California dreaming - My artistic representaion

[Rustang]

So this is only 3 hours of Ha mono data. While keeping my fingers tightly crossed to get some OIII and SII data before the end of the season, I thought I would create what I would like to finally create with full SHO data while I'm waiting. It has been created from coloured layers of the Ha data entirely in Photoshop. I'm hoping when Ive finally got the full SHO data that it will turn out as good!

 

 

Edited March 18, 2021 by Rustang

[AbsolutelyN]

Beautiful image. 

[Sunshine]

It's Beautiful!

[Rustang]

Well it appears this will stay as an artistic representation, a little more of a 'false colour image' than I was hoping because it appears there's next to no OIII in this Nebula 🤦‍♂️ and what is there is hard to capture. I should have done my research but it's all learning 😊. There does appear to be some SII in my first 10min SII exposure so will attempt a bi colour image instead. 

Edited March 19, 2021 by Rustang

[Knight of Clear Skies]

11 hours ago, Rustang said:

Well it appears this will stay as an artistic representation, a little more of a 'false colour image' than I was hoping because it appears there's next to no OIII in this Nebula 🤦‍♂️ and what is there is hard to capture. I should have done my research but it's all learning 😊. 

I think this is because the nebula is lit up by a passing runaway star, Xi Persei, rather than stars embedded in the nebula. So there isn't the same concentration of oxygen around the ionizing source.

[Rustang]

2 hours ago, Knight of Clear Skies said:

I think this is because the nebula is lit up by a passing runaway star, Xi Persei, rather than stars embedded in the nebula. So there isn't the same concentration of oxygen around the ionizing source.

Thanks, Ive still enjoyed capturing this nebula, its not one ive really been interested in but its actually more beautiful than I first thought, even with the lack of OIII .

Edited March 20, 2021 by Rustang

[Rustang]

I managed to get some more HA last night so I'm currently at 4hrs 50 mins. I captured 1hr of SII also to throw in to the mix to make a Bi colour image. Still looks great in Ha red! I might try and get some RGB stars to add in.

 

Edited March 20, 2021 by Rustang

[old_eyes]

It is a beautiful image. 
 

How did you create it from just the Ha data? Did you map brightness to colour, like a heat map?

[Mr Spock]

Love the colours - that would make a great wallpaper.

[Rustang]

2 hours ago, old_eyes said:

It is a beautiful image. 
 

How did you create it from just the Ha data? Did you map brightness to colour, like a heat map?

Thank you. To start with I created 3 colour layers from the Ha data, one Yellow, one green and one blue. I then set about blending the layers and using and selective colour tool with mask's as I went. There were also the normal tweaks such as sharping, levels and curves applied at certain points. There was a lot of fumbling my way through it until happy.

Edited March 21, 2021 by Rustang

[Rustang]

Not sure whats happened here and why the images have gone below but I thought I would have another go but using the longer integration Ha and SII data for the artistic rendition of an SHO California Nebula and also a better processed Bi colour version (Ha and SII) 

Edited March 21, 2021 by Rustang

[Rustang]

Edited March 21, 2021 by Rustang