Seagull Bicolor

[Rodd]

I thought I was getting a full clear night last night, which would have meant about 5 hours of OIII to add to about 6 hours of Ha. But a night forcasted to be cloud free somehow ended up mostly cloudy.  I was only able to collect about 2.5 hours of OIII.  So, patients not being one of my virtues, here is a bicolor image of IC 2177.  I will collect more OIII and Ha--but I am not sure about SII.  I really like red based nebula--cl;oser to RGB.  Still trying to decide if I should go with the TOA 130 and new flattener or the C11Edge for galaxy season.  My poor sky makes it a tough choice.

I was not aware that this nebula contained such dramatic structure.  More data will smooth out the roughness (without the bloody finger prints of noise suppression).  We'll see about SIi, though I have never been sorry I captured it when this discision was upon me.

FSQ 106 with .6x reducer and ASI 1600.  69 300 sec Ha; 29 300 sec OIII.

 

Edited February 11, 2023 by Rodd

[rickwayne]

That's already really nice! You're really getting some lovely tonal shading and detail. Nothing wrong with a nice bicolor, man.

I too prefer mapping Ha to red -- I know that it's false color and so utterly artificial in the first place, but dang it, hydrogen is just supposed to be red! Just look at the ball-and-stick models! (If the ones you played with in school used some wrong color besides red for H, just shut up and sit in the back with your shame, please.)

Seriously though, I was just going through some old links and found this really interesting passage in favor of the Hubble palette:
 

Quote

In most instances, the HST palette tends to produce the most dramatic and aesthetically pleasing images because of the structural relationships of these emissions in many nebulae.   OIII is often diffuse, and in curved or ovoid nebulae it tends to be concentrated in the concave side or center of the nebula, respectively.  SII, on the other hand, is typically found at the outer edge or convex side of the nebula, adjacent to the Ha.

  

Given these juxtapositions, a natural spectral gradient from blue through green, yellow to red is often achieved across the nebula from the concave to convex side or from center to outer edge.   The yellow to red to brown gradient across the Ha and SII of the major structural components of the nebula can give it shading that results a 3-D effect, not seen in RGB or other narrowband palettes (see Fig. 4)

https://support.itelescope.net/support/solutions/articles/232658-narrow-band-imaging-what-is-it-all-about-

[Rodd]

 

9 hours ago, rickwayne said:

That's already really nice! You're really getting some lovely tonal shading and detail. Nothing wrong with a nice bicolor, man.

I too prefer mapping Ha to red -- I know that it's false color and so utterly artificial in the first place, but dang it, hydrogen is just supposed to be red! Just look at the ball-and-stick models! (If the ones you played with in school used some wrong color besides red for H, just shut up and sit in the back with your shame, please.)

Seriously though, I was just going through some old links and found this really interesting passage in favor of the Hubble palette:
 

https://support.itelescope.net/support/solutions/articles/232658-narrow-band-imaging-what-is-it-all-about-

That may be true. However, what is thd color of nebulae in RGB?  Red.  So I like mapping Ha to red becuase nebulae ARE red (for the most part). 

[Rodd]

I reprocessed the data.  I think its more representative of the nebula--more gaseous, better balanced with a better background (there is a lot of Ha in the region.  The first image didn't include much of it--signal dropped off pretty abruptly instead of gradually subsiding).  Anyway--unless I am crazy.....  I also cleaned it up a bit.  I finally got a handle on the noise.  It still may be a tad bright.  Hard to say as all my screens are different.  

[Adam J]

7 minutes ago, Rodd said:

I reprocessed the data.  I think its more representative of the nebula--more gaseous, better balanced with a better background (there is a lot of Ha in the region.  The first image didn't include much of it--signal dropped off pretty abruptly instead of gradually subsiding).  Anyway--unless I am crazy.....  I also cleaned it up a bit.  I finally got a handle on the noise.  It still may be a tad bright.  Hard to say as all my screens are different.  

Trying to process an image to look correct on multiple different monitors is a one way ticket to a padded cell mate. Second version is much better, great image. 

Adam

[Rodd]

8 minutes ago, Adam J said:

Trying to process an image to look correct on multiple different monitors is a one way ticket to a padded cell mate. Second version is much better, great image. 

Adam

Thanks Adam--indeed, I have a labyrinth of cushioned cells to contain me!  I am glad you like the second one.