Cone Nebula, NGC 2264, HSO composite - after William Blake

[windjammer]

Hi everyone

Here is the Cone Nebula, part of NGC 2264, the Christmas Tree Cluster, in Monoceros.  Mono HSO composite.

The exposures were done a few weeks ago in January, after a very long dry spell with the sky gods not co-operating (at least in SE UK). I wasn't sure about the how the colour palette would work or if the detail dredged up from the crud was real, but everything in the pic has a counterpart here (a 32 inch RCOS) - but not in pink.

https://www.adamblockphotos.com/cone-nebula.html

What a monster.

Simon

Details:
Photograph taken in Astronomik Ha, SII and OIII narrow band filters. Total exposure time 17.2 hrs.

Ha 2x2 bin - 32x600s = 5.3hrs, 17/18 and 21/22 January 2023
SII 2x2 bin - 37x600s = 6.2 hrs, 18/19 and 22/23 January 2023
OIII 2x2 bin - 34x600s = 5.7 hrs, 19/20 and 20/21 January 2023

Rig:
Imaging scope: SW Startravel 150mm F5 Refractor, 2.5x Celestron Luminos 2inch imaging barlow, Atik 460EX mono

Guide scope: SW Evostar 90mm F10, with guiding XY stage, ZWO 120MM camera

Guiding: 2 stage PHD: high frequency guide scope (mount tracking) and low frequency OAG image train guiding (guidescope flex)

Mount: Home made German Equatorial pillow block mount, permanently rooftop mounted.  Spring loaded DEC axis gearing.

Other gadgets: ST4 based anti vibration shutter, ST4 based PEC

Processing:
PixInsight: Lights, Darks, Flats, Biases, Align Calibration, Linear fit, Channel Combination. StarNet2 star removal/star layer
GradXpert: Gradient removal
Topaz DeNoise AI: Noise removal
Affinity Photo: 32 bit image processing (curves, high pass masking, selective colour)

[simmo39]

So close I can touch it!

[windjammer]

Yep, a real poke in the eye !

[assouptro]

Fab! 
Nice closeup! So much going on! 
I was imaging the cone at a similar scale but the weather stepped in and stupors me at around 3 hours per channel 

I can see I should have stuck with it! 
Thanks for sharing 

Bryan