Horsehead and flame HaRGB

[Icesheet]

This has been a labour with very little love!  With trying to control the bright stars and halos to finding the right balance between Ha and RGB, I have been sitting on this for so long that I feel I have to post it so I stop fiddling.

This is around 6hrs total data

4hrs RGB 120s

2hrs Ha from l-extreme 300s

Shot with Askar FRA400 and ZWO ASI2600 MC

Processed in PixInsight but final touches on iPhone as I seem to have a calibration issue on my laptop  

Definitely happy to take some feedback on this for future edits. Hope you like 😊

Edited January 23 by Icesheet
Cropped and lowered exposure

[geeklee]

8 hours ago, Icesheet said:

Definitely happy to take some feedback on this for future edits. Hope you like 😊

Looks great on the forum size, but a little over worked on the full size version.  This didn't stop me enjoying the view on the modest size for a good few minutes - great work.

It always depends what we're going for, it would have been difficult to create the impact this absolutely has as-is if you were processing for full size inspection 🧐.  I'd still find it hard to change anything after I'd produced this version!

[Icesheet]

40 minutes ago, geeklee said:

Looks great on the forum size, but a little over worked on the full size version.  This didn't stop me enjoying the view on the modest size for a good few minutes - great work.

It always depends what we're going for, it would have been difficult to create the impact this absolutely has as-is if you were processing for full size inspection 🧐.  I'd still find it hard to change anything after I'd produced this version!

Thanks for the feedback 😊 You are right, it’s not one for close inspection. I did push it as hard as I could and quite a significant crop doesn’t help matters. Like you say, hard for me to go back. Some more data and better control of the stars might allow me to bring out the fainter stuff without over doing everything else. It’s one of those targets I’ve never been completely happy with, hence the time sitting on it. 

[The Lazy Astronomer]

I'd agree with geeklee, very punchy when viewing direct from the post, but a full size inspection reveals some ringing on the stars, which is a classic artifact produced by pushing sharpening or deconvolution a touch too far.

I do very much enjoy the way the reds of the hydrogen are framed by the darker dust.

[Icesheet]

2 hours ago, The Lazy Astronomer said:

I'd agree with geeklee, very punchy when viewing direct from the post, but a full size inspection reveals some ringing on the stars, which is a classic artifact produced by pushing sharpening or deconvolution a touch too far.

I do very much enjoy the way the reds of the hydrogen are framed by the darker dust.

Thanks, and again fair comments. I went one extra round on the HDR Multiscale transform and they introduced them. It was either that or Alnitak and the Flame were completely blown out. I just had a look at the RGB version (below). Still overworked on close inspection, but ringing artefacts are not as prominent. Appreciate the comments, I’ll put it aside for now but I will go back and see if I can dial it back a bit without losing too much. Will probably not crop as much too.