The Christmas Tree Nebula (NGC2264)

[Space Oddities]

Hello !

I finally had the time to process the few hours worth of OIII data and blend them with the Ha data I already had. I wasn't expecting anything fancy, the OIII was very noisy (there was an almost full Moon at that time).

It took me a few hours of work in Pixinsight, to get everything out of the data. I'm still learning how to use PixInsight, but I managed to find a good working base for the HOO image:

Quote

// R:
ha

// G:
(ha*.35+o3*.65)

// B:
(ha*.15+o3*.85)*1.15

With this base, I used the curves adjustments to balance the colors and make the blue pop. I then tweaked the saturation, the noise and the details. For the stars, I recreated an RGB image with the stars I extracted using PixelMath. I found a formula that recreates blue and yellow stars, by mixing the channels. HOO stars are usually colorless, which is a pity.

As soon as I added the stars back into the image, it really started to look like something! I didn't expect this result at all, but I'm overall impressed by these Astrodon 3nm filters. They're really something!

Cheers!

HOO:

Ha starless:

OIII starless:

HOO starless:

Quote

ASI1600MM, WhiteCat 51, Astrodon Ha 3nm, Astrodon OIII 3nm 

Ha : 31x600s (5h10), Gain 139, Bin 1, -10°C

OIII : 30x600s (5h00), Gain 139, Bin 1, -10°C

DeekSkyStacker, Pixinsight, NoiseXTerminator, BlurXTerminato

 

[simmo39]

Nice, like the colours!

[Radec]

That's an excellent image. Incredibly well resolved, superb colour and what a great fov - well done!