From IC348 to NGC1333 with a strawberry inbetween

[gorann]

I recently saw @ollypenrice mosaic of this area and thought I could just about sqeeze these two rather iconic nebulae, IC348(VdB19) and NGC1333, into a two panel mosaic with the RASA 8. Fortunately these two reflection nebulae are separated by an interesting mix of dark nebulosity, including several from the Bernard catalogue including including Bernard 3 associated with a large patch of Ha nebulosity (this camera is rather good at capturing Ha also without a filter). To increase the details a bit I have added about 50% lum to IC348 and NGC1333 from old 5"refractor data that I had in store.

I also post the annotatated low resolution image created on Astrobin.

Data collected over three nights (5-7 Fec 2021) with the RASA 8 and ASI2600MC without filter (gain 100, -20°C) on an iOptron CEM70. 109 x 4 min, so 7.3 hours. All from my home obsy.

 

 

Edited February 10, 2021 by gorann

[ollypenrice]

That's great, Goran. It's remarkable how different it is from mine and, quite honestly, how much more interesting! What our versions have in common is strong Ha around the dark B3 feature. (I always think it looks like a strawberry.) The vast majority of images don't have so much on show. You have interesting blue around the Ha which doesn't show in mine but I do get a hint of it if I ramp up the saturation. I should go back to the original data. The other thing is that you have much better separation between faint gas-dust and the background sky. I regard this as one of the biggest weaknesses in my processing. It brings more contrasty structures into view. Personally I would not take the colour saturation as far as you've done but that's always a personal thing. Yours is by far the better image and is a delight to behold. Nice one!

Olly

[gorann]

18 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

That's great, Goran. It's remarkable how different it is from mine and, quite honestly, how much more interesting! What our versions have in common is strong Ha around the dark B3 feature. (I always think it looks like a strawberry.) The vast majority of images don't have so much on show. You have interesting blue around the Ha which doesn't show in mine but I do get a hint of it if I ramp up the saturation. I should go back to the original data. The other thing is that you have much better separation between faint gas-dust and the background sky. I regard this as one of the biggest weaknesses in my processing. It brings more contrasty structures into view. Personally I would not take the colour saturation as far as you've done but that's always a personal thing. Yours is by far the better image and is a delight to behold. Nice one!

Olly

Thanks a lot Olly! You are too kind. Yes, I was a bit ambivalent about how saturated I should keep it. When I brought out the red signal, mainly with curves in Lab color, I aimed at getting the red strawberry simmilar to yours as a bench mark and that also lifted the red and blue in the rest of the image. Here is a version with reduced overall saturation (-19 % in PS) except on the strawberry - I don't want a brown strawberry😉.

Have you decided on a OSC yet?

Edited February 9, 2021 by gorann

[gorann]

27 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

That's great, Goran. It's remarkable how different it is from mine and, quite honestly, how much more interesting! What our versions have in common is strong Ha around the dark B3 feature. (I always think it looks like a strawberry.) The vast majority of images don't have so much on show. You have interesting blue around the Ha which doesn't show in mine but I do get a hint of it if I ramp up the saturation. I should go back to the original data. The other thing is that you have much better separation between faint gas-dust and the background sky. I regard this as one of the biggest weaknesses in my processing. It brings more contrasty structures into view. Personally I would not take the colour saturation as far as you've done but that's always a personal thing. Yours is by far the better image and is a delight to behold. Nice one!

Olly

PS. I rarely got this dynamic bright and fluffy structure in the dust in my images until I starded with the RASA 8 - ASI2600MC combo. Not sure if it is one or both of them that is mainly responsible.

[ollypenrice]

24 minutes ago, gorann said:

PS. I rarely got this dynamic bright and fluffy structure in the dust in my images until I starded with the RASA 8 - ASI2600MC combo. Not sure if it is one or both of them that is mainly responsible.

A marriage made for the heavens in any case!

I do prefer V2. It's Feb 9th but could this be image of the year already? 😄

Olly

[gorann]

10 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

A marriage made for the heavens in any case!

I do prefer V2. It's Feb 9th but could this be image of the year already? 😄

Olly

Thanks again Olly! OK, v2 it is for the time being - I also like it better.

What do you think that blue around the strawberry nebula is? I do see it faintly also in your image. Is it Oiii or reflection from some bright star behind the strawberry? I wonder if anyone has tried to image this with an Oiii filter - that should show Oiii but not blue reflection nebulosity.

[Laurin Dave]

Very nice Goran...  I've had a go at this but weather and Bortle 4/5 have made it rather a difficult one...  I'd imagine that the Blue is reflection rather than a discrete mass of almost pure Oiii..  

Dave

[gorann]

20 hours ago, Laurin Dave said:

Very nice Goran...  I've had a go at this but weather and Bortle 4/5 have made it rather a difficult one...  I'd imagine that the Blue is reflection rather than a discrete mass of almost pure Oiii..  

Dave

Thanks Dave!

Yes, the nebulosity is weak so moon had to be gone before I could make attempt on this one. Upon suggestion from Rodd on my Astrobin post I have brightened the image a bit.

 

 

Edited February 10, 2021 by gorann

[ollypenrice]

6 hours ago, gorann said:

Thanks again Olly! OK, v2 it is for the time being - I also like it better.

What do you think that blue around the strawberry nebula is? I do see it faintly also in your image. Is it Oiii or reflection from some bright star behind the strawberry? I wonder if anyone has tried to image this with an Oiii filter - that should show Oiii but not blue reflection nebulosity.

No idea. I never gave it any thought since I didn't know it was there! As you say, an OIII test would be interesting.

lly

[gorann]

11 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

That's great, Goran. It's remarkable how different it is from mine and, quite honestly, how much more interesting! What our versions have in common is strong Ha around the dark B3 feature. (I always think it looks like a strawberry.) The vast majority of images don't have so much on show. You have interesting blue around the Ha which doesn't show in mine but I do get a hint of it if I ramp up the saturation. I should go back to the original data. The other thing is that you have much better separation between faint gas-dust and the background sky. I regard this as one of the biggest weaknesses in my processing. It brings more contrasty structures into view. Personally I would not take the colour saturation as far as you've done but that's always a personal thing. Yours is by far the better image and is a delight to behold. Nice one!

Olly

I just suggested on my Astrobin post, referring to you, that I think we should call that red nebulosity around Bernard 3 The Strawberry Nebula. Maybe it catches on.

https://www.astrobin.com/2ftcte/C/

[peter shah]

Another wonderful image....great processing!!......the RASA wins again!!

[gorann]

8 hours ago, peter shah said:

Another wonderful image....great processing!!......the RASA wins again!!

Thanks Peter, you made the RASA blush😆