Rosette NGC 2237 in Ha(HaR)GB - Mixing Old and New data

[SteveL]

80+ days now without any imaging is making me a bit crazy, so I decided to dig out some old data and see what I could do with it.

I took my old Rosette RGB data from January 2008, and used Registar to align that with Ha data from MartinB. Used the Ha data to lighten only the red channel of the RGB, and then used a deconvolved copy of the Ha data as a Luminance channel on top of all of it. Lots of fiddling with levels, curves, selective sharpening, layer masks and NoiseNinja before it started to look anywhere near right

I had forgotten about all the strange things that the Hyperstar did to my images, includuding being flipped horitonally (caused Registar to fail!) and slightly bloaty stars. Looking at this RGB data again now (nearly 2 years later), I can see some real issues with it. Hopefully I`ll get a chance to shoot some RGB data of the Rosette this winter with my Borg 77.... actually, at the current rate of bad weather, I`ll be happy if I manage to image anything at all before summer comes around again!

I`d just like to say that I have looked at this image on several different monitors, and it varies wildly from rich reds to light salmon pinks, so I just worked on it with my calibrated monitors for what I see as my own personal choice. Your own opinion of the colour will vary depending on how your monitor shows it.

I`d also like to thank MartinB for allowing me to use his Ha data for this project, it really helped add some punch to this image.

RGB Data (Link -> SteveL, 6th Jan 2008)

OTA: NexStar 8 GPS + Hyperstar @ f/2

Guiding: WO66 + DSI-C + PHD

Imaging: QHY8 + MaximDL, 20x180s, Astronomik CLS

Stacked: DeepSkyStacker

HA Data (Link -> MartinB, 2nd Nov 2009)

OTA: FSQ 106

Imaging: QSI 532 + MaximDL, 14x600s, Astronomik 13nm Ha

Stacked: CCDStack

Aligned with Registar, post process with PixInsight and PSCS2.

(Click on Image for larger version)

[Tom OD]

Nice work. Looks good and sharp, and a light bright red on my monitor.

Tom.

[MartinB]

Nice work with the processing Steve. The image is crammed with detail