me to draw out more nebulosity using GeneralisedHyperbolicStretch tool. Colour masks were created to focus on the red, yellow and cyan channels and range masks used to add more contrast in the nebulosity targeting the large and small scale features.